Letters

For decades, Lake Agawam has been plagued by toxic blue-green algae that is harmful to both humans and animals. In 2018, the year before I was elected, Lake Agawam had the worst algal blooms ever recorded on Long Island. It was both harmful for our village and a serious environmental hazard.

Last week, after almost two years of hard work on this issue, we were thrilled to announce two new initiatives to help clean up our lake.

First, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Lake Agawam Conservancy, we installed three solar-powered microsonic devices in Lake Agawam that will drastically reduce the harmful algae blooms [“New Device Deployed To Combat Algal Blooms In Lake Agawam In Southampton Village,” 27east.com, April 21]. These devices shoot ultrasonic waves into the lake that push blue-green algae downward so that they are not exposed to sunlight. This makes it much harder for the algae to form dense toxic blooms, which should lead them to die off within weeks.

Second, when combined with the microsonic devices, we announced that we will be the very first community in New York State to use GreenClean Liquid technology, funded by the Lake Agawam Conservancy. GreenClean Liquid is a hydrogen peroxide-based treatment that can destroy algal bloom cells before breaking down into water.

Together, these two exciting initiatives should drastically reduce the toxic blue-green algae in Lake Agawam while we work toward a more permanent solution.

Finally, we are expanding our efforts to Old Town Pond as well and will be installing a bioswale on the east side of the pond this spring that will remove debris and pollution from stormwater runoff, an important step in cleaning up the water body. The Old Town Pond project is entirely grant-funded, with no cost to village taxpayers.

My sincere thanks the Lake Agawam Conservancy, which has been a tremendous asset in our cleanup efforts, and Dr. Chris Gobler, science advisor. It took decades of neglect to allow Lake Agawam and Old Town Pond to become some of the most polluted bodies of water in the state.

Thankfully, we’re finally turning a corner on cleaning up our lakes, and that’s great news for us all.

Jesse Warren

Mayor

Southampton Village