Coast Guard To Access Town Lot In Cleanup

The Town of East Hampton has granted access to town-owned property adjacent to the United States Coast Guard Station in Montauk for the service branch to complete its remediation plan of a diesel fuel leak.

Under the plan, the Coast Guard has requested access to a portion of a parking lot to set up filtration and purification equipment, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last Thursday at a town board meeting.

The Coast Guard asked the town to place equipment on the lot due to space limitations on its own property to undertake a Remedial Action Work Plan approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, according to the agency.

The subsurface investigation completed last fall did not indicate contamination on the town’s parking lot and the Coast Guard and DEC are continuing to work together to effectively clean up the site under strict oversight, a DEC spokesman said.

A sheen in the water near the coast guard’s vessels was discovered in mid-September and further investigation found it to be the result of a leaky underground pipe which was connected to a diesel fuel tank, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said Friday.

The tank itself holds about 52,000 gallons of fuel, but Strohmaier could not be sure how much of the fuel had leaked. He said that since the spill, the Coast Guard has used a product recovery pump to remove fuel which has now been placed in a storage container. Absorbent pads have also been placed around the station to protect fuel from spreading into Montauk Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean, he said.

The remediation is ongoing.

peggy@indyeastend.com