Did swimming in a creek make these college students sick?
Photo by Eva Deitch
As of Friday, an outbreak of giardiasis at Union College in Schenectady had sickened 32 students, according to the college’s newspaper, the Concordiensis and two articles in the Daily Gazette. Each quotes campus officials that suggest the outbreak may have started with students who were exposed to contaminated water in one of two tributaries of the Mohawk River – the Hans Groot’s Kill and the Plotter Kill.
Here are some observations and insights from this episode:
1. Community water quality monitoring has value. Based on the high levels of fecal indicator bacteria observed, we should have unfortunately expected that the Hans Groot’s Kill is risky for swimming. Several other streams and creeks in the Hudson River watershed are probably risky too.
2. Class C streams like these need better protection from bed and bank disturbance to prevent future degradation. Take action to tell Governor Cuomo to protect Class C streams!
3. All streams should be safe for swimming. While Class C streams lack protections of other streams, the law requires them to be suitable for safe swimming.
4. Notification of poor water quality is a stopgap solution to this problem. It can help people avoid contact with potentially risky water.
5. Watershed restoration and infrastructure improvements are the long-term solution. Particularly in the face of climate disruption, we will suffer the consequences of degraded waterways if we don’t upgrade infrastructure and restore the ecological functions of our watersheds.
Here’s some more detail on each observation:
1. Community water quality monitoring has value
The Union College Geology Department has documented high concentrations of Enterococci (Entero) in the Hans Groot’s Kill. (See page 63 of the 2020 Mohawk Watershed Symposium abstract volume.) Riverkeeper and our partners have documented similarly high concentrations of Entero in many tributaries of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. (See the latest water quality data, and reports summarizing water quality data gathered over many years.)
Enterococcus is a fecal indicator bacteria recommended by the U.S. EPA for use in assessing whether water is safe for swimming and other recreation. Fecal indicator bacteria aren’t themselves harmful. When they are present in water, it’s more likely that bacteria, viruses and parasites that can make us sick are also present. Giardia is one such parasite.
The risks are greatest when the source of fecal indicator bacteria — and any associated pathogens — is untreated sewage. Untreated sewage can enter streams and rivers when sewers overflow or leak, septic systems fail, or when treatment systems are inadequate. Because fecal indicator bacteria are present in the guts of warm-blooded animals (not just humans), other sources may include wildlife and livestock. The bacteria may also persist in turbid water, in contaminated sediments and in pipes, which presents a challenge to interpreting data. Giardia in streams may originate from humans or other animals.
Bottom line: Based on the high levels of fecal indicator bacteria observed, we should have unfortunately expected that the Hans Groot’s Kill is risky for swimming. Several other streams and creeks are probably risky too.
2. Class C streams need better protection
Both the Hans Groot’s Kill and the Plotter Kill are “Class C” streams. That means that under the Department of Environmental Conservation’s implementation of the Clean Water Act, these streams are given fewer protections than “Class A” streams, which may be used as sources of drinking water; “Class B” streams that are to be managed to support swimming and other similar recreations; or even “Class C(t)” or “Class C(ts)” streams, which are managed to protect trout habitat.
Unlike these protected classes of streams, people may disturb the bed or banks of “Class C” streams without first getting a state permit. The regulations allow — too often — for the degradation of these streams. More of the Hans Groot’s Kill lies underground in pipes than it does above ground. While that extreme engineering pre-dates the Clean Water Act’s protections, it exemplifies the way we have elevated some streams for protection as living ecosystems, while others are treated as little more than conveyances for stormwater. Some streams are prioritized as destinations for nature experiences, and others are shunted into pipes and channels.
The DEC has recognized much of the City of Schenectady as a “potential environmental justice area,” where the impacts of past and present decisions may put Black, indigenous and people of color at increased risk of deleterious effects of exposures to environmental hazards. One of those hazards is the poor quality of urban streams that flow through the community. How many of these communities are living with degraded Class C streams?
Governor Cuomo has the opportunity to expand protections for 41,000 miles of Class C streams, preventing further degradation of these waterways. The Legislature overwhelmingly approved expanding protections, but the Governor has not signed the bill.
Bottom line: Take action to tell Governor Cuomo to protect Class C streams!
3. All streams should be safe for swimming
Even Class C streams should not make you sick. This statement is true, whether you’re talking about regulations or common sense.
Humans are drawn to water, and we should expect that neither splashing at the water’s edge, wading into water, nor swimming should expose us to dangerous pathogens. The Clean Water Act follows this logic, and sets the bar of “swimmable, fishable and drinkable” for the nation’s waters.
College officials may be wise to warn students from swimming where there are no lifeguards, but they repeat a common misperception when they label these streams “unregulated.” While Class C streams lack protections necessary to protect their beds and banks, as described above, water quality in Class C streams is regulated. These streams are supposed to meet standards for safe swimming.
Even the state seems mixed up on this point, stating at times that “Classification C is for waters supporting fisheries and suitable for non – contact activities” when the regulation states, “The best usage of Class C waters is fishing. These waters shall be suitable for fish, shellfish and wildlife propagation and survival. The water quality shall be suitable for primary and secondary contact recreation, although other factors may limit the use for these purposes.”
Are all streams regulated as beaches? No. Should all streams be safe for swimming? Yes.
Bottom line: All streams should be safe for swimming – but they aren’t.
4. Notification of poor water quality is a stop-gap solution to this problem
Notably, the Union College Geology Department’s abstract on its Hans Groot’s kill study includes this prescient paragraph:
“The [Hans Groot’s Kill] presents a health hazard to the public, particularly given its presence on a college campus and a residential neighborhood. For the time being, signage should be placed amongst the frequented areas of the stream where people may wade or where children may play. … A long-term solution is clearly needed, however. It would surely be in the best interest of the City of Schenectady and New York State to repair the pipes that are currently delivering bacteria-laden sewage to the [Hans Groot’s Kill] and the Mohawk River.”
Notification about current conditions is an important interim need. Riverkeeper attempts to fill this need by publishing water quality data that we or our partners gather. The Sewage Pollution Right to Know Act provides important information about known sewer leaks and overflows, to give people more information to guide their decisions about when and where to enter the water.
None of these is enough. The actual quality of the water is unknown in too many places and at too many times. Even extensive data gathered by Riverkeeper and our partners can only describe past patterns of contamination, not predict the water quality at any given place at a time when an individual is ready to swim.
Too often there’s a “not my job” response by state agencies and local governments to questions about testing water quality in creeks that don’t have official public bathing beaches, even those that are destinations for swimming.
Bottom line: The outbreak at Union shows what happens when we fail to test water quality and/or systematically provide information about water quality conditions.
5. Watershed restoration and infrastructure improvements are the long-term solution
If we expect clean water in our streams, we’ll have to invest heavily in shoring up and upgrading water infrastructure, and restoring ecological functions of our watersheds that have been undermined by past development. This will only become more important as we experience ever more extreme weather events and other impacts of climate disruption.
Protecting streams, wetlands, forests and steep slopes are among the most important ways to prevent further degradation. Watershed management actions, such as those outlined in the state’s Climate Smart Communities Program, can help make our landscapes more resilient and regenerative.
Riverkeeper will lobby to put the Restore Mother Nature Bond Act back on the ballot in 2021, so that the state has the resources to invest in watershed restoration projects that are essential aspects of adaptation. We must act on our understanding of how valuable wetlands, floodplains and forested stream buffers are, not only to improving habitats, but to sequestering carbon, reducing flooding impacts and protecting safe drinking water.
Bottom line: Particularly in the face of climate disruption, we will suffer the consequences of degraded waterways if we don’t upgrade infrastructure and restore the ecological functions of our watersheds.