The following is a “Timeline” of our efforts to get the Towns of Southampton & East Hampton to create and implement a Watershed
Protection/Management Plan for the South Fork. The best way to protect our aquifer is by acquisition of important watershed lands in our NY State designated “Special Groundwater Protection Areas” and/or by creating and implementing land use laws that protect this finite and fragile resource:
The guiding principle of Southampton's and East Hampton's watershed protection/management plan which the South Fork Ground Water Task Force has been actively lobbying them to create/adopt/implement since early 1997, has been to drag its feet so that all the prime watershed areas will have been bought and developed if they dawdled long enough. Certainly, it has been Southampton Town's modus operandi. Neither Town has had the political will to grapple with the hard choices that protecting this resource demands, and they have purposely dragged their feet.
The following are our critiques and recommendations for Southampton's draft "Critical Wildlands and Groundwater Protection Plan", and East Hampton's groundwater measures (which are currently a part of its Comprehensive Plan). These plans can be accessed on Southampton Town's and East Hampton Town's Websites.
The following are our series of recommendations made during/after the drafting of the Southampton Town Plan:
The following is our critique and recommendations for East Hampton Town Plan:
And, Southampton Town Plan:
