Amagansett Farm Should Be Covered This Week; Town To Test Soil

The dusty, blowing topsoil from farms neighboring Main Street in Amagansett continues to trouble residents and businesses, but the East Hampton Town Board says it has a plan to combat the talcum powder-like dust.

It’s been at the top of the board’s agenda since about three weeks ago, when business owners and residents raised health concerns and other issues regarding the dust, which became a nuisance. Before the town was able to take action, Monday brought severe wind gusts following a weekend storm, and the town was hit with another dust storm.

Vicki Littman, a member of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, said on Monday that she drove down Main Street that morning, and the dust was even worse than before. “Businesses are closing because of the dust,” she said.

On Monday, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said that he met with the farm’s owners, Barry and Patrick Bistrian, and the farmer, Peter Dankowski, who leases the land to grow corn and potatoes. Mr. Van Scoyoc said Mr. Dankowski told him that he had found a source for straw, which will be chopped and spread over the top of the field, in place of a cover crop that never grew.

“They’re going to place snow fence at intervals in the field to break the wind and retain the straw,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “If they’d gotten the straw down before the rain, it probably would’ve locked it in, but they weren’t able to.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Dankowski was on the field laying truckloads of straw. He said the farm should be covered this week, putting a halt to the airborne dust particles.

“We’re hoping the rain wets it down enough and it freezes. Once it freezes, the straw will be like a big blanket,” Mr. Dankowski said.

After meeting with the Bistrians, the property owners told the Town Board that they would not allow the planting of potatoes in that field again. When potatoes are harvested, the field must be completely plowed, leaving a barren field, whereas with corn, the corn is plucked off, leaving the stalks as a covering.

Farmers usually plant a cover crop for the winter to keep the soil in place, but due to a rainy fall, the farmers ran behind schedule and the cover crop wasn't planted until late November.

“It’s an issue in other places, but it’s worse when it’s near a downtown area,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

At a Town Board meeting on Thursday, January 17, the board authorized spending $2,500 to have the soil tested for pollutants. Several people in the area were concerned about the possibility of arsenic and other chemicals being present in the soil from years of farming and the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Dan Mongan, a resident of Amagansett and member of the Board of Trustees of the Amagansett Library, spoke at the January 22 Town Board work session and said that parents at the Amagansett School were concerned that their children inhaling the fine dust particles. Mr. Mongan, on behalf of the library’s board, urged the town to declare a public health emergency immediately.

The Bistrians said the presence of arsenic or chemicals is unlikely since the farm was pasture land into the 1960s, and spraying of arsenic to battle potato bugs had stopped by the time that field was planted with row crops. The farm would have just been grass for the Amagansett dairy.

“That still doesn’t alleviate concerns given the fine nature of the particles,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

Councilman Jeffrey Bragman recommended legislation that would force farmers to plant cover crops on time.

“We need to focus on the here and right,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “We know there are things we can do in the long term to prevent this from happening again.”