Town gets creative to cleanup Meetinghouse Creek

For the first time, the Town of Riverhead is gearing up to use a unique and inexpensive approach to protect the wetlands and marshes in Meetinghouse Creek from further pollution. The plan is to dredge part of the wetlands in Jamesport, possibly this winter, to protect the creek from further environmental damage. The project covers 2.61 acres of wetlands, bordering Aquebogue Cemetery to the west and the Crescent Duck Farm downstream. The creek is on the NYDEC’s list of impaired waterbodies because of its dissolved oxygen, nutrients and pathogen levels.

“This is for wetlands and habitat improvement,” said Drew Dillingham, Superintendent of Sanitation for Riverhead Town. “All the silt from the roads from years of accumulation will be dredged out. We’ll be removing trees and invasive phragmites that are not native, and planting native trees and plants.” He explained that the December to February time frame will also protect endangered bats in the area.

Mr. Dillingham believes this may be the first time a project like this has been carried out on the North Fork. “Once we’re done, the creek will do its real functions of filtering the water after a storm and capturing most of the sediment by creating bioswales in the watershed area, which is a “green” stormwater treatment measure.” Mr. Dillingham explained that a bioswale is a trench lined with medium-sized rocks, wood chips and native plants that can tolerate heavy rainwater and dry spells. The bioswale for Church Lane could be eight by 20 feet depending on the assessment of the flow of rainwater on the downhill gradient.

These natural filters act as small recharge areas for the aquifer. The bioswales divert and collect stormwater runoff, which contains road chemicals, fertilizers and nitrogen from farmland and residences. To end years of silt and pathogens from streaming into the waterway, mitigating the problem uphill from Meetinghouse Creek is the best solution to increase the tributary’s ecological quality. “Rather than dredging every five years, if we do the work upfront now, it will be less costly and less frequent,” Mr. Dillingham said. The system will also be installed in runoff areas near the sod farm on Phillips Lane. Inlets along Church Lane and Main Road runoff also empty into the project area.

The goal to implement an environmentally friendly approach was spearheaded by Joyce Novak, executive director of the Peconic Estuary Partnership (PEP). On the organization’s website, Ms. Novak said, “There’s 18 inches of silt in the 40 inch pipe … That’s dog poo, tire dust [and] runoff from the sod farm.” The excavated material will be disposed of in the Brookhaven landfill.

The project has been many years in the making, detailed in a 253-page report compiled by PEP, which includes lab reports on carbon analysis, sediment testing, field data collection, ease of maintenance and consideration of the utilities overhead and buried. In 2019, PEP funded a conceptual design to alleviate stormwater pollution into Meetinghouse Creek and road flooding on route 25. In 2021, the organization financed the engineering design and permitting for the project. The cost of the project is $1.235 million: $600,000 comes from the EPA’s National Estuary Program, $50,000 from Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio, a $235,000 Water Quality and Restoration Grant from Suffolk County, and $350,000 was provided for the project from the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation through the Green Innovation Grant Program.

Mark Haubner, co-chair of the town’s Environmental Advisory Committee who has been working closely with the Town and PEP on the project, said, “By diverting rainwater at the higher elevations on Church Lane, properly designed bioswales will address two of the more important issues in protecting this expansive restoration project; siltation will be mitigated and pathogens will be remediated.”

Mr. Haubner estimates eight drains are needed, costing approximately $8,000 to $10,000 apiece. “The message is that the Town will be spending less money to install a nature-based system rather than relying on expensive concrete structures with a limited purpose and result. The goal is to catch the bad stuff before it starts to damage our restoration project investment and goes directly into the Peconic Bay.”