Return of Algae Blooms on East Hampton Town Pond Vexes Village Officials

The return of a thick carpet of spongy goops of green algae nearly carpeting the surface of Town Pond in East Hampton Village has left officials and engineers scratching their heads about how to halt an issue that they thought they had in hand.

The village has sent crews of rake-wielding workers in boats down to the pond at least once a week the last few weeks to rake out the slimy algae that collects on the surface of the small pond at the gateway to the village.

But within a few days of the pond being cleared, the surface is once again blotched with the floating puffs of slime as more billows up from the bottom.

“It’s quite frustrating,” Village Administrator Marcos Baladron said. “We have guys down there every week, and it comes right back.”

In 2022, the village spent nearly $1 million to dredge the thick layers of organic matter from the bottom of the pond. The thinking from engineers was that the nutrient-rich material was feeding the algae blooms in the pond and in nearby Hook Pond, where water from Town Pond flows.

But Baladron said this week that at least one train of thought is that perhaps the dredging, and the clarity of the water in the pond that resulted, has allowed more sunlight to reach the bottom, where some nutrient-laden material still lurks and is feeding the algae blooms. There are myriad other possibles, he said.

The village has asked engineers to take a new look at the dynamics at work in the pond now and the drainage streams that lead to it.

It’s the latest salvo on a decade-long effort to get control over water quality flowing out of the village’s business and residential districts, which gathers in the low swales that run past the downtown toward Hook Pond. In 2017, the village overhauled the green spaces to the north of the pond and planted nutrient-absorbing plants along the swale that feeds most of the water to the pond — a design known as a bioswale — to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous reaching the surface waters.

Baladron said that there has been no evidence of blue-green algae in the pond, which can be toxic to humans and animals. The toxic algae blooms have been seen in several other local freshwater ponds, including Georgica and Wainscott ponds.

“We’re trying to figure what can be done,” Baladron said. “For now, we’ll keep removing it.”