Tainted Water: An East Magazine Special Report on Georgica Pond

Blue-green algae has plagued the pond for a decade, but never to the extent it has in the last few years. In July 2014, when cyanobacteria bloomed anew in Georgica, masses of fish died off, and, according to some accounts, one or two deer. Within days — and at the height of the summer season — the East Hampton Town Trustees were forced to do the inconceivable: close the pond to swimming and wading, and shut down shellfishing and fishing. 
Photo: Priscilla Rattazzi

eastmag.co - by Christopher Walsh - July 22, 2016

JACK RUSSELL TERRIERS are not water dogs. “She just happened to go down to the pond,” says Annie Gilchrist Hall, “because we had two of our kids here sailing.” Annie and John Hall’s pet was familiar with Georgica Pond, East Hampton’s serene, 290-acre body of water — a stunning backdrop to some of the most desirable real estate on the planet. The Halls live on the pond.

It was just after Labor Day in 2012. The little dog, Rosie, frolicked in the water, then licked her paws. Almost instantly “she went into neurotoxic shock,” Hall says. “It’s so graphic: She put her four legs out straight. She was breathing, but couldn’t move.”

Three days later, Rosie died. A tissue sample revealed toxic exposure to cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, microbes that produce dangerous neuro and gastro-intestinal poisons. With that, a realization came into focus: Inconceivably, Georgica was poisonous.

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