Water Quality Update: Harmful algae, Newburgh's drinking water, East River sewage
September 30, 2016
Riverkeeper Team
In September, Riverkeeper and our partners made over 1,150 water quality measurements, with samples taken at over 350 locations in the Hudson River Estuary and its watershed. Some highlights from the month include:
Harmful Algal Bloom persists on Wallkill River and Rondout Creek
Harmful Algae Bloom, Rondout Creek at the DEC fishing access site on Creek Locks Road in the Town of Ulster, Sept. 26, 2016 (Photo by Jen Epstein / Riverkeeper)
The Harmful Algal Bloom documented by Riverkeeper and the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance on the Wallkill River has persisted since August 24. While it has shifted in extent, the Cyanobacteria bloom has affected the river for 35 days and counting, with persistent or recurrent impacts documented along a 30-mile stretch of the Wallkill and a portion of the Rondout Creek, affecting 10 municipalities and many public access points in Orange and Ulster counties. Toxins produced by this algae have been documented on several occasions at levels many times thresholds for safe recreation. Read more in this press release and Times Herald-Record opinion piece
A new commitment to protecting Newburgh’s drinking water
Peter Smith (right) of the Quassaick Creek Watershed Alliance, points out features of Newburgh's drinking source watershed, in an interview with a news crew. Washington Lake, the city’s primary reservoir, is in the background. (Photo by Dan Shapley / Riverkeeper)
In joint legislative hearings on water quality in Albany September 7, state officials committed to improving Newburgh's Source Water Assessment - a key document that defines the threats to the city’s drinking water supply. Drawing on what we'd learned about the severe deficiencies of the existing assessment during our community science project with the Quassaick Creek Watershed Alliance, Riverkeeper's Case Study and Call for Comprehensive Source Water Protection called for a new assessment as one important step to protect and restore the lands and streams that naturally provide and filter the drinking water for 29,000 people. Read more
Documenting sewage impacts in the East River
Sampling East River and its tributaries in September 2016. (Photo by John Lipscomb / Riverkeeper)
The New York City Water Trail Association, working with our longtime collaborator at CUNY Queens, Dr. Gregory O'Mullan, and others, documented the extraordinary impact of a fast-moving summer storm on Sept. 15. A half inch or less of rain flooded the combined sewers with street runoff, causing sewage overflows that contaminated Flushing Creek and Flushing Bay, leading to counts of the fecal indicator bacteria Enterococci to exceed 24,000 - hundreds of times higher than safe-swimming thresholds. Our own East River project with O'Mullan, new in 2016, is helping to gather additional data on how these types of sewage overflows throughout the East River affect the oxygen fish and other creatures need to survive.
The latest data
Check out the latest data on fecal contamination in the Hudson River Watershed, the best indicator of water quality for recreation. Remember that the data show a snapshot in time, and don't indicate water quality today.
Thank you
More than three dozen partners make the collection and processing of data possible, with financial or in-kind support and partnership. In 2016, partners include:
The Ashokan Center, Bard College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia-Greene Trout Unlimited, Cornell University, CUNY Queens, Environmental Protection Fund (Hudson River Estuary Program and Mohawk Basin Program), Groundwork Hudson Valley, HSBC, Hudson River Improvement Fund, Hudson River Maritime Museum, IDEXX, Jarrett Engineers, John Jay College, JSA Financial, LaGuardia Community College, Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Madison-Oneida BOCES, Middleburgh High School, Montgomery Conservation Advisory Council, New York City Water Trail Association and partners, New York Sea Grant, Ossining High School, Philipp Family Foundation, Pleasantville Conservation Advisory Council, Pocantico River Watershed Alliance, Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission, Rocking the Boat, Roe Jan Watershed Association, Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak, Saw Kill Watershed Community, Saw Mill River Coalition, Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance, SUNY Cobleskill, The River Project, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, Wawarsing Environmental Conservation Commission, Westchester Community Foundation, Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club, and many Riverkeeper members.
Related campaigns
Protecting Hudson River watershed drinking water at the source
Riverkeeper ensures that drinking water sources stay clean and safe through vigilant advocacy and conservation efforts
Emerging and unregulated contaminants
Toxic chemicals can harm the health of people, wildlife, aquatic ecosystems
Water quality monitoring
Riverkeeper is the go-to source for information about the quality of the water along the Hudson River and its tributaries