Georgica Pond is a coastal

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a Summer White House of

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

in 1998 and 1999. The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East Hampton Trustees who monitor a cycle of draining the lagoon and replenishing it with

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

water. The Lagoon consists of 6 finger like coves shooting out from the main body of water, Georgica Cove, Eel Creek, Goose Creek, Talmage Creek, Seabury Creek, and Jones Creek. Celebrities on its banks include

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...

Ronald Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman and investor. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, cars, photography, t ...

, developer Harry Macklowe and formerly

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pu ...

and

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...

. Bill and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

stayed at the Spielberg home during the summer vacations in 1998 and 1999. Rumors circulated in 1998 that the

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. Fo ...

had drained the pond looking for submarines after the lagoon drained shortly after Clinton's visit.

Groyne A groyne (in the U.S. groin) is a rigid hydraulic structure built perpendicularly from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or a river bank, interrupting water flow and limiting the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concr ...

jetties at the pond have been accused of causing beach erosion in

Southampton, New York Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stret ...

as they are thought to interrupt the normal east to west flow of sand in the

longshore drift Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle incoming wave direction ...

. Dunehampton unsuccessfully attempted to incorporate in part to have legal standing in the debate. Likewise,

Sagaponack, New York Sagaponack is a village in the Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, on the East End of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population of the village was 313 at the 2010 census. Sagaponack is also the name of a popular seafood re ...

incorporated for the same reason. In the 1960s and 1970s, Georgica Pond was involved in a tradition known as "letting" that was carried out by local Indian Tribes. This entails discharging fresh water from the pond into a bay or ocean. This was an issue primarily because it was thought to disturbs the pond's ecosystem and lower the water table in the area. This addition of saltwater and anadromous species into the pond could be detrimental to the Pond's living ecosystem. However, in the Georgica Pond case, "letting" done in the late 1980s and 1990s relieved flooding and made the pond more ecologically sound. It was found that letting seemed to be an overall benefit to the pond's ecology. It was also found that letting made flooding less frequent and lessened the magnitude of the flood. Georgica Pond is where the famed

Grey Gardens ''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...

estate is located. A sandy area near the pond is a nesting ground for the

piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead ...

References

External links

Georgica Pond Images (Alfred C Thompson III)
{{Coord, 40.938156, -72.229614, display=title East Hampton (town), New York Lagoons of New York (state) Bodies of water of Suffolk County, New York