Riverkeeper's Hudson River sampling data july 19, 21, 22, 25

Riverkeeper's data shows where in the channel the samples were taken, which is very useful to people who operate small boats such as human-powered craft, and to swimmers or those who merely dip their feet in the water to cool off.

Charts are here:

7/28 DEP Update on North River Wastewater Treatment Plant Fire and Impacts

These excerpts are what I imagine will be of most interest to viewers of this blog:
"The New York City Health Department has lifted the beach pollution advisory for
Sea Gate in Brooklyn as well as the beach closure notices for South Beach, Midland Beach
and Cedar Grove Beach in Staten Island starting immediately. The most recent water quality
sampling indicates that bacteria levels found at these locations and in New York Harbor
has returned to acceptable levels. Additionally, the Health Department has determined that
recreational activities may resume in the Hudson River, the East River from the Robert F.
Kennedy Bridge to Verrazano Bridge, the Harlem River and the Kill Van Kull to the Goethals
Bridge. These waterways are now fit for recreational activities that entail possible direct
contact with water."
"Warning signs at beaches and kayak launches will be removed as a result. Specific
beach information continues to be available to the public through website postings at the City's
beach website www.nyc.gov/health/beach, at www.nyc.gov under NYC Right to Know, and at
www.nyc.gov/health, the City Information Hotline 311, and those who have signed up to Notify
NYC will receive up to date status information relating to public beaches via Twitter, RSS, email
and SMS."

Note that specific beach information continues to be available but information on  other waterways continues to be UNavailable.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 28, 2011
No. 72

Update on North River Wastewater Treatment Plant Fire and Impacts

Overview of Incident

The North River Wastewater Treatment Plant was taken offline last Wednesday
afternoon following a four-alarm fire in the engine room that started at approximately 11:45 am
that morning. At approximately 5:15 pm Wednesday, untreated wastewater started to be directly
discharged into the Hudson River. The North River plant has been in operation since 1986 and
treats an average of 120 million gallons of wastewater a day from Manhattan's west side from
Bank Street through northern Manhattan.

Hudson River Advisory Lifted in Westchester

Good news: All Clear in Westchester:

HUDSON RIVER ADVISORY LIFTED: HUDSON RIVER IN WESTCHESTER IS CLEARED
FOR RECREATION

The Westchester County Department of Health has lifted its advisory
for the Hudson River in Westchester. Residents can now resume all
recreational water activities along the Hudson River in Westchester.
This includes swimming, fishing, windsurfing, kayaking and jet skiing.

The Westchester County Department of Health is lifting the advisory
based on the results of Hudson River sampling performed by the
Westchester County Department of Health to date.  This advisory
originally followed a fire that took the New York City North River
Waste Water Treatment Plant out of service last week. The treatment
plant is located at W. 135th Street and 12th Avenue in New York City.

The Health Department will resume its routine water sampling of the
Hudson River.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection will be
providing updates on the situation as needed at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/home/home.shtml.

All Clear North of Hastings

NEWS RELEASE

Cheryl Archbald, MD, MPH, Acting Commissioner, Department of Health
Ned McCormack, Communications Director
Contact: Caren Halbfinger (914) 813-5013 / after hours: 813-5000

For Immediate Release: July 25, 2011

REVISED HUDSON RIVER USE ADVISORY: HUDSON RIVER FROM HASTINGS NORTH IS CLEARED FOR RECREATION; AVOID HUDSON RIVER CONTACT SOUTH OF HASTINGS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

The Westchester County Department of Health advises people who use the Hudson River waters south of Hastings for recreational purposes, namely swimmers, windsurfers and kayakers, to continue to avoid direct contact with the Hudson River until further notice. There are no restrictions to boating. Those who fish should practice catch and release from all points south of Hastings.

The Westchester County Department of Health has lifted the advisory for areas of the Hudson River from Hastings north, including Philipse Manor Beach., based on the results of Hudson River sampling performed by the Westchester County Department of Health to date. This advisory originally followed a fire that took the New York City North River Waste Water Treatment Plant out of service. The treatment plant is located at W. 135^th Street and 12^th Avenue in New York City.

The Health Department will continue to monitor the situation and update any advisories as necessary.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection will be providing updates on the situation as needed at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/home/home.shtml.

New info on Riverkeeper and DEP sampling - 5:36pm Saturday 7/23

New info provided by Phillip Mesegaas at Riverkeeper.  Our thanks again to him and the others who have made an effort to keep the human-powered boating community informed.

The DEP has posted water quality sampling results for 7/21 for the waters potentially affected by the sewage discharges related to the fire and temporary closure of the North River sewage treatment plant, on the DEP website at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/news/north_river_wastewater_treatment_plant_fire.shtml

Riverkeeper and our science partners also sampled on 7/21 from the Tappan Zee bridge to the Battery. In the section of River west of Manhattan, we sampled in a grid pattern to determine the impacts on the Manhattan shoreline as well as mid channel and on the new Jersey side of the River.

Overview:
1) Our data adds new and different information to DEP's data, especially as it relates to the pattern and degree of contamination in the near shore environment.
2) Our data shows that the NJ shoreline, mid-channel and Manhattan shoreline data are very different. It matters where one samples and our data shows extreme pollution levels along the NY shoreline, based on our sampling results from nearshore sampling locations.  To the best of our knowledge, DEP did not take samples in the nearshore area.
3) For protecting public health it is important that people are aware of the potentially high levels of pollution in the shoreline environment because that is where people generally contact the water.
4) The highest level of contamination in DEP's sampling results numbers appears to be 400 Entero cells/100ml; our additional near shore sampling has the highest count from the same day of 104,620 Entero cells/100ml.

Details:
This difference between Riverkeeper and DEP data has very important implications regarding how samples were collected, and what is sufficient for proper notification and protection of public health.  Note below the patterns seen in Riverkeeper's data when sorted by sampling location.  While we don't know the exact details of where in the river the DEP collected, we think that differences in sampling locations likely accounts for the discrepancy (given the patterns in our data) and this is VERY IMPORTANT for the public's understanding of this event.
 

Note:  for salt or brackish water the federal guideline for unacceptable water quality is a single sample value above 104 Enterococcus per 100/ml.

If we had conducted the survey by sampling ONLY close to the western shoreline (NJ), our data shows the following:
Englewood Boat Basin     <10 Enterococcus per 100/ml
Edgewater Marina              31
Weehawken                    <10
Castle Point (NJ)             <10

If we had sampled ONLY down the middle of the river our data shows the following:
Tappan Zee Mid River         <10 Enterococcus per 100/ml
Yonkers Mid River              <10
GWB Mid River                     313
125th St Mid River               74
79th St Mid River                 Duplicate samples 132 and 161
Battery Mid River                 10

In contrast, our sampling numbers from the eastern shoreline (Manhattan) indicates intense near shore contamination of the near shore area:
Hudson at Yonkers where Sawmill R. enters                      <10 Enterococcus per 100/ml
Westchester/Yonkers Sewage Treatment plant outfall       <10
Dykeman Street at public pier                                           >24,196
125th Street Pier     (1/10 dilution maxed out at >24,196)      1/100 dilution = 104,620
79th St Boat Basin entrance                                               1722
Pier 96 (kayaking area)                                                      12,033

Conclusions:   
1) It matters how/where one samples. On the 21st, mid-channel samples alone would miss most of the contamination (since overflow points were mostly in the Manhattan near shore environment).  Near shore sampling is important to proper notification and protection of public health because people are more likely to be coming into contact with the water near shore. We saw people in the water on the west side of Manhattan on both the 21st and 22nd).  
2) Our data shows that while many sites far removed from the point sources (pipes used for bypass) did not show a large signal, sites that are in close proximity to the discharging pipes (most of the Manhattan eastern shore of the Hudson) had very high levels of contamination.
3) Tidal differences or a slight offset in the timing of sample collection may account for some of the observed differences, especially in north/south extent of contamination.
4) The public need to be aware of the higher contamination levels in the near shore areas, in order to provide the highest level of protection of public health, since this is where much of the public uses the River.  

 

Phillip Musegaas, Esq.

Hudson River Program Director

Riverkeeper, Inc.

Updated list of Boating Groups' Program Cancelations

The groups below have reported cancelations of some or all of their public boating programs for this weekend.
We recommend contacting specific organizations for details of their cancelations and conditions at their launch sites.
For links to additional clubs see http://nycwatertrailweb.blogspot.com/p/community-boating-groups.html

Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse  www.bbpboathouse.org
Downtown Boathouse  www.downtownboathouse.org
Friends of Brook Park  www.friendsofbrookpark.org
Harlem River Boat Club  www.harlemrivercommunityrowing.org
Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse  www.hobokencoveboathouse.org/
Inwood Canoe Club  www.inwoodcanoeclub.com
Long Island City Community Boathouse  www.licboathouse.org/
New York Kayak Polo  www.nykayakpolo.org
New York Outrigger  www.newyorkoutrigger.org
Village Community Boathouse  www.villagecommunityboathouse.org
Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club  www.yprc.org

Latest briefing from DEP - 4:27pm on Jul 22, 2011

Let's hope this s the beginning of the end of this particular nightmare.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Phillip Musegaas
Date: Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 6:03 PM
Subject: FW: latest briefing from DEP?
To: Nancy Brous <nbrous@gmail.com>, rob buchanan <avironvoile@gmail.com>

Latest news, looks like pumps are running, and I've heard they may stop the bypass discharges this evening.  Would you distribute?

Phillip Musegaas, Esq.

Hudson River Program Director

Riverkeeper, Inc.

http://www.centredaily.com/2011/07/22/2851675/pumps-working-at-nyc-plant-that.html

Pumps working at NYC plant that spilled sewage

The Associated Press
Posted: 4:16pm on Jul 22, 2011; Modified: 4:27pm on Jul 22, 2011
NEW YORK — Pumps resumed working Friday at a wastewater treatment plant that spilled millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River, and officials expressed hope that the discharges would end in the evening.
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Caswell Holloway said at a Friday afternoon briefing that the pumps were handling all of the incoming flow, and sewage that had been stored in the system was being reduced.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/07/22/2851675/pumps-working-at-nyc-plant-that.html#ixzz1SrzufAQ5

_________________________________
Lawrence Levine
Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council
40 W. 20^th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 727-4548
PRIVILEGE AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
This message is intended only for the addressee and may contain information privileged confidential, and exempt from disclosure under law.  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me immediately by email and delete the original message.

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Public Boating Program Cancellations due to Sewage Release

Please be advised that the following organizations have alerted NYCWTA that they have canceled all or some of their public paddling programs scheduled for this weekend due to an extraordinary release of raw sewage into the Hudson and Harlem Rivers caused by a DEP treatment plant fire on Wednesday.
Please check directly with the organization you planned to boat or volunteer with this weekend for further details about their program cancelations.
For links to check with other area boating groups not listed below see http://nycwatertrailweb.blogspot.com/p/community-boating-groups.html

Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse  www.bbpboathouse.org
Downtown Boathouse  www.downtownboathouse.org
Friends of Brook Park  www.friendsofbrookpark.org
Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse  www.hobokencoveboathouse.org/
Inwood Canoe Club  www.inwoodcanoeclub.com
New York Kayak Polo  www.nykayakpolo.org
New York Outrigger  www.newyorkoutrigger.org
Village Community Boathouse  www.villagecommunityboathouse.org
Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club  www.yprc.org

We will do our best to keep everyone as up to date as possible on further developments.
NYCWTA

From the RiverKeeper:

NYC Sewage Treatment Plant Dumping Raw Sewage into Hudson After Fire

Since 5:15 p.m. yesterday, the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant, at 135th Street in New York City, began discharging untreated sewage into the Hudson River following a four alarm fire that caused severe damage and the shutdown of the plant. Riverkeeper is relieved that no one was seriously injured in the fire or subsequent evacuation of Riverbank Park, and fully supports the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) efforts to bring the treatment plant back online as soon as possible. However, we are concerned that the city’s efforts to notify the public have been inadequate and potentially confusing, and do not fully inform the public as to the risks posed by such a massive discharge of sewage into the Hudson.

For example, the DEP and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have issued a combined statement that focuses primarily on official swimming beaches and provides a very vague warning about recreating in the river, ignoring the fact that thousands of New Yorkers recreate on the Hudson from riverfront parks and boats, often far from designated public beaches such as Jones Beach. Riverkeeper considers the entire Hudson River estuary a “beach” during the boating and swimming season – New York City should do the same, to ensure that all New Yorkers are protected from the potential health effects of sewage discharges like this one. Any discharge of sewage is unacceptable and must be prevented at all costs.

“When accidents like this happen, it is critical that NYC officials speak with one voice, and provide the public with accurate, consistent information about the public health risk and environmental impacts that result,” said Phillip Musegaas, Hudson River Program Director at Riverkeeper. “New Yorkers use the entire Hudson, New York Harbor and East River for recreation, not just Jones Beach. The city’s public notification effort must reflect that fact, and ensure that all New Yorkers who want to enjoy the city’s “Sixth Borough” can do so with the best information available.”

Given the large number of organized boating events scheduled over the next few days in NYC, it is critical that the Health Department update this advisory and provide the public with better information on the geographic scope of sewage contamination in the Hudson River, and the risk to public health it represents.

The North River plant is located on the Hudson River, west of the West Side Highway from 137th Street to 145th Street and provides wastewater treatment for the hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in or visit the west side of Manhattan, from Bank Street in Greenwich Village to Inwood Hill at the island’s northern tip. North River has the capacity to treat 140 million gallons of sewage per day, but it is unknown how much has been dumped into the Hudson since yesterday afternoon. Based on its capacity, it is likely that millions of gallons of sewage have been discharged.

Update on North River treatment plant overflow - 6:47pm 21 July 2011

a little more info from riverkeeper.  thanks again to phillip musegaas.

most up to date list of outfalls is below his email.
sorry to be the bearer of bad news to quite a few people who were on the water last night from pier 66, but note that one of the outfalls is right AT west 26th street. 
nb

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Phillip Musegaas
Date: Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 6:47 PM
Subject: RE: update on North River treatment plant overflow

Nancy and Rob,

Thanks for the emails today – here's what I know at this point, some of it's probably old news but I thought I'd share anyway.  Feel free to call or email me with questions or ideas.  The plant permit is attached, which has the list of CSO outfalls, some of which are being used for this bypass.  Let me know if you want me to send a list of the outfalls and GPS coordinates.

Here is a link to the statement on our website – I'm going to update it tomorrow morning.

http://www.riverkeeper.org/blog/2011/07/21/nyc-sewage-treatment-plant-dumping-raw-sewage-into-hudson-after-fire

-          DEC confirmed that the inflow is being diverted to at least seven permitted CSO outfalls, located along the west side of Manhattan from Dyckman street down to 18^th street, and on the Harlem River at Academy St. and W. 203^rd st.   hypochlorite is being added to the discharge at 158^th street, but that's the only treatment occurring, and Larry Levine reminded me that it's known to be not very effective and possibly more harm than good to aquatic life.  This is a key point we need to get out to the public, that this is not one big discharge happening from the plant, but sewage discharges all along the west side of Manhattan, and at least two locations on the Harlem River.

-          DEP predicts that 120 million gallons have been discharged since yesterday at 515 pm, when the bypass began – this matches up with the avg. flow of the plant, not actual field measurements of flow.  If they don't get the plant up and running by tomorrow, they are expecting to announce beach closures by tomorrow afternoon, not sure which ones though.

-          The Riverkeeper boat is taking samples at the outfall locations today, and will head down tomorrow to resample.  We just finished a sampling run about a week ago, also dry weather – early results from that run show acceptable water quality in every sampling location except Gowanus.   I'll share sample results from North River as soon as we have them, the contrast between the two should be interesting.

-          Jim Tierney at DEC gave me the following info on the plant condition – 1 pump/engine destroyed, one badly damaged, two possibly operational – they've brought in portable generators to the site, because ConEd is very hesitant to reconnect the plant to the grid until they know the condition of electrical systems, and possibly more about the cause of the fire.  They believe if they can get one pump running, they can begin primary treatment and disinfection on a broader scale.  Tierney also mentioned beach closures, and made a point of saying they wouldn't reopen beaches until sampling showed clean water. 

o   DEP and DEC have also convened a "bypass group" that is running a hydroqual model of bypass impacts – however, the model only assesses the impacts on designated swimming beaches, hence the early language about a 48 hour window before beaches would be closed. 

-          Coast Guard issued a radio advisory this afternoon on Channel 16, informing boaters about DEP's advisory.  Otherwise they are diverting all info requests back to DEP.

I think those are the key points – I spoke to lots of media today, core message was 'we need better public notification – more timely, more detailed, more interagency coordination, and specific advisories on the health risks and geographic scope of the advisory.'  I think the press release suggests DEP  is slowly moving in the  right direction, but it took them almost 24 hrs!  John Lipscomb, our boat captain, sent me a photo of guys swimming near Dyckman, south of the main CSO bypass outfall this afternoon.

Thanks,

Phillip

Phillip Musegaas, Esq.

Hudson River Program Director

Riverkeeper, Inc.

GPS coordinates for the CSO outfalls being used for the discharge are below, thanks. This is based on info from DEC Region 2 today.  I have a feeling they will add more outfalls, since we alerted them to 006 this afternoon.
            Latitude          Longitude         Location
 NR-023      40,44,42          74,00,36          W. 18th Street (6 blocks north of NR050)
NR 003      40,50,07          73,56,56          W. 158th St.  (just north of Riverkbank State Park and Trinity Cemetery)
NR 050      40,44,30          74,00,36          Bloomfield Street (Meatpacking District- 6 blocks south of NR023)
NR 045      40,51,35          73,54,56          Academy Street (Discharging into the HARLEM River)
NR 026      40,45,11          74,00,32          W. 26th Street (8 blocks north of NR 023)

NR 016      40,51,43          73,54,49          Harlem River, W. 203^rd st.
NR 006      40, 52,10         73,55,46          Dyckman St.

Riverkeeper Sewage Release Notice

Sorry for the delay.  It was imperative to get this info to the area immediately surrounding the CSOs first.
This is from earlier today from Riverkeeper.  NYCWTA will try to keep you updated as more information is made available.
NB

NYC Sewage Treatment Plant Dumping Raw Sewage into Hudson After Fire Since 5:15 p.m. yesterday, the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant, at 135th Street in New York City, began discharging untreated sewage into the Hudson River following a four alarm fire that caused severe damage and the shutdown of the plant.  Riverkeeper is relieved that no one was seriously injured in the fire or subsequent evacuation of Riverbank Park, and fully supports the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) efforts to bring the treatment plant back online as soon as possible.  However, we are concerned that the city's efforts to notify the public have been inadequate and potentially confusing, and do not fully inform the public as to the risks posed by such a massive discharge of sewage into the Hudson.  For example, the DEP and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have issued a combined statement that focuses primarily on official swimming beaches and provides a very vague warning about recreating in the river, ignoring the fact that thousands of New Yorkers recreate on the Hudson from riverfront parks and boats, often far from designated public beaches such as Jones Beach.  Riverkeeper considers the entire Hudson River estuary a "beach" during the boating and swimming season – New York City should do the same, to ensure that all New Yorkers are protected from the potential health effects of sewage discharges like this one. Any discharge of sewage is unacceptable and must be prevented at all costs. "When accidents like this happen, it is critical that NYC officials speak with one voice, and provide the public with accurate, consistent information about the public health risk and environmental impacts that result," said Phillip Musegaas, Hudson River Program Director at Riverkeeper.  "New Yorkers use the entire Hudson, New York Harbor and East River for recreation, not just Jones Beach.  The city's public notification effort must reflect that fact, and ensure that all New Yorkers who want to enjoy the city's "Sixth Borough" can do so with the best information available."  Given the large number of organized boating events scheduled over the next few days in NYC, it is critical that the Health Department update this advisory and provide the public with better information on the geographic scope of sewage contamination in the Hudson River, and the risk to public health it represents.     The North River plant is located on the Hudson River, west of the West Side Highway from 137th Street to 145th Street and provides wastewater treatment for the hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in or visit the west side of Manhattan, from Bank Street in Greenwich Village to Inwood Hill at the island's northern tip.  North River has the capacity to treat 140 million gallons of sewage per day, but it is unknown how much has been dumped into the Hudson since yesterday afternoon.  Based on its capacity, it is likely that millions of gallons of sewage have been discharged. Riverkeeper will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available. For information about Riverkeeper's Water Quality Testing Program, visit: www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality/hudson/.