Members of the Suffolk County Legislature approved a resolution on Tuesday to provide around $85,000 in capital funding to study and provide recommendations on how to improve tidal flow from the Long Island Sound to the long-stagnant Goldsmith Inlet in Peconic.

Lillian Ball, Hugh Switzer and other vocal members of the Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet appeared before the legislature along with representatives of Southold Town to appeal for the funds to finance the engineering studies.

According to the group, Goldsmith Inlet is becoming an environmental disaster.  The inlet channel is rapidly filling with sand, and as a result the water is stagnated, polluted and full of invasive plants. Shellfishing is now banned, oysters and scallops are gone and the clam and crab populations are low.

Switzer said that based on years of experience dealing with the inlet, dredging alone was not the answer and was not going to solve the problem. 

"I'm reminded that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting the same results," Switzer said.

Bob Deluca, head of local environmental advocacy organization The Group for the East End, told legislators that the project to save the inlet already has a lot of community support.

"And with Suffolk County being a prime stakeholder around more than one half of this water body, it's something you're hopefully interested in helping as well," he said.

Lillian Ball, a local artist who has been a strong advocate for the Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet, brought and distributed homemade cranberry sauce made from rare cranberries picked from local maritime freshwater swales like those found around Goldsmith Inlet.

"But the current impeded flow and shoaling challenge nature's ability to heal itself," she told the lawmakers.