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water chemistry

Bert Conover and George Hoffman, water monitoring volunteers, hold a sign highlighting the five best and worst scoring bay segments, for New York water chemistry. Courtesy George Hoffman

By Mallie Jane Kim

The water chemistry in Port Jefferson Harbor rates as some of the best among bays in Long Island Sound, according to a new report by bistate environmental organization Save the Sound.

The biannual report card released Oct. 10 was based on data collected in 2023 and showed middle Port Jefferson Harbor, the area near Strong’s Neck and Old Field, tied for top marks with Oyster Bay and Mill Neck Creek, which is also in Oyster Bay. Those three areas earned an “A-” in water chemistry quality.

Inner Port Jefferson Harbor, also known as Setauket Harbor, and outer Port Jefferson Harbor, adjacent to Port Jefferson Village, both received a “B+” to round out the top five. The inner port score is up from a “C” in the report card released in 2022, and the outer harbor is down from “A-.”

“We’re pretty happy about it,” said George Hoffman of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, which has been taking water chemistry measurements at set locations within Port Jefferson Harbor twice a month from May through October since 2018. “We’re seeing small evidence of the improvement that we have advocated for.”

According to Hoffman, the harbors have seen a 50% reduction in nitrogen in the harbor over the last 30 years due to structural improvements in stormwater catchment systems and tightened regulations on nitrogen levels in treated sewage that is piped out into area bays.

The task force was part of securing a grant that paid for a storm water collection system on 25A near Setauket Pond Park, and they regularly educate boaters about a free pump-out service to prevent them from dumping human waste into the harbors.

“We’re like guardians of the harbor,” Hoffman said.

The task force is one of 27 harbor groups in Connecticut and on Long Island that participate in the Save the Sound program. Citizen scientists wake up at early hours to bring scientific equipment to specific locations and take measurements at predetermined depths, together monitoring 57 bay segments in the Sound. They measure things like dissolved oxygen, water clarity, chlorophyll, salinity and temperature. They also look at seaweed accumulation.

To note, area counties are responsible for testing for bacteria and other direct water-quality markers, but the water chemistry factors are also indicative of water health. For example, high chlorophyll levels tend to predict algae blooms.

More than 98% of Long Island’s open waters earned a grade “B” or higher, though several areas close to New York City, in the “Western Narrows,” earned an “F.”

“It’s clear that past investment in nitrogen pollution reduction from wastewater infrastructure is linked to improving the open waters of Long Island Sound,” said Save the Sound’s vice president for water protection, David Ansel, at the report card release “Now, our challenge is to find the political will to extend and expand this investment.”

A few concerned local citizens are taking the health of the Long Island Sound into their own hands.

The 10 locations in Port Jeff Harbor being tested by the Setauket Harbor Task Force. Image from the task force

From May through October, nonprofit Save the Sound, an organization dedicated to the health of the body of water, will continue its Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research program for a second year, testing the water conditions in the Sound’s bays and harbors. The program operates through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and using a corps of trained testers, called Sound Sleuths, who volunteered to measure dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, temperature, salinity and water clarity out on the water at dawn twice monthly during the six-month period. Port Jefferson Harbor will be tested by members of Setauket Harbor Task Force, a nonprofit group founded in 2014 to monitor and advocate for the health of the harbor, who volunteered to serve as Sound Sleuths. Setauket Harbor lies within the greater Port Jefferson Harbor Complex.

Task force members George and Maria Hoffman, Laurie Vetere and volunteer Tom Lyon set out in a roughly 15-foot-long motorboat May 25 at 6:30 a.m. to test 10 randomly preselected specific locations in Port Jeff Harbor, with testing equipment provided by Save the Sound, for the second round of research set to take place this spring and summer. The testing needs to be completed within three hours of sunrise in order to ascertain the most valid data possible, according to George Hoffman.

George Hoffman of Setauket Harbor Task Force tests water chemistry in Port Jefferson Harbor. Photo by Alex Petroski

“I know a lot of people are familiar with water testing, but it’s usually about pathogens,” Hoffman said, which often is examined to determine the safety of swimming or eating shellfish. Testing for water chemistry will reveal more about the health of marine life in the harbor. Hoffman discussed the task force’s plans for testing during a May 6 meeting of the Port Jefferson Harbor advisory commission, a group overseen by the Town of Brookhaven that includes representation from all nearby municipalities and also takes up the responsibility of monitoring harbor health.

“We’re not testing for pathogens,” he said. “This is really about harbor health and chemistry.”

Hoffman said while out on the boat May 25 the group tested each of the 10 sites twice — once about a half a meter off the bottom of the harbor and once a half a meter from the surface of the water, using an instrument called a sonde, which is attached to a long cable and submerged in the water. Hoffman said the instrument costs about $30,000.

“That gives us a pretty good idea of what’s happening in the water column,” he said.

Save the Sound explained the importance of testing the chemistry of bays and harbors within the Sound in a May 16 press release announcing the year 2 testing kickoff.

Laurie Vetere reads data that’s tracked by Maria Hoffman as the Setauket Harbor Task Force tests Port Jeff Harbor’s water chemistry. Photo by Alex Petroski

“More than a decade of federally funded monitoring of the open Sound has documented the destructive impact of nitrogen pollution — including algae blooms, red tides, loss of tidal marshes and fish die-offs — and the incremental improvements brought about by wastewater treatment plant upgrades,” the release said. “Conditions in the bays and harbors — where much of the public comes into contact with the Sound — can be different from conditions in the open waters. More testing on bays and harbors is needed to judge the effect of nitrogen on these waterways and what action is needed to restore them to vibrant life.”

Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), who also chairs the county’s Environment, Planning and Agriculture committee, said while the county has taken up the fight in finding ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen in Long Island’s waters, having dedicated citizens also keeping an eye is an asset.

“That’s critical, these kind of community efforts to protect water bodies,” she said. “It’s special.”

Results of the study will be published in future editions of Save the Sound’s Long Island Sound Report Card.