Here’s the bottom line: A beach in Manhattan is more than possible. But we have to improve water quality by reducing and eliminating combined sewer overflows.
Photo by Capri Djatiasmoro
Cleaning up pockets of highly toxic contamination is the other key. Riverkeeper and dozens of partners in the city envision not only a beach in Manhattan, but restored salt marsh ecosystems in Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, a vibrant waterfront in Flushing Bay, and recreation along the Bronx and East Rivers.
Swimmers in NYC - not at a public beach. (Photo courtesy Paul Bastin)
Insights from the data:
These community scientists help Riverkeeper and our partners measure concentrations of Enterococcus (Entero), a fecal indicator bacteria. We compare our results to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Recreational Water Quality Criteria. These criteria define safe swimming thresholds based on water quality and epidemiological studies of beachgoers, examining illnesses ranging from skin rashes to eye and ear infections, and upset stomach. Entero is not itself harmful, but because it is a bacteria that lives in the guts of humans and other warm blooded animals, its presence in water indicates the likelihood that other disease-causing pathogens associated with sewage or other fecal contamination (such as from geese) is present.
Of the 15 points Riverkeeper has sampled around New York City, the shoreline sites with the best water quality are at the
Pier 96 Kayak Launch in the Hudson River at West 55th Street, and at the
beach at Dyckman Street. Based on 68 samples at each location, the geometric mean (a weighted average) of Entero counts were, respectively, 21 and 28 cells per 100 mL of water. Those both fall below the EPA threshold of 30, suggesting good overall water quality for recreation. However, 28% and 18% of those samples, respectively, would have resulted in a beach closure, based on EPA Beach Action Value guidelines. The closures would have resulted from the catastrophic
fire at the July 2011 North River Wastewater Treatment Plant (a hopefully one-time occurrence), but also from routine rain storms, resulting in degraded water quality as raw sewage overflowed into the Hudson from the city’s combined sewers. The data suggest that combined sewer overflows could close a beach at locations like these more than once per week, on average.
Similarly, looking at data from New York City Water Trail Association and The River Project, the
Pier 40 sampling site in the Hudson River at West Houston Street, shows the best overall water quality, with a geometric mean of 17 (compared to the EPA threshold of 30), based on 126 samples. Here, too, 9% of samples would have resulted in a beach closure. In almost all instances, rain preceded the poor water quality results, suggesting that combined sewer overflows would close a beach at this location, too, roughly one out of every 10 days.
So is it possible to have a beach for Manhattan? Yes. But we have to reduce and eliminate combined sewer overflows, if we want to swim safely even after it rains.
Photo by Bjoern Kils / New York Media Boat
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