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

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Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council
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