FDA, DEC shut down town shellfishing areas

South Shore residents accustomed to jumping in their boats and heading out for a day of clamming in Hempstead Bay will have to travel farther this spring and summer. At the recommendation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Town of Hempstead’s shellfishing areas west of the Wantagh Parkway were closed in February, with additional areas closed on April 1. Affected areas include the waters south of Bellmore, Merrick and Freeport.

The decision came after an evaluation by the FDA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation of the town’s microbiology lab, which determined that the town’s lab did not meet certain requirements for labs that participated in the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

“The FDA evaluator determined that the non-conformities were so pervasive that FDA believed that water quality data produced by the Town of Hempstead’s lab were unreliable and could not be used to support the certified and seasonally certified classification of 8,600 acres of shellfish areas in the town,” the DEC said in a statement.

The DEC will begin collecting water samples from the area, which will then be examined in the DEC Bureau of Marine Resource’s lab in East Setauket. It will take about seven months to collect sufficient water quality data. The water samples will be evaluated to see if they meet the bacteriological standards for certified and seasonally certified shellfishing areas; the Town’s waters comprise both certified and seasonal areas. Following testing, if the waters are found to meet these standards, the areas will be reopened for shellfishing.

With questions surrounding the town’s ability to test its own waters, Hempstead officials insist they are committed to getting the waterways reopened as quickly as possible. “The town will work with New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation to collect additional water samples to verify the quality of local bay water,” the town said in a prepared statement. “Our municipal workforce is dedicated to working toward the reopening of shellfish harvest areas as swiftly as possible.”