High concentrations of a chemical solvent found in East Hampton, New York tap water

February 21, 2008 - Two months ago Bob Morsch noticed “a terrible odor, a chemical smell” coming from his tap water on King’s Point Road in the Clearwater Beach neighborhood of small lots and mostly second homes served by private wells.

Ensuing tests by the Suffolk County Health Department identified a contaminant rarely found in groundwater, propionaldehyde, which belongs to a class of chemicals for which state guidelines set a limit of 50 parts per billion. At Mr. Morsch’s house in Springs it was found in a concentration as high as 6,500 parts per billion.

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