Havens Beach In Sag Harbor Closed To Swimming

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has issued a mandatory closure of Havens Beach in Sag Harbor to swimming because of an anticipated increase in bacteria levels in the waters adjacent to the beach following Thursday’s heavy rains.

The county ordered the closure of 22 bathing beaches on Friday, after more than two inches of rain fell in some areas on Thursday afternoon. Havens Beach has suffered from intermittent spikes in bacteria levels, particularly following rain events, for years.

“I think once it gets over an inch [of rainfall] it’s automatic to close it, which is pretty common in other areas in the bays as well,” Sag Harbor Mayor Brian Gilbride said. “Even the county said there’s a lot worse beaches than Havens.”

The county closed the beach three times last year after heavy rainfalls. The closures are typically lifted within 36 hours if there is not further heavy rainfall.

A drainage ditch that catches rain runoff from a broad swath of hilly residential neighborhoods in eastern Sag Harbor Village empties into Shelter Island Sound at Havens Beach. The typical trickle of water that runs across the beach, directly in the middle of the village’s popular swimming hole, was long a favorite play spot of young children. But after scientists from the county and Stony Brook University identified the drain, and the stream of water, as the source of the elevated bacteria levels—including traces of human fecal bacteria—in the surrounding waters, the village has posted warnings and fenced off the stream where it crosses the beach.

Earlier this spring, the village laid out a plan to address the bacteria levels in the drainage ditch, including installing more catch basins on nearby roads and placing new culverts in the drain outfitted with filters to catch bacteria before it reaches the bathing beach.

The mayor said the village hopes to do the work next fall and winter in time for the summer of 2012.

“I’m hoping we can go out to bid on the project in the fall so we can get that drain cleaned up,” he said. “By next spring, we might be able to have everything straightened out down there.”

Michael Wright