In its ten-year history, the PEP has already made tremendous headway toward its ultimate goal of a healthy estuarine system.  The following timeline highlights some of the program’s most significant accomplishments:

1993

• Peconic Estuary Program is established
• The PEP Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) is formed as a continuation of the Brown Tide Comprehensive Assessment and Management Program CAC

1995

• Brown Tide Summit

1996

• Seventeen Critical Natural Resource Areas, specific locations with significant biodiversity in need of extra protection, are identified

1998

• Brown Tide Workplan is formalized to sponsor research on the causes of Brown Tide
• The Characterization Report of the Living Resources of the Peconic Estuary identifies the plants and animals that are at risk and the human influences that could add to the risk

1999

• Stormwater Phase II Final Rule is passed, requiring stricter stormwater runoff control programs and practices
• The Community Preservation Fund (CPF) goes into force, establishing a 2% real estate transfer tax to support farmland and open space conservation in the five East End towns

2000

• Upgrade at Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant results in tertiary treatment (nitrogen-removal) of all effluent
• A fish ladder is installed at the Grangebel Park dam in Riverhead to aid the alewives in their spring run upriver to spawn

2001

• Peconic Estuary Program Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) is formally approved
• Upgrade at Sag Harbor Sewage Treatment Plant results in tertiary treatment (nitrogen-removal) of all effluent

2002

• Entire Peconic Estuary is designated by EPA as a Vessel Waste No-Discharge Zone

2003

• Maps of submerged aquatic vegetation and hardened shoreline in the Peconic Estuary are inventoried and digitized
• EPA, marine industry representatives and the PEP announce an agreement to ensure that, by 2005, 95% of the two and four-stroke marine engines sold on Long Island are low polluting

2004

• Groundbreaking Suffolk County Agricultural Stewardship Program – a comprehensive program for maintaining a strong, viable agricultural industry in Suffolk County, while improving groundwater and surface water quality – is presented to the Suffolk County Legislature
• 30 out of 34 East End golf courses sign agreement to alter their fertilizer practices so their contribution to groundwater is less than 2 mg/L total nitrogen
• PEP passes EPA “Implementation Review,” a review of progress in implementing CCMP
• Critical Lands Protection Strategy, which prioritizes all remaining vacant and subdividable properties in the watershed for acquisition purposes, is completed and shared with local governments
• Peconics hosts EstuaryLive – a virtual field trip broadcasted live over the internet to K-12 classrooms all over the country
• First issue of PEP Talk, the program newsletter, is released
• National Atmospheric Deposition Program station becomes operational to monitor chemical and nutrient inputs from rain and dry air deposition
• Clean-up work begins on the contaminated Peconic River sediments on Brookhaven National Laboratory property
• The use, sale or importation of fuels containing the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is banned in New York State