A beautiful summer morning greeted 75 guests at the FOGP Annual Meeting. Chaired by our new Executive Director, Fred Thiele, the event was hosted by board member Anna Chapman and Ronald Perelman at their estate The Creeks. Board President, Jon Wainwright introduced Fred who welcomed the crowd, thanked the FOGP board and recognized Sara Davison for her past leadership. Suffolk County Legislator, Ann Welker, presented Sara with a proclamation recognizing her accomplishments and contributions to the East End.
The State of Georgica Pond Lecture was given by Dr. Christopher Gobler, Director of the New York Center for Clean Water Technology, Endowed Chair at the School of Marine & Atmospheric Studies at Stony Brook University and Science Advisor to FOGP. Dr. Gobler’s presentation emphasized the remarkable progress that has been made in improving Georgica Pond’s water quality but cautioned that there is still work to be done to reduce the amount of nitrogen and other contaminants entering the pond. He highlighted the reduction in the toxic blue-green algae at the pond, the successful introduction of oysters and new monitoring of PFOS chemicals and nitrogen in groundwater. Updating your septic system to an I/A (innovative/alternative) low nitrogen septic system can reduce your contribution of nitrogen to the pond significantly and is still the most important thing homeowners can do themselves to improve the pond’s water quality.
Fred closed out the meeting with an update on the status of a major industrial subdivision just north of Georgica Pond known as the Wainscott Commercial Center and reminded the crowd to vote YES on November 5 for Proposition 2 which is the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act.
Dr. Gobler’s presentation is available on our Reports page.
