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Image provided by: Suffolk Cooperative Library System
No eg ret ; flamingo will h ave to do Bird watchers at He li port ' s Pe at Hole see a rare si ght Was a flamingo in the Peat Hole really a reincarnated Toulouse Goose? Was it a plant by a not-too-funny prankster? Was it lost? Obviously. All these questions were aired over the weekend as naturalists gathered to what is locally called the Peat Hole , a small pond in Bellport , to view the pink , flying bird that , a& winter chili began to set in , was clearly out of its element. Unless in captivity , this specie of Greater Flamingo normally is not found north of the Carolinas. But , a flamingo it was. That was plain by its long, spindly legs that it moved in a jilting fashion across the muddy pond bottom , periodically sub- merging its head and sifting the water for the tiny plankton that it iccus On. But , when bird watchers neared , ii usually posed long enough for a picture before spreading its large wings and flying to the north end where it found safety among the high bay weeds call fragmites . Speculation among naturalists , according to Karen Rowley , an avid bird watcher , is that the flamingo is escaped from captivity. But , she said , others feel that its color, a vibrant p ink , was more akin to a wild bird. Sometimes , she said , cap tive birds tend to fade . A flamingo , she said , was sighted in Rhode Island several days before this one appeared in Bellport. Some naturalists suspect that this might be the same bird , heading south There are only four recorded sightings of flamingos m New York State. The last one was about eight years ago m Shin- necock The neighbors first discovered it when ifflew in sometime late last week. As Patrick Hart , son of John J. Hart , Jr., who recently made a Congressional bid , recalls , \I was looking out on the pond and saw this pink thing. I knew it was a flamingo but I didn 't believe it. \ Neither did his sister , Peggy, who is used to her older brother kiddmg her But , a bird book and a closer look at the tall speciman was proof enough. Mother , Kay Hart iaugningiy suggested that maybe the flamingo had returned in the place of the mudi-loved Toulouse Goose named Maude who died in September If it was Maude , the pink flamingo didn 't recognize its old home. On Monday, it flew away Robin Young Roe School dis trict assessments ris e sli g htl y - See story on page 18. Evidence poin ts to 'dumpin q ' in EP wate r pollu tio n cases COLOR ME PINK and you 'll know it' s a flamingo . This bird made a short visit to Bellport' s Peat Hole last week but flew away on Monday. -Jonathan Cooley photo By ROBIN YOUNG ROE An engineer for the Suffolk County Department of En- vironmental Control said this week that test drillings in East Patchogue indicate \ more and more \ that unlawful dumpings of suspected carcinogenic sub- stances were made in a wooded area , several hundred yards north of Hedges Avenue , contaminating the water supplies of some East Patchogue residents. And , in another development , Joan Scherb , regional attorney for the State Department of Environmental Con- servation , said she was preparing formal complaints against \ at least one \ Suffolk Coun ty firm charging it with \ illegal disposal of industrial waste \ Mrs Scherb said she would file her complain ts with the DEC within the next 10 days The engineer , Rich Markel , said that deep test drillings at 23 locations point to a section of woods off an unfinished road that shows up on a map of the area as Oak- dale Avenue. The county has done test drillings on properties on all sides of the affected area including the Nudo Brothers site on Or- chard Road where a scavenger waste company had rented spac to store a tank Mr Markel said that the contaminated p lume is moving in a southwest direction , which places the origin of the . plume northeast of Hedges Avenue. Markel speculated that whoever is responsible for the dumping \just ran a truck back into the woods and dumped it thinking they 'd never get caught \ But , when people in the area started to com- p lain about discolored , sm elly water in their well s , an investigation was pursued Markel said that since the county began its investigation of the water problem s in June they ' ve dev eloped a \fairly good idea \ of what it looks like. Markel said it originated south of the Long Island Railroad tracks at the northeast corner of Hedges Avenue and moves southwest from there The plume stretches about 2 , 000 fee t ahead of the origin , he said He said that tests of wells on Dunton Avenue are \ clean \ Test borings in the wooded area off Oakdale Avenue , however , he said , are \highly con- taminated \ with trace organic chemicals Meanwhile , residents of the area have been hooked up to public watei lines at a cost of $13 a yea r over a 15-y ear period And , Brookhaven Town is considering regulations prohibiting the discharge of toxic organic chemicals into the ground- water The regulation s would include a total ban on all of the organic substances and other chemicals alleged to be deleterious in a lawsuit brought by Patchogue en- vironmental attorney, Victor J Yan- nacone , Jr Stringent revisions of state groundwater regulations went into effect last month They prohibit the discharge of synthetic organic pollutants - such as found in East Patchogue~in concentrations of more than 50 parts per billion \We realize that the requirements are quite stringent but we really don 't know just how dangerous these pollutants and how they will affect future generations , \ said Ms Scherb Concentrations in excess of 5 , 000 parts per billion of organic pollutants were found during some East Patchogue tests And , the Suffol k Water Authority has urged the Suffolk Legislature to enact a county-wide ban on the sale and distribution of products containing tnchlorethylene , 1 , 1 , 1 tnchlorethane , and tetrachlorethylene These chemicals are used in the manufacture of drain and cesspool cleaners , according to Robert J Fl ynn , water authority chairman \Due to the uniqueness of Suffolk' s underground water reservoir and the need to take every possible precaution to protec t our fresh water supply, it is , therefore , urgently recommended that the legislature adop t a local law prohibiting the sale or distribution of petroleum distillate solvents for this purpose , \ Mr Flynn said
