The Wallkill River's bright neon-green plea for help

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The Wallkill River's bright neon-green plea for help

August 26, 2016

Riverkeeper Team

The Wallkill River's bright neon-green plea for help is continuing Friday, a day after the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance and Riverkeeper alerted the public to the potential health risks from exposure to this suspected harmful algal bloom.

We want better for our river. We love this river, and we want it to be healthy, for itself, for wildlife and for us. This is a sign of a sick river and we want to make it healthy. The Alliance and Riverkeeper are working together to gather data this season that will help us to understand the underlying conditions that lead to these blooms, and hope to prioritize actions to reduce and eliminate them.

It's important to remember that this will pass. The river is not toxic forever, but only during the duration of the algae bloom. It's serious issue, but people should know that they should still enjoy the Wallkill once this has passed. No one should turn their back on the river.

Observing and reporting on this is only possible because we have a really engaged community that loves this river. That's what will save it. Join the movement to protect and restore the Wallkill.

These photos were taken in New Paltz today, as Jason West, director of the Alliance, and John Gotto, SUNY Ulster biologist and member of the Alliance's Science Working Group, talked to the press about the river.

Algae near the Carmine Liberta replacement bridge over the Wallkill River in New Paltz on August 26, 2016. (Photo by Jason West / Wallkill River Watershed Alliance)