Stunning Hamptons beach ranked as one of the worst for fecal matter in nation: ‘Sad to see’
This is the wrong kind of beach bum.
A dazzling Hamptons beach surrounded by multi-million dollar mansions has logged some of the worst fecal matter levels in the country – a perennial problem locals have had a hard time flushing away.
Mecox Bay in Southampton last year landed in the top 10 of US beaches that tested positive for dangerous levels of enterococcus — an intestinal pathogen commonly used as an indicator of how much fecal matter is in water.
Enterococcus levels at Mecox Bay exceeded the amount considered safe by New York State standards in 46% of the tests undertaken in 2023 by the Surfrider Foundation, a water quality non-profit which samples beaches across the country.
“It’s one of the beaches where we have some of the most concerns because consistently we are seeing high bacteria levels that exceed the safe health standards for recreational water,” Surfrider Senior Water Quality Manager Mara Dias told The Post Wednesday.
“And it’s a place where we see people recreating.”
Other beaches that fared poorly for crappy water were Imperial Beach in San Diego, Park View Kayak Launch in Miami Beach and Nāwiliwili Stream at Kalapakī Bay in Hawaii.
Mecox Bay, an inland body of water cut off from the ocean by a spit of land, is home to dozens of gorgeous waterfront mansions, including a 12,000-square-foot monster with private dock and ocean access – and 220 feet of “direct water frontage” – listed for sale at $37.5 million.
But locals say the bay is the receptacle for a considerable amount of the Hamptons’ watershed — nearly all the upland runoff from business, farms and homes packed into the area gathers there.
“Every time you have a big rain event, you have all the water from that whole region filter its way into Mecox Bay,” said Scott Horowitz, president of the Southampton Town Trustees, which owns and manages the bay through laws dating back to the 1600s.
Compounding the issue are the old septic systems and cesspools that the Hamptons largely depends on, meaning after a heavy rain — or even after an excessive lawn watering — tracts of human waste seeps into the bay.
“All of that pollution ends up entering the bay,” Horowitz said.
To remedy the issue, the town periodically physically opens Mecox Bay to the ocean by digging a cut through the land separating it from the ocean, which drains the waste and also re-salinates and purifies the area on the rising tide.
But come April 1 every year, endangered species like piping plovers and least terns begin to roost on the land where the cut is made, meaning the trustees need to delay the drainage until the species allow them to.
“When you get a delay like that the water quality degrades. It just gets worse and worse and creates problems for the region,” Horowitz said, adding that the better job they do protecting birds every year the worse the water problem becomes the next as more come to roost.
“Our strength becomes our weakness,” he said. “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Horowitz wants to see more cooperation from government agencies the trustees need to work with to address the cut and how upland water runoffs into the watershed are managed, while Surfrider is pushing local legislation in the fall that would help improve the septic and cesspool system in the Hamptons.
“It’s sad to see that you have areas that are absolutely magnificent and at times they’re regarded as public health hazards,” Horowitz said, adding the trustees would continue to fight to keep Mecox safe.
“We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years,” he said.
