Environmentalists Say East Quogue Development Would Further Damage Water Supplies, Waterways

Environmental advocacy groups across the East End are urging the Southampton Town Board to take into account the potentially damaging impact that a golf course and 118-home development would have on groundwater, as well as already-impaired Weesuck Creek and western Shinnecock Bay, in the hamlet of East Quogue.

And representatives of those groups, which include the Long Island Pine Barrens Society and the Group for the East End, revealed during a recent interview that they are considering taking legal action against the Town Board if it ultimately approves the mixed-use planned development district, or MPDD, known as The Hills at Southampton.

“This PDD thing is getting out of control,” Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, said recently, explaining that he and other environmental leaders are frustrated with the Town Board for allowing such dense applications to be considered at length.

Rather than see the property developed, Mr. Amper, Mr. DeLuca and others are insisting that the town renew fizzled efforts to purchase the property—which is actually several lots, several of which are now owned by the applicant, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company—and preserve it. They also note that the project, if approved, could potentially threaten the hamlet’s only pristine drinking water well field, which sits to the east of the proposed development.

“This is our number-one focus when it comes to the Pine Barrens,” Mr. Amper continued, explaining that The Hills property, located between Lewis and Spinney roads in East Quogue and accounting for nearly 500 acres combined, is the largest remaining tract of Pine Barrens on the East End that is still in private hands.

Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, agreed, adding that the project, which is not permitted under current zoning, remains on his organization’s “radar” in terms of potential litigation.

The Hills, which proposes 108 individual homes, a clubhouse with 10 condominiums and an 18-hole golf course on 168 acres between Lewis and Spinney roads in East Quogue, could do a significant amount of damage to water quality and, in the long run, further contaminate Weesuck Creek and Shinnecock Bay, according to local environmental experts. The land is also situated within a state-designated Special Groundwater Protection area, which is why environmentalists and scientists like Dr. Christopher Gobler, a professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and an East Quogue resident, rate the property as the region’s top target for preservation.

Dr. Gobler said the Town Board needs to closely examine four major factors, namely, the risk to drinking water supplies, coastal flooding, human health and the continued degradation of Shinnecock Bay, as part of its review. If they properly vet and examine those issues, he added, board members would immediately kick the application back to the developers.

Dr. Gobler gathered information from the Suffolk County Water Authority in addition to conducting his own studies on the water quality of Weesuck Creek and the surrounding wetlands—which, he noted, protected a large portion of the hamlet during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when floodwaters still made their way north past Main Street in East Quogue. He said the introduction of more nitrogen, an unavoidable byproduct that comes with new residential and golf course developments, will decimate whatever remaining natural wetlands buffers still exist along the Weesuck Creek corridor, eventually exposing most of the hamlet to additional flooding during extreme high tides and severe storms.

“We’re not doing things to protect ourselves,” said Andrea Spilka, president of the Southampton Town Civic Coalition. “The dangers of this development far outweigh any benefits.”

Additionally, Dr. Gobler described Weesuck Creek as the “epicenter” for toxins that are responsible for the brown and red tides that have decimated shellfish populations, especially those in western Shinnecock Bay, in recent years. He noted that the highest levels of a toxin given off by red algae, known as Alexandrium, can be found in the waterway and it is blamed for causing a condition known as paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP. According to research conducted by the Suffolk County Water Authority and shared by Dr. Gobler, there are approximately five cells of Alexandrium in every liter of water in Weesuck Creek, or more than five times the levels detected in nearby Tiana Bay.

He noted that another study conducted by the same county agency revealed that the creek’s elevated levels of saxitoxin—another PSP produced by Alexandrium—were elevated enough to kill mice that drank water from it. That study was completed by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Again, according to Dr. Gobler, the spikes in toxicity levels in the waterway can be traced back to an ongoing deluge of nitrogen in groundwater to the north. He also points that much of the nitrogen pollution that doesn’t reach the bays can still turn up in drinking water, posing a threat to people.

Mr. DeLuca and Dr. Gobler pointed out that the Suffolk County standard for drinking water is currently 10 milligrams per liter of nitrogen, a level that, they say, is far too high when it comes to sustaining marine life. They argue that as little as 2 milligrams per liter is enough to throw off the balance of most marine species, even though the level falls within the county’s guidelines for drinking water.

Mr. DeLuca pointed to a Cornell University Center for Environmental Research study conducted in the 1980s that suggested five-acre zoning in this area in order to keep the nitrogen levels at around 2 milligrams per liter of wastewater. Currently, the land in question is designated at five-acre zoning. The nitrogen levels in Weesuck Creek currently measure at around 3.5 milligrams per liter, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority.

Dr. Gobler notes that the residents of East Quogue don’t have to look beyond their own faucets to realize the problem that comes with overdevelopment. The water pumped from the Suffolk County Water Authority well field off Spinney Road, which is located in the middle of the proposed development and south of an established farm, already comes in at close to 8 milligrams per liter in terms of nitrogen contamination. That water is mixed with the proceeds from a second well field, this one located to the east and near Malloy Drive, that averages only 1 milligram of nitrogen per liter of water—a level that makes it near pristine in terms of water quality, according to Dr. Gobler. Currently, the water from both fields is mixed to lower nitrogen levels before it is pumped to homes and businesses in the hamlet.

The MPDD, environmentalists argue, will endanger the near pristine well and could pump up the nitrogen levels between the two wells to above 10 milligrams, meaning the water would no longer be safe to drink.

And that is reason enough for the town to reject the application, the environmentalists argue.

“PDD legislation is supposed to protect our resources,” Mr. DeLuca said, noting that he does not understand why the Town Board is continuing to entertain the application. “If the Town Board has a particular concern about the impacts of this project, they have the ability through [the State Environmental Quality Review Act] to provide mitigation to address the impact without making a trade.”

The trade he was alluding to is the applicant’s offer to install enhanced wastewater treatment facilities wherever possible, thereby reducing the nitrogen footprint of the development that is to be clustered on the property. Still, the environmentalists argue that such a proposal should not be viewed as a public benefit—as was originally touted by Discovery Land representatives—because any development will ultimately result in more nitrogen pollution.

“Once you get into that kind of trading,” Mr. DeLuca said, “it gets murky as to what the rules actually are. It could potentially get out of control.”

If the land cannot be preserved, Mr. DeLuca and Mr. Amper both say that developing the property as-of-right, which could include the construction of 82 single-family homes though that figure is also being disputed by preservationists, would be a better option than permitting a clustered development and an 18-hole golf course.

“I’d like to see the Town Board deny the PDD,” Ms. Spilka said. “I don’t think there is any community benefit they can give that would warrant development on this site because of the potential contamination.”