Riverkeeper to present water quality data for Upper Hudson in three public events Wednesday, April 12
April 7, 2017
Riverkeeper Team
Public is invited to events in Glens Falls, Schuylerville and Albany to learn about ongoing water quality monitoring project; Volunteers sought to assist sampling
For immediate release: April 7, 2017
Contact: Leah Rae, lrae@riverkeeper.org (914) 478-4501 ext. 238
Riverkeeper is hosting three events in the Upper Hudson area Wednesday, April 12, to present data collected in 2016 as part of its first year of water quality sampling in the region and to recruit volunteers to assist with sampling in 2017.
Riverkeeper has sampled the entire Hudson River Estuary since 2008, and expanded into the Upper Hudson in 2016, completing a full snapshot of the 315-mile Hudson River. The project measures levels of sewage or other fecal contamination and seeks to help communities identify problems and solutions. Sources of fecal contamination may include sewage infrastructure failures, sewer overflows, inadequate sewage treatment, septic system failures, agricultural runoff, urban runoff and wildlife. The project does not monitor PCBs or other contaminants.
Community members are encouraged to learn more about the effort, and how to become involved, at one of three events on Wednesday:
Glens Falls: 10 a.m., Crandall Public Library, 251 Glen St.
Schuylerville: 1 p.m., Schuylerville Town Hall, 12 Spring St.
Albany: 4 p.m., Albany Public Library – Howe Branch, 105 Schuyler St.
Riverkeeper is seeking help from interested individuals to continue this project. An informal gathering will follow the presentations on Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Albany Pump Station, 19 Quackenbush Square, Albany.
About Riverkeeper’s Water Quality Program
Riverkeeper partners with more than 40 institutions and over 160 individuals to sample more than 400 locations throughout the Hudson River Watershed monthly from May through October. Data is available at riverkeeper.org/water-quality. Riverkeeper measures concentration of the fecal indicator bacteria Enterococcus (Entero) using EPA-approved methods. Results are reported in Entero count per 100 mL of water. Entero is present in the guts of warm-blooded animals, and while it is used to detect the likely presence of untreated human sewage, in some cases it may also indicate the presence of fecal contamination from geese, cattle or other animals. Riverkeeper measures results of water samples based on the EPA’s Recreational Water Quality Criteria, which New York State is currently using to update state Water Quality Standards.
About the Upper Hudson sampling project
In 2016, with Jarrett Engineering, SUNY Cobleskill, and our longtime science partners at CUNY Queens College and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Riverkeeper launched a monitoring program in the Hudson River above the Troy Dam.
The Hudson River Estuary is tidal from New York Harbor to the Troy Dam in the Capital District. Above the dam, the Upper Hudson stretches about 150 miles to Lake Tear of the Clouds, in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. Data from 2016 is available at https://www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality/citizen-data/upper-hudson-river/.
Test results from samples gathered along the Upper Hudson to date are not extensive enough to draw conclusions, but the results documented water quality that was safe for swimming, based on federal guidelines, in most locations on the dates we sampled.
A report on the data collected to date is available at https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/RVK-Upper-Hudson-Entero-Report-2016-v2.pdf.
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