There have been over 164 government-documented sewage spills in Westchester County since 2010. That’s approximately one reported spill every three weeks, and we know of many more that have gone unreported.
Today, Save the Sound released the results of its 2020 bacteria water quality monitoring from 61 sites in Westchester, Queens, and Nassau Counties in New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut. All samples were analyzed in Save the Sound’s lab for fecal bacteria levels associated with sewage and pathogens that can make people sick. Overall failure rates were highest in rivers where 74% of river samples failed, compared with 34% of those collected from bays and harbors, and 12% from shoreline locations.
New Haven, CT—On Monday, July 6, a section of 30” sewer main in Hamden collapsed. Over the course of the day, as crews scrambled to divert and contain the flow, over two million gallons of raw sewage found their way into nearby storm drains and into the Mill River.
Pesticides are an enormous group of chemicals designed to kill unwanted insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), rodents (rodenticides), fungi (fungicides), and other so-called pests. The problem is, if those chemicals can kill a bug or plant, they can probably cause harm to humans or pets too. Even though pesticides are sprayed on land, many times, they […]
In 2015, the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) passed new water quality standards that finally set the goal of making waterways around the city clean enough for the public to safely swim. The new regulation would have forced a significant reduction in the volume of raw untreated sewage that is currently dumped from the city directly into its waterways every time it rains. Today New York State dropped those standards from their regulations, sending us back untold years in our efforts to address insufficient sewage treatment in the city and the water pollution it creates.
Save the Sound is urging the public and the press to access reports in CT and/or sign up to receive alerts in NY and share them in your community. The Sewage Pollution Right to Know Law (SPRTK) went into effect in May 2013 making information about sewage overflows publicly available. Since that time thousands of […]
For Immediate Release March 2, 2020 Martin Hain, mhain@savethsound.org, 914-381-3140 Roger Reynolds, rreynolds@ctenvironment.org, 203-787-0646 NYC’s Proposed Sewage Plan Doesn’t Protect Public Health or Environment NY DEP’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) Recommended Plan Summary for Citywide/Open Waters Fails to Comply with the EPA’s CSO Control Policy and is not […]
On the cold, crisp early morning of November 14, 2019, participants in the Unified Water Study (UWS) began to arrive at Earthplace in Westport, CT, ready to drop off their scientific equipment and close out the 2019 monitoring season. Sixty-two attendees representing twenty-two monitoring groups and key study partners gathered for the 2019 UWS Summit, […]
