Amagansett residents worry about blowing dust from potato farm fields

Amagansett residents are calling for East Hampton Town to take emergency action in the hamlet after fine dust from at least one potato field has blown into their homes, cars and shops.

Silty topsoil blown from farm fields not properly secured with cover crops, which protect and enrich the soil after the harvest, has long been a issue in the hamlet, the residents say.

The problem, known as wind erosion, occurs across the East End and other farming communities, but a single large potato field with no cover crop just north of Montauk Highway in Amagansett has worsened the blowing dust this year, residents and town officials said.

“One parent mentioned to me that children taste dust in their mouth at recess” at school, Amagansett resident Dan Mongan said during a town board work session Tuesday. He said his daughter, a sixth-grader at the Amagansett School, told him the same thing

Mongan, an Amagansett Free Library trustee, read a letter on behalf of the library board calling for the town to declare a state of emergency. Others who spoke Tuesday said they feared the particles could contain agricultural pesticides.

Accumulated sand-colored dust was clearly visible on the downtown streets Tuesday, piling up on windowsills and sidewalks.

Town officials said in a statement Monday they are investigating “multiple locations where agricultural fields are suffering from wind erosion” and acknowledged the dust “poses health concerns, visibility issues and damage to public and private property alike.”

The farmer who leases the Amagansett field, a long-time local commodity grower, could not be reached for comment.

The farmer planted a ground cover crop this year, but it was too late and failed, said Alex Balsam who has owned Balsam Farms in Amagansett for 16 years and is chairman of the town agricultural advisory committee. A cold wet autumn delayed the potato harvest by about a month, Balsam said, leaving no time for the cover crop to take root.

“We had an unprecedented wet fall this year which severely delayed the harvest,” he said. “I’ve never in my lifetime seen potatoes harvested that late.”

He noted a continued snow cover would alleviate the dust problem.

Balsam said there is no cure-all to address the issue, but farmers should take mitigating measures to plan for extreme weather in the future.

“It’s my belief that this is another symptom of climate change,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said during the work session, referring to the delayed growing season and recent heavy rainfall.

Town Councilman Jeff Bragman, the liaison to the town’s agriculture advisory committee, said East Hampton could require farmers to plant cover crops by a certain date. In neighboring Southampton Town, farmers are required to plant a cover crop no more than two weeks after harvest and no later than Oct. 30.

“I think it’s clear we need a statute that says that,” Bragman said.

Short-term solutions floated by Mongan included spraying the fields with water or installing snow fencing to prevent some of the snow from drifting off the fields.

“I don’t know what the solution is, but we certainly will continue to investigate,” Van Scoyoc said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.