CWQT week 9--results
Rob Buchanan
Pretty good results this week, aside from some of the usual suspects (Thursday's monster downburst came late in the day, after samples had been collected).
The all-sites spreadsheet is here.
Photos of the week:
Josue Silvestre, who samples at Gantry State Park in Long Island City, is a Bolivian grad student at Columbia with an interest in water policy and rural development.
Nancy Brous, who samples at Pier 66 in Hudson River Park, is a co-founder of the NYC Water Trail Association and one of the organizers of the Citizens Water Quality Testing Program.
Finally, following up on last week’s discussion of the amber light notification system used by the North Hudson Sewerage Authority at Weehawken Cove in Hoboken, here’s more from the Authority’s executive director, Richard Wolff:
Since the signal system in Weehawken Cove was put into operation, we have added a more advanced and robust technology for all of the NHSA outfalls into the Hudson River. This technology was not available when we put the advisory system in place in Weehawken Cove. The new technology has made the signal system in Weehawken Cove redundant, but we intend to keep it in place nonetheless.
The new system is web-based and can be accessed through NHSA’s website: http://www.nhudsonsa.com/Public/waterbody.html Once you access the site, it is fairly self-explanatory. Suffice to say that the map shows North Hudson’s outfall activity in real time. When the dots are green, there are no CSO flows into the Hudson. When CSO flow commences, the dots on the outfalls turn red. (There may be occasional times when the dots are blue or purple, signifying that the system is being serviced.)
Click on any individual outfall, then click on “Dispatch” to see the recent CSO discharges, by specific date and time. This enables the viewer to know precisely when the 24 hour safety pause will be over. (With the system in Weehawken Cove, recreational users of the River can only know when the 24 hour period is up when the amber light actually turns off.)
Why the 24-hour period?
Our advisory uses the minimum standard suggested by The American Boating Association (https://americanboating.org/clean.asp) which says on its website, “To protect your loved ones, you need to be aware of this problem, avoid known problem areas, minimize contact with the water for 24 to 48 hours after each storm, and encourage clean boating techniques that minimize discharge of sanitary waste into the Nation's waters.”
Naturally, in informing recreational users of the River about CSO discharges, North Hudson is not attesting to the safety of the water after a given time period. Through our advisory system, boaters and others know when the last CSO discharge was and they can determine for themselves when they think the water is safe to enter.