Swimming and public access

Swimming and public access

Working to make it safe and free for everyone to swim in the Hudson

The challenge

Access to swimming is about justice

Thanks to decades of work to halt pollution and improve our wastewater infrastructure, most of the Hudson is safe to swim in most of the time — but not everywhere, and especially not after rain. Despite these significant and celebrated water quality improvements, the estuary has only 4 public swimming areas along its 150-mile stretch (a huge contrast to the 224 public and private beaches on Long Island Sound). Less than 1 percent of New York City’s 520-mile coastline is accessible for public swimming. Many disadvantaged communities along the Hudson lack access to swimming in the river, or at all.

This is about justice. Within 60 years, there will be two- to four-times as many hot days in our region. As climate change makes the need to cool off more and more pressing, everyone deserves safe and free access to their natural waterways. Moreover, rivers could offer opportunities to learn to swim at no cost.

Barriers to creating more public swimming access on the Hudson River include money, outdated beach regulations, and pollution from sewage leaks and overflows.

There are only 4 public swimming areas along the Hudson River estuary’s 150-mile stretch

<1%

of New York City’s 520-mile coastline is accessible for public swimming

Access to swimming, it's an important justice issue in all kinds of ways because kids that don't learn to swim are more likely to drown. And that disproportionately impacts communities of color right now who don't have access to pools. We have rivers all around us. We want to use them.

Dan Shapley

Senior Director of Advocacy, Policy and Planning

Focus areas: Water quality

What we're doing

Riverkeeper is committed to increasing public access to the Hudson River by reopening shuttered beaches and promoting new swim locations. Gov. Hochul’s NY SWIMS initiative provides an exciting opportunity to make progress.

In Westchester County, we are working with community advocates and local elected officials to support their efforts to reopen beaches at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow and Louis Engel Park in Ossining. Both parks once offered treasured local swimming beaches and could do so again. What’s more, Ossining and Sleepy Hollow are deemed disadvantaged communities by the State’s Climate Justice Working Group. Disadvantaged communities tend to bear greater health risks from environmental hazards, and enjoy fewer environmental benefits.

Riverkeeper’s Splash Mob

Our push for swimming in the Hudson is part of a global movement for swimming in natural waterways. From Paris and London to our own New York City, communities are opening beaches and pools in urban waterways, and hosting open water events.

New Yorkers are showing how the city can embrace its waterways. The New York City Triathlon, the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, and other public swim events introduce thousands of New Yorkers and tourists annually to the awe-inspiring experience of swimming in the shadow of the city’s famous skyline or along the Hudson’s awe-inspiring landscapes. We often partner with event organizers to promote open water swimming and beach access and, in some cases, test the water to ensure swimmer safety. Sometimes we even organize plunges for our growing Splash Mob — even in ice-cold winter waters!

Riverkeeper’s water quality monitoring and public information around the Hudson River estuary and tributaries data provide a unique dataset on water quality conditions for swimming at over a hundred locations in the Hudson Valley. See how your community or favorite location measures up.

Making ripples in Albany and Washington, DC

The NY SWIMS program, announced by Gov. Hochul in 2024, could allow many more municipalities to open beaches or install river pools in the Hudson. Riverkeeper was instrumental in ensuring that the program would support access to swimming in natural waters, as well as pools.

We are also successfully advocating, as we have for decades, for Clean Water Act enforcement and upgrades to infrastructure to eliminate the billions of gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater that flows into the Hudson each year since the key to more swim access is less water pollution. The region’s aging pipes and the threat of extreme storms make these investments urgent. And the promise of greater access to swimming provides yet another rationale for reducing pollution to the Hudson.

Everyone deserves safe and free access to their natural waterways, especially as climate change makes the need to cool off more and more pressing.