Poquott Moves Forward With Pollution Initiative

When Lois Mitchell moved to Poquott 20 years ago, the mud in Scott's Cove at low tide was brown, she said. Now when the water recedes, a green film is left behind.

"It was getting greener and greener because of all the algae," she said. "When you look at it every day you can see it."

Mitchell, who serves as the village's roads commissioner, said her husband, Ronald Longacre, is a scientist, and recognized the algae as a product of pollution.

When Mitchell attended an appearance by former-vice-president-turned-environmentalist Al Gore at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan recently, she asked him what the average person can do to fight the world's environmental problems. 

"He said you start with your own little bit of the planet," she said. 

At a campaign speech by Babylon town supervisor and Democratic Suffolk County Executive candidate Steve Bellone on June 1, Mitchell asked about the condition of the area's shoreline. Brookhaven town councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld was also there, and the two struck up a conversation.

On August 9, the councilman met with Mitchell at her home, along with a representative from the town's highway department, an environmental specialist, a grant writer and village deputy mayor Carol Lane.

"They were very gracious. They wanted to help us," Mitchell said.

Thomas Carrano, an assistant waterways management supervisor with the town, quoted what he said was new research that showed that 10 percent of this type of pollution is caused by storm water runoff, which can carry various types of pollutants from homes, yards and roads into waterways.

"Fertilizer is the worst," said mayor Barbara Donovan at the village board's meeting yesterday.

The rest, according to Lane's report of the August 9 meeting to the board, is accounted for by other factors, such as septic tanks and cesspools.

Lane said two modes of testing were suggested: testing for nitrogen levels by drilling into the soil or testing the water itself. Excessive nitrogen is believed to be a cause of such excessive algae, which can damage waterways and kill fish by taking too much oxygen from the water.

"This is a problem all over," Mitchell said. She noted a Brookhaven official's comment that it is much worse on Long Island's south shore.

The board discussed the possibility of storm drains as a solution - a subject of discussion at many of Old Field's board meetings as well.

First, more information and research will have to be gathered.

"This is a revitalized effort," Mitchell said of the project. She said the pollution has been a topic before the board for several years.

The village last tackled such a problem in 2005, with a large storm water maintenance project at the bottom of Washington Street, according to the mayor.

"That was one of our best projects, and everyone who laughed has to admit that its beautiful now," Donovan said.