Pine barrens

Today marks the 10th anniversary of a wildfire that burned more than 1,100 acres of Pine Barrens in Manorville, Ridge and Calverton. The fire, later ruled to have been intentionally set, burned for more than 24 hours.

Firefighters from several area departments, including Riverhead, Flanders and Wading River, are fighting a large brush fire in the Manorville Pine Barrens Sunday evening.

The fires burned 167 acres of Pine Barrens in Brookhaven and Riverhead towns over the past month, according to the State DEC.

Long Island urgently needs to get serious about water conservation, with tough regulations limiting consumption and a regional plan to tap into the water resources of the Pine Barrens. Column by Greg Blass

Ever since the undeveloped acres in the Pine Barrens started to be bought up with a specially dedicated, quarter-cent sales tax-funded bonding in 1987, the intention was as a future, rainy day kind of water resource. That rainy day is here — in spades.

Environmental regulators continue to investigate the MTBE contamination of drinking water wells in the Manorville pine barrens. They have not yet determined the source or extent of the contamination.

The source and extent of the contamination remains unknown. The state DEC is "aggressively" investigating as health officials continue to test water samples taken from the two dozen wells in the area of Oakwood Drive in Manorville, in the Pine Barrens core preservation area.

High levels of a gasoline additive were found in the well water of a Manorville home, prompting a state investigation to find where the contaminant came from and if it is affecting other homes in the neighborhood that also depend on well water.

The members of the state pine barrens commission need to be reminded of their statutory obligations, according to L.I. Pine Barrens Society executive director Richard Amper.

A petition at Change.org asks Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone to clear the fire lanes in Flanders pine barrens, to allow firefighters access to fight wildfires on the 11,000 acres of publicly owned preserved land.