Surfrider Foundation's volunteer water quality monitoring program update:
Entering into its third year, the Concerned Citizens of Montauk (CCOM) in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation’s nationwide Blue Water Task Force water quality testing program, has been sampling Montauk and Amagansett water bodies for the bacteria enterococcus. Weekly, highly trained volunteers collect and test water samples from Ditch Plains, Lake Montauk and Fort Pond in Montauk and Fresh Pond in Amagansett then post the test results online on Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force portal.
During 2014, volunteers from 30 Blue Water Task Force labs processed more than 4,000 marine and fresh water samples collected from nearly 300 distinct sampling sites located across the country.
The CCOM / Eastern Long Island Chapter joint Blue Water Task Force program processed 329 water tests in 2014 placing in the top three most prolific BWTF labs in 2014 - impressive results considering 2014 was only CCOM’s second year in the program.
The Montauk-based lab also placed in the top 5 for recording a high bacteria rate of 22%, in other words 22% of all the samples collected failed to meet the health standard of <104 enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters for a single sample.
Please see below for water quality testing results for week of June 1, 2015:
|
LOCATION
|
ENTERO LEVEL
|
INDICATION OF
|
|
MONTAUK
|
|
Ditch Plains: Ditch Witch
|
0
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
Ditch Plains: Trailer Outfall Pipe
|
172
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: Causeway South
|
10
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: Coons Foot Cove
|
0
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: East Creek
|
862
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: Little Reed Pond Creek
|
121
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: South Beach
|
108
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Lake Montauk: West Creek
|
4106
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Surfside Place Creek
|
7270
|
High Bacteria
|
|
Surfside Place Ocean Beach
|
0
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
Fort Pond: Industrial
|
10
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
Fort Pond: Ramp
|
10
|
Low Bacteria
|
|
AMAGASETT
|
|
Fresh Pond: Creek
|
305
|
High Bacteria
|
Source: BLUE WATER TASK FORCE | Surfrider Foundation