Welcome to The South Fork Groundwater Task Force website. Feel free to use the drop down box above to look around the site. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.
The South Fork Groundwater Task Force is an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization made up of concerned citizens from the Towns of Southampton and East Hampton (Long Island, New York). Its goal is to protect the South Fork's groundwater from contamination, depletion and misuse.
The GOALS of the organization are to:
- Identify, prioritize, and have the towns (in partnership with the county and state) purchase watershed lands for acquisition as open space; or, enact land use laws to protect them from current and future contamination threats.
- Create and implement a Watershed Protection and Management Plan for the towns of East Hampton and Southampton as a single regional unit.
- Serve as a watchdog to alert the public and government to new and present threats to the groundwater and campaign against those threats.
- Educate the public through our website, press releases, media events, meetings and forums.
- Present the Task Force's opinions and objectives regarding matters related to the quality of our groundwater to public officials and agencies. Coordinate groundwater protection efforts with other civic and environmental groups.
- Identify areas of contamination and seek remediation for those areas.
The South Fork Groundwater Task Force is dedicated to protecting the purity of the South Fork's drinking water. Our goal is to raise public awareness about the clear and present danger to our groundwater and encourage government action to protect it. Clean water is a basic need. The water we use on the South Fork comes from underground aquifers that are constantly replenished by rain and snow. Those aquifers are our only source of water-"public" or "private". The diagram below shows how the aquifer works.
Chemicals we use every day-at home, in commerce, on farms, on golf courses, or on playing fields-inevitably leach into the aquifers and threaten to pollute the water. Unless we are careful and foresighted enough to limit the use of such chemicals, we may end up with water we cannot drink or even bathe in.
It is already happening. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services, which monitors water quality, has found unacceptable levels of pollutants at many localities. Furthermore, there are several Superfund (i.e. inactive hazardous waste disposal) sites on the South Fork, in addition to a myriad of other sources of groundwater pollution. The "hot spots" of contamination have created health hazards that may be contributing to the South Fork's alarming cancer rates that are among the highest in the nation.
The remedies for contaminated water are enormously costly requiring that individual homeowners and businesses install expensive water filtration and purification systems at a minimal cost of $3000, or, having the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) bring in public water to the affected areas. This was done for Montauk with a $1.2 million dollar pipeline extension as Montauk suffers from salt-water intrusion and high iron content. However, in areas where it is not cost-effective for SCWA to bring in public water, it does not, and so, a homeowner or business is left to his own device. Once polluted, it takes many years (even lifetimes) to restore clean water. Unless we wish to leave our children and grandchildren a legacy of polluted water, we must clean up our act NOW!
As for quantity of groundwater, monitoring by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) over the last 50 years shows that the water table has been lowering on the western portions of Long Island, and with it, a lowering of streams, ponds and a drying up of wetlands. To some extent, recent testing on the south fork is showing this lowering trend too. This is due to over-development and increasing water use.
Please join us in our efforts to keep the South Fork drinking water poison-free, and its quantity ample for our drinking water needs while sustaining our ponds, streams and wetlands, by becoming a member of our Task Force. Membership starts at $25 (larger donations are welcome). We will send you our newsletters, announcements of meetings, and keep you posted about events in which you can participate. Simply print and complete the form and return it to us at:
South Fork Groundwater Task Force
PO BOX 2360
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
 South Fork Groundwater Task Force
PO BOX 2360 Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Phone/Fax: 631 - 725 - 6200
Site By: Hamptons Online
|
|
|
