This just in…
-
- October
- 19
Terry Backer, head of the Soundkeeper environmental group, says things are looked a little better in Stamford Harbor this past summer.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based group tested the oxygen level throughout the summer and found that it wavered on either side of the Connecticut state minimum water quality standard for oxygen. (That’s 6 parts per million of oxygen, for those keeping count.) That’s better than in the past, Backer notes, reporting “the fish breathed easier” over the summer.
Fish, lobsters and other creatures need oxygen to survive, just like we mammals do.
Once over the summer, when oxygen can become a problem, the level dipped to 4 ppm in the harbor, but never did they find that it hit 3 ppm, a condition called hypoxia, when “everything in the Sound is in deep trouble,” as Backer reports in his latest newsletter.
Backer had more good, if unsavory, news: His pumpout crew removed vacuumed a total of just about 62,000 gallons of sewage from boats in the area. The pumpout service is free; boat owners can sign up on line and don’t have to be there when the crew comes to pump the sewage tank.
That sewage then gets sent to the sewage treatment plants on land.
In one sense, it’s a matter of convenience. In Connecticut waters, boat owners are not allowed to dump their waste, even treated by onboard systems, which are not as thorough as municipal treatment plants. Boaters can dump treated waste in most of New York’s side of Long Island Sound.
Dumping untreated waste is a no-no anywhere anywhere in the Sound or within 3 miles of the nation’s coast.
Keep an eye out for more news from Soundkeeper, particularly in our area. Backer’s newsletter promises the group will do more work on restoring wetlands and treating polluted stormwater runoff around the Bronx River and Hutchinson river.
We’ll be watching for it.
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 9:56 am by Ken Valenti.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
