Announcing our latest Blue Water Task Force Report!
We are pleased to share our latest Eastern Long Island Blue Water Task Force Report! Every year, we share the results of our water testing program which detects potentially harmful bacteria in our waterways.
Our 2024 results are consistent with trends detected in previous years. Each year, our water quality results indicate that many East End sites frequently experience high bacteria levels that exceed health standards. Ocean and bay beaches generally test clean, seldom showing high bacteria levels because of the water exchange and mixing that occurs at these sites. Bacteria at these sites, however, can be elevated during the busy tourist season or after rainfall or other heavy storm events.
The full report can be viewed here.
We’re excited to share a major milestone from the Eastern Long Island Blue Water Task Force: in 2024, we completed and launched our very first Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP).
If you’re wondering what a QAPP is and why it’s a big deal, you’re not alone. But this behind-the-scenes tool plays a crucial role in making sure the water quality data we collect is trustworthy, consistent, and ready to make a real impact.
A Quality Assurance Project Plan is a detailed guide that lays out how a monitoring program collects, processes, and interprets its data. Think of it like a blueprint for water quality science—outlining everything from sampling methods and lab procedures to training protocols and safety measures. In short, a QAPP ensures that everyone involved is following the same high standards every step of the way.
For the Eastern Long Island Blue Water Task Force—run by three partner organizations—this is especially important. A QAPP allows our teams to operate with consistency across different sites and groups, making sure the data we’re gathering is scientifically sound and can stand up to scrutiny.
Community-based science is powerful. For years, volunteers have been helping us collect water samples from beaches, bays, and creeks across Eastern Long Island. These efforts shine a light on pollution problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. But to truly drive change—whether it’s stronger regulations, local cleanup efforts, or public awareness campaigns—our data needs to be credible, repeatable, and widely usable.
Thanks to generous funding from the New York Community Trust (formerly the Long Island Community Foundation), we now have a finalized QAPP that elevates our work to the next level. This plan aligns our practices with professional standards so that local agencies, elected officials, scientists, other nonprofits, and the public can trust and use our findings.
Whether you’re an environmental advocate, a concerned parent, or a municipal decision-maker, having access to reliable water quality data can help you take informed action—and that’s what this QAPP helps deliver.
Now that our QAPP is in place and our volunteers are trained, we’re putting it into action. From the field to the lab, everyone involved in our monitoring program is using the same playbook. This means better data, stronger partnerships, and ultimately, healthier waters for everyone.
You can view our full QAPP on our website. We encourage other groups to explore it, learn from it, and even adapt it for their own community-based monitoring efforts.
We are so thankful to our volunteers, partners, and supporters for making this happen! We will continue monitoring East End beaches to inform our community about our local water quality.