$300G earmarked for 'lake keeper' at Lake Ronkonkoma

A $300,000 state grant will fund a two-year pilot program for a so-called “lake keeper” to oversee water quality monitoring and improvement projects at Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island's largest freshwater lake and an area that was once a booming summer resort.

Suffolk County officials on Wednesday announced Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences under Christopher Gobler, a coastal ecologist and professor at the university, will lead the project.

Problems have plagued the lake for decades, from stormwater runoff and dumping to flooding, erosion and Canada geese droppings that contain high concentrations of pathogens, according to a 2023 Watershed Management Plan compiled by the county’s Department of Economic Development and Planning.

At a news conference on the beach at Lake Ronkonkoma County Park, where signs caution visitors against swimming, Legis. Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) held copies of environmental studies done on the lake dating back to the 1980s.

“This is not an overnight fix,” Kennedy said. “It took 100 years for it to get where it is today, damage-wise. It’ll take at least 10 years to fix this lake.”

In an interview after the news conference, Gobler said his department will conduct a national search to identify the best candidate to lead the project as the lake keeper.

The goal, he said, is to conduct a “deep dive” into conditions of the lake, identify “different potential environmental ills” and then to “laser focus on actionable steps” to improve water quality. By doing so, officials hope to improve recreational opportunities around the lake, making the water safe for swimming, as well ecological and economic benefits.  

“By next summer we’ll have the most rigorous monitoring program there’s ever been in the lake,” he said.

Part of the lake keeper's responsibility will be to apply for additional grant funding to support mitigation work at the lake, Gobler said.

While there have been numerous studies into the lake’s problems, Gobler said there are still “stones that have yet to be unturned.”

He said Lake Ronkonkoma, which borders portions of Smithtown, Islip and Brookhaven towns, is not monitored as well as many other of the Island’s waterbodies and noted the Island’s lakes and ponds are somewhat of an “afterthought.”

The county secured the grant through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan.

Sarah Lansdale, commissioner of the Department of Economic Planning and Development, said the money was earmarked for Suffolk County through the Long Island Regional Planning Council.

“Through a series of conversations we were able to work together and direct those funds toward Stony Brook University to hire and manage the lake keeper position,” she said.

Rich Guardino, executive director for the planning council, said excessive levels of nitrogen in the lake bring “both short-term and long-term issues, including the loss of marine life and the loss of recreational activity.”

He described the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan as a “multi-year initiative” aimed at reducing the amount of nitrogen that enters both surface and ground water.

Legis. Trish Bergin (R-East Islip) said the lake keeper position is a “first step to progress that is so desperately needed for this lake and for our community because this is a gem and we need to save it.”

A similar effort to hire a lake keeper in 2023 fizzled soon after county officials, under former County Executive Steve Bellone, held a news conference announcing plans to hire the position on the county payroll.

The plan called for hiring a limnologist, which studies fresh waterbodies.

“It was very difficult to get a limnologist,” Kennedy said Wednesday.

She said there was money budgeted for a part-time position for one year, after which the person needed to secure grants to continue to fund the position.

“We don’t ask anyone else to do that in the county,” she said.

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister joined Newsday in 2022 and covers Suffolk County government and politics. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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