June 12, 1986 - L.I. Gets a Big Drink of WaterPage 8A /The Suffolk Times -June 12, 1986,
Ld. Gets a Big Drink of Water
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
It's not often we have such a dry
spell in the springtime and thank
goodness we finally got our rain, over
two inches. It was a good soaking
rain, one that did not come down too
hard or all at once, but one that, over
two days, had time to percolate slowly
into the ground.
Lawns had already started to
brown up because of the lack of rain.
Our lawn, such as it is, stayed green
mainly because it is under a canopy
of trees that surround the house. It's
surprising what that canopy does to
keep the hot burning rays of the sun
out. Of course, there's a disadvantage
to having trees shade our lawn and
that is it doesn't set the stage for what
one would call the perfect lawn. Far
from it; what with its bumps and bare
spots and its weedy composition, all
you can say about it is that it is green.
That's okay by me, for lawns can be
a chore if you're dedicated to keeping
them up. And dedicated to a lawn I'm
not.
By now most people know that rain-
fall is Long Island's only source of
drinking water. There are no under-
ground streams from Connecticut.
We are bordered on the north by the
Sound and the bay on the south so
there's little help from those bodies
of salt water. As a matter of fact, in
some places along our shorelines if
too much water is taken out of the
ground, we get what's called salt
water intrusion. If it's not too severe,
this intrusion of salt can be filtered
out, but it is a rather expensive pro-
cess and not one that's too reliable.
It's called reverse osmosis.
Between Sound and Bay
In between the Sound and the bay
is our only freshwater resource that
acts like a bucket of water under-
ground. Each area from Mattituck to
Orient acts as an island unto itself
with its own water reserve below it.
There's one between Mattituck Inlet
`..
Richard L. Ca"Jam
Focus on
Nature
and Town Beach at Arshamomaque.
During the Revolutionary War, the
army rowed boats across the Sound
to this narrow strip of land where
they pulled their boats over into Ar-
shamomaque Pond and from there
rowed to Sag Harbor where they cap-
tured the English fort without one
casualty. They then took the prison-
ers back by retracing their steps to
Connecticut. Quite a feat, I'd say.
Our next water dome is from Ar-
shamomaque to the causeway outside
of East Marion. Everyone is familiar
with this beautiful area, Dam Pond,
shown pictured above. Then from the
causeway east to Orient Point is our
last water dome. This one is the smal-
lest and most fragile and the reason
why development out in this area
should be limited.
Each time it rains as it did this
week, the water goes into the ground
to replenish the so- called bucket or
dome of water. Usually with our over
40 inches of rain each year, there is
a surplus, and like any surplus water
in a filled bucket, some spills over or
runs out. In our case, it runs both to
the north and to the south into the
Sound and bay. During droughts and
prolonged dry spells, this of course,
does not occur.
Proof of this surplus is seen in the
little oozings of water we see along
the Sound banks at various locations
and on the bay and creek side in the
cold spots we all remember when
we've been swimming. These are the
indicators of the surplus water flow-
ing out from our water domes.
We now know that rain is responsi-
ble for all our drinking water and it
See Focus, next page
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
DAM POND - -Our freshwater lies beneath three dis- shamomaque Pond to Dam Pond on the causeway,
tinct sections of land here on the North Fork. One is pictured above, and the last and most vulnerable is
between Mattituck Inlet and Arshamomaque Pond the water dome between the causeway and Orient
south of Town Beach, another is from Ar- Point.
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