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Water Quality Report May-June 2013 (1st patrol of 2013)

NOTE: EPA guidelines for “acceptable” vs. “unacceptable” fecal contamination levels have changed – they have been downgraded and are now LESS protective of public health.

For marine waters (salt and brackish) the old criteria scored any Enterococcus count over 104 per 100ml as “unacceptable” for primary contact, like swimming. The new criteria threshold uses 110 Entero per 100 ml, which is only a slight change - not really significant.

In fresh water (all our stations north of Peekskill) the old benchmark was 61 Entero per 100 ml. The new EPA criteria now uses 110  Entero per 100 ml in fresh water as well as marine. This change from 61 to 110 is significant and allows managers of fresh water swimming beaches to remain open with higher levels of fecal contamination – and increased risk of water related illnesses - than before.

Highlight:
This patrol started south and worked north and followed days of dry weather. I saw swimmers everywhere. There was some rain mid patrol which, as always, triggered Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in the Capitol District. Look at the data below. You’ll see that the plume of sewage contamination from the Capitol District had worked its way down to the area of Coxsackie and Gay’s Point State Park (20 – 25 miles) by the time I arrived and sampled (2 days after the rain). We’ve seen this same scenario before when we’ve sampled northbound a couple days after rain – the Capital District craps up the northern end of the Estuary.

The Hudson Estuary is a 160 mile long beach every summer…don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The entire Estuary needs to be sampled, modeled for predictability and made safe for swimming everywhere. Keep in mind that none of the following shows a “designated” swimming beach.

Kids in the Hudson at Dyckman Street, Manhattan. 100 feet south of them is a huge CSO - luckily NOT flowing at the time. NYC does not want to post CSO discharge events in public media like local radio and TV as required by the Sewage Pollution Right to Know Law. God forbid the parents of these children have the information they need to protect them. Shame on New York City – putting its public image over public health.

East River	Verplanck Point
Little Stony Point	Poughkeepsie school rowing docks

Part, ONLY PART, of the reason the Capitol District water quality was so bad is this dry weather discharge from a CSO in South Troy which we found during an investigation of an unrelated discharge with DEC Environmental Conservation Officers on 6/5/13 .

This CSO had been flowing at high volume for a long time. The City of Troy and the Rensselaer County Sewer District were notified, the flow stopped for a while and then started again. This is a big problem. DEC is investigating enforcement options. GOOD.

The cities and sewer districts of the Capitol District are under a Consent Order from past violations. Read more on this incident. 

"Article: Sewage Spills Bring Fines, Fix Up Plan"  The story was on the front page.

And yes, that IS a thick coating of toilet paper.

To learn more about Riverkeeper’s Water Quality Program, and to view historic sampling data, please visit www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality/hudson.

View sampling data sorted historically by individual sampling location.

© Riverkeeper 2013