Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Brightwaters, NY

Brightwaters is an incorporated village in the southwestern part of the Town of Islip in Suffolk County, on Long Island, with frontage on the Great South Bay.

The village is nicknamed the "Crown Jewel on the Great South Bay" in Suffolk County planning documents.

Brightwaters was developed in the early 20th century by the T. B. Ackerson Company, a Brooklyn developer, as a planned community built around a chain of five spring-fed lakes and a nearly mile-long canal and yacht basin dug from Great South Bay to Montauk Highway.

The name Brightwaters is a translation of the Native American name "Wohseepee" for the area.

One of the village's lakes, Nosrekca Lake, spells its developer's name — Ackerson — backwards.

Brightwaters became an incorporated village on November 30, 1916, after residents petitioned over concerns about taxation and paying private subscriptions for services they believed the Town of Islip should provide.

Brightwaters had a population of 3,181 at the 2020 census, in 1,135 households, packed into just about one square mile.

The village is organized into three districts — the Canal District south of Montauk Highway, the Lakes District in the center, and the Wohseepee Park District in the north — and its parks include Wohseepee Park, Gilbert Park, and Walker Beach.

Brightwaters grew explosively after incorporation, from just 250 residents in 1920 to 1,061 in 1930 and a peak of 3,808 in 1970.

All public-school children in Brightwaters attend schools in the Bay Shore Union Free School District, and the village is served by the Bay Shore-Brightwaters Public Library.