[2] The early activists group, Cathy and Tom Lester,[3] Stuart Vorpahl,[4] Arnold Leo,[5] Helena Curtis[6] and other concerned south fork residents pushed for the town to acquire both land parcels.
[citation needed] They picked up the reins left by Nancy Boyd Willey (1902-1998),[8] whose Old Sagg-Harbour Committee[9] and the Sag Harbor Conservation and Planning Alliance (CAPA) saved Little Northwest Creek and wetlands from developers in 1974, and preserved Barcelona Neck.
The Alliance developed policy recommendations for state initiatives, including scientific study of the problems, the continued public acquisition of unoccupied parcels in wetlands, protection of aquifers and other sensitive watershed areas.
[26] The Alliance commenced to work in close partnership with New York state, Suffolk county, and East Hampton town government and other private environmental organizations to cleanup and protect the Northwest Creek and surrounding ecosystem to the benefit of the community.
The concerns were water quality, the Northwest creek sandbar and noise pollution caused by the approaches to the East Hampton airport.