Citizen Science on tributaries funded to publish online

Sampling at the Old Stone Bridge in Leeds
View more images on our Flickr site

Since 2010 Riverkeeper has been collaborating with local citizen partners to conduct fecal contamination studies on tributaries of the Hudson. We have added a few streams and creeks each year and now support programs on these seven tributaries – Sparkill Creek, Pocantico River, Wallkill River, Rondout Creek, Esopus Creek, Sawyer Kill and Catskill Creek.

Liz LoGiudice from the Catskill Creek Watershed Awareness Project collecting a sample at a swimming hole in Catskill Creek

We were recently awarded our first state grant from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in partnership with The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, supporting our water quality testing. This grant will cover a portion of our sampling costs in 2014 and the expansion of our website to include our citizen data from the tributary studies.

Commenting on the grant, Fran Dunwell, DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Coordinator said, “the first step to make the river suitable for swimming and recreation is to identify hot spots and to highlight these areas to municipalities and the general public. The monitoring program developed by Riverkeeper provides critical information to make progress on a cleaner Hudson River estuary.”

Visiting the Old Stone Bridge in Leeds with our citizen sampling partners

Riverkeeper’s grant application was supported with letters from our citizen partners and local and state elected officials, including NY State Assembly representatives Ellen Jaffee and Thomas Abinanti. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported this ongoing project, we couldn’t do it without you!

Stay tuned for citizen tributary data on www.riverkeeper.org in the coming months!