May 2011 Sampling Data | |
Hudson River Water Quality Report:
First
sampling patrol of 2011 - May 16 through May 19 |
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Highlights | |
Our May patrol was rainy, wet and nasty. It rained between 1.2 and 2.5 inches during and before our patrol (with local heavy rain every day as we worked north) and, as a result, we found more unacceptable water quality than ever before. Not one sample site north of Poughkeepsie was “acceptable.” This is stunning. I've never been on a patrol like this one. Read on to see how the Hudson River can be regularly and dramatically compromised by sewage releases triggered by something as simple as a few inches of rain.
59 (80%) were “unacceptable” 7 (9%) were “possible risk” 8 (11%) were “acceptable” |
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Rain events often lead to sewage overflows and more untreated sewage in the Hudson (which we detect as higher Entero counts). While we find unacceptable levels of sewage indicators at some locations and times even in dry weather, the water quality at most of our sampling locations degrades during and after rain. Sometimes the entire river is affected. Why? Because rainfall causes many sewer systems to overload and discharge raw sewage into the Hudson and its tributaries. The solution? We know it and, in some places, are already doing it: we need to build new sewage treatment infrastructure and repair/upgrade existing plants and systems. First, we have to reduce and then fully treat our wastewater. |
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Some Observations | |
NY
Harbor (day
1): All sites were either “unacceptable” or “possible risk”. Note that one of the lowest cell counts we found was right in the upwelling effluent at the massive North River sewer plant near 125th street. Take away: once the sewage reaches the plant it is pretty effectively treated. In NYC the problem isn’t with the plants; it’s with all the pipes delivering the combined sewage and rain TO the 14 NYC sewer plants. The plumbing can’t handle the flow so the city has built (and NYS permits) about 480 Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) to release the overburden of sewage and rain during wet weather events into the River and Harbor – around 30 billion gallons a year. Yes, billion, no typo.
But look at the data and you’ll see that all our “mid-River” sample
sites in this area had much lower Entero counts compared to the near
shore sites. The data clearly shows that the contamination originates
at the shore, where humans are, and the middle of the deep water
river is buffered by the massive volume of water in the Hudson.
Still, it’s impressive to note that even the middle of the River
(where it’s two to three miles wide) was impacted to some degree by
sewage contamination when we sampled on May 17th. It takes
a whole lot of poop to do that. The drinking water intake at Port Ewen, a couple miles south of Rondout Creek, didn’t fare so well. The Entero count was 199. The highest we’ve measured there was 1733 in July 2009 (a really rainy summer). So the drinking water intake is withdrawing water that the EPA says you shouldn’t swim in. Let’s hope the disinfection systems are up to the job. Rondout
Creek/Kingston to Waterford (day 4): My guess is that the sewage contamination arriving at Port Ewen is from the Rondout. The tide was ebbing when we sampled this time. Look at the data for the Rondout sites below (Eddyville, Kingston public dock, Kingston sewage treatment plant outfall). But please don’t rush to put all the blame on Kingston. Note that the Entero count at Eddyville (upstream from Kingston) was higher than our system can measure in fresh water, >2420 cells/100ml. That’s higher (we just don’t know how much) than the sample I took right next to one of the Kingston Combined Sewer Overflows at the Kingston Public Dock. So, that day, the water entering the tidal portion of the Rondout from the upper Rondout watershed had more Entero. Kingston is clearly not the only problem affecting water quality on the tidal portion of Rondout Creek.
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Together with our science partners from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Queens College, Riverkeeper samples for Enterococcus (an indicator of untreated sewage) at our 74 standard sampling locations from May through October. If you received this email from a friend and would like to be added to our Water Quality email list, send your contact information to us at info1@riverkeeper.org. |
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May 2011 Sampling Data |
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For River Mile 0 to River Mile 44, the following standards apply: For River Mile 45 north, the following standards apply: 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. View archived monthly water quality reports from May 2010 to the present. © Riverkeeper 2011 |