Cold Spring Harbor Pond Severely Impacted During Friday’s Storm

This past Wednesday August 8th, 14 municipalities, including the Town of Huntington, signed the first ever Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee inter-municipal agreement. Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor are extremely important ecologically and economically to New York State, and the Committee will work to preserve and protect these important natural resources. Cold Spring Harbor is designated as a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat by the New York State Department of State.

Just two days after the signing of the agreement a pond at the intersection of Shore Road and Spring Street, in Cold Spring Harbor, turned brown as a result of runoff filled with sediment.  A photograph of the sediment filled pond is shown below. The primary cause of this pond degredation is due to upland construction site activities, in particular up Willowbrook Road, that are not properly protected to stop erosion.  Sediment from the construction area is running down Willowbrook Road, spilling directly into adjacent wetlands that ultimately feed the impacted 4 acre pond.  The amount of sediment on the road, which emanated from a construction site upgradient (see photograph below) is unacceptable.  The affected 4 acre pond is considered a New York State regulated freshwater wetland.  Furthermore the pond has a spillway that sent all of this sediment filled runoff directly into Cold Spring Harbor.  It is events like this that fill our harbors with sediment thus ultimately costing the taxpayer millions of dollars in dredging projects.  Pollutants such as sediment also cause high bacteria levels in our waterways thus the reason for beach closures after storm events.  A photograph showing sediment filled runoff entering Cold Spring Harbor is shown below.

The residents of Cold Spring Harbor should be very concerned about this problem and implore the Town of Huntington to remediate this problem. Inform the Town that the activity emanating from unprotected construction areas is in complete violation of it’s stormwater management program. The residents should also contact the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) as this may be a violation of the Clean Water Act.  The number for The NYS DEC Division of Water is (631) 444-0415.

Putting a pen to paper during a photo op is easy.  The Town needs to be better stewards of the environment so that occurrences like these do not happen again.

Pond on Shore Road

Sediment on Willowbrook Road

Sediment filled runoff entering Cold Spring Harbor