The high bacteria levels at Crescent Beach have had it closed to swimmers since July 2009, with a perimeter set up two years later to prohibit shellfish harvesting just off the beach as the rest of Hempstead Harbor was reopened to the practice after four decades of it being illegal.
Mayor Ralph Suozzi has recently said that the question of Crescent Beach currently has no practical answer - testing done by the state Department of Environmental Conservation suggests that the contaminants are human-caused, not the result of an earlier theory of animal feces runoff.
If the pollutants are indeed coming from sewage systems from the residential properties in the hills above Crescent Beach, Suozzi said there is only so much the city can presently do. Systems would have to be evaluated and fixed one-by-one, a costly measure in each individual case.
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