About Estuaries:
Insights on the NEPs - Peconic Bays

The Peconic Estuary, situated between the North and South Forks of eastern Long Island, New York, consists of nearly 200 distinct bays, harbors, embayments, and tributaries. The study area (i.e., the estuary and its watershed) includes over 125,000 acres of land and over 158,000 acres of surface waters.

The area surrounding the Peconic Estuary is rich in scenic beaches and creeks, lush woodlands, wetlands, and rolling farmlands. The Peconic Estuary watershed contains a larger percentage of undisturbed habitats and a greater diversity of natural communities than anywhere else in the coastal zone of New York State. The estuary system also features numerous rare ecosystems that are home to many plants, animals, and natural communities, including 111 that are designated endangered, threatened, rare, or of special concern. As such, The Nature Conservancy has designated the Peconic Estuary system as one of the "Last Great Places."

Ever-expanding and intensifying development is consuming open space and natural habitats, and stressing watersheds and natural communities. The East End towns have a year-round population of an estimated 100,000 people, but this number swells to well over 280,000 during the summer season. There is an immediate need to protect the estimated 22% of the acreage in the Peconic Estuary Study Area that could potentially be developed.

Priority water quality topics include nutrient over-enrichment, coliform contamination of shellfish beds, toxic chemical contamination, and Brown Tide, a harmful algal bloom that devastated the once nationally significant Peconic Bay Scallop commercial fishery in the mid-1980s. Priority living resource topics include open space protection; restoration of shellfish populations (especially scallops) and submerged aquatic vegetation beds (especially eelgrass); protection of wetlands, shorebirds, and native plants; and combating invasive species.

To address these concerns, the Peconic Estuary Program is involved in a number of mitigation efforts, including:

• Implementation of the PEP Critical Lands Protection Plan, a priority ranking of critical lands for acquisition and protection based on multiple ecological criteria;
  
  
• Adoption of a point source nitrogen freeze for surface water discharge from sewage treatment plants in the western estuary and a water quality preservation policy for the eastern estuary to protect existing dissolved oxygen levels and optimize conditions for eelgrass;
  
  
• Cooperation with the region's agricultural community and other stakeholders to develop and implement a strategy to lower nutrient and pesticide inputs to the environment;
  
  
• Enforcement of the Vessel Waste No Discharge Zone - designated in 2002 for the entire Peconic Estuary in order to help protect shellfish beds and keep waters safe and clean for swimming and recreation; and
  
  
• Execution of numerous mitigation projects for stormwater - the largest source of pathogens in the estuary.
  

Already, over 112 Federal and State funded demonstration and implementation projects have been done or are underway in the Peconic watershed, using over $17 million in funding. Project examples include stormwater runoff control, bay scallop seeding, and wetlands and eelgrass restoration. Even more significantly, with local funding sources such as the Suffolk County ¼% Sales Tax and local Community Preservation Fund initiatives, over $150 million in implementation funding will be committed to the Peconic Bays within the next decade.

For more information on the Peconic Estuary Program

• Call (631) 852-5750
  
• Write to PEP Program Office, SCDHS-Office of Ecology, 360 Yaphank Avenue, Suite 2B, Yaphank, NY 11980
  
• E-mail us at info@peconicestuary.org
  
• Visit our website at www.peconicestuary.org