On the Esopus Creek, where Saugerties Lighthouse keeper and village trustee Patrick Landewe has been coordinating a volunteer sampling program in conjunction with Riverkeeper since 2010, unacceptable bacteria counts at the seven testing sites are closely correlated with heavy rain. (Heavy rainfall causes animal wastes from farms and sewage-tainted stormwater runoff from aging sewage treatment systems to pour into the waterways.) “For the most part it’s a clean creek,” Landewe said.
“Since the county focuses exclusively on bathing beaches, we’re more concerned about the water quality of the stream for recreation,” he added. “Marbletown and Hurley are generally good. Along the more developed areas in Kingston and Ulster, there’s more human waste. We see higher levels of bacteria at Orlando Park, where there’s a boat launch. We don’t know exactly what the sources are, but we suspect it’s aging and failing septic systems. By the time the creek reaches Mount Marion and Saugerties Beach, the numbers have improved due to the diluting effect of the Plattekill and Sawkill, which enter upstream.”
Landewe noted that after storms Irene and Lee “the creek was red-hot top to bottom and was contaminated for sometime after that. But under normal events, it’s conceivable we could have a safe stream. Ideally we would like better public notification for the sampling data to be made available on a timely basis.”
Two factors, the frequency of the tests with unacceptable levels and the amount of bacteria in each test, affect the overall safety of a particular site, according to Lipscomb. “A place could fail less and be more dangerous, if there are higher counts and no predictability,” he said.
