Bronx River Education

Not a bit to drink… or wade in, for that matter

April 16, 2008

In tranquility, it amazes me to reflect upon the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings certain topics bring forth. Fecal coliforms being today’s origin of those feelings

I met with our Pilot Bacteria Monitors today up at Muskrat Cove as they gathered more samples near the offending outfall above Nereid Avenue. Professor JD and KS wanted to share some preliminary findings with me and let me know about the near future studies. It was a beautiful day to walk along the river and discuss fecal coliform.

The good news is the Prof. JD has decided to run  a monitoring program that will cover several sites on the river and use 4 full time student monitors. The bacteria monitoring will be their focus rather than an aside, and special attention will be given to making comparisons between not only sites on the river, but dry days and wet days. This will allow for comparisons between the constant bacteria content of the river and that which is affected by the various CSOs. Hopefully this baseline data, besides helping us build a long term bacteria monitoring program, will serve to show the possible benefits of the storm water retrofits planned by Westchester and the City.

The bad news is why JD thinks this is worth dedicating time and  other resources towards. Basically it comes down to numbers, and in this case the preliminary numbers are high.

According to the EPA,  safe water for contact should be below a mean of  200 fecal coliform colony forming units (CFUs)per 100mL, and never rise above 400 CFUs/100ml. This number, I have learned, is still somewhat  a subject for debate due to the lack of a clear definition of “swimming.” But it is their number at this time. The monitors have come up with a mean level of 184CFUs/100ml at the 174^th St./Starlight Park  site,  which approaches the limit. But at the Muskrat Cove site, the mean so far is an astounding 1650 CFUs/100 ml!  More than 8 times the legal safe water contact  limit. Muskrat Cove beach will not be opening soon. These are preliminary data, still being collected and analyzed, and are meant to inform our  immediate contact with the river, but the numbers are a bit frightening, from my perspective. The actual findings will be reported by  our pilot team very soon.

The samples at Muskrat Cove were taken right near the, as Yonkers calls it, the McLean Avenue Outfall, meaning that the samples would get the full dosage of the illegal connections that flow into the Hillview Reservoir overflow. The level found down river, to my untrained eye, seem to show that some dilution is occurring and until further study, we can assume that the problem is not being made worse inside the border of the Bronx. Small comfort; but comfort none the less.

All officials have been notified of the Mclean Avenue outfall and the illegal hook ups that run through it: EPA, DEC, Westchester Health Department, City of Yonkers, NYS Attorney General. But I wanted to know where it might be coming from so I drove up and into the neighborhood that sits between the reservoir  and the river, to get a feel for what exactly illegal connections come from. I found some large buildings, but mostly it was well kept, nice sized single family homes. Some even had American flags hanging out in front. I wondered; Do any of them know that they may very well be flushing directly into the Bronx River?

DG

Entry Filed under: Bacteria Monitoring. .