After their mid-July closure due to the detection of high levels of bacteria, local beaches in Kingston and Saugerties recently reopened, welcoming swimmers back for the hazy August summer.
Both Kingston Point Beach and the Saugerties Village Beach received the all clear by the Ulster County Department of Health in late July after elevated bacteria levels were found in the water of both municipal recreation areas. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said that heavy rain that pummeled the region on Tuesday, July 18 may have resulted in partially-treated sewer runoff to enter local waterways, including an estimated 281,095 gallons in the Rondout Creek, which joins the Hudson River just below Kingston Point Beach.
The Saugerties Village Beach, just west where the Esopus Creek meets the Hudson, was similarly impacted. The DEC said the runoff may have affected other activity areas and drinking water in the area as well as beaches.
Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said the Department of Health tests the water at Kingston Point Beach at least once a season, sometimes more, particularly if there’s heavy rainfall that may lead to exactly the kind of problem that closed local beaches in July. It can take two or three days for tests results to come in.
Enterococcus faecalis is the scientific term for what was detected in the water and closed the beaches.
“Enterococcus is basically bacteria that could come from a variety of different sources,” said Noble. “Some of it can be animal based, like having geese or ducks in a swim area or just in the river. But it can also come from higher levels of fecal coliform in the water from people.”
Noble said that the Hudson River and its tributaries are susceptible to contamination for a variety of reasons.
“The problem with the Hudson River is that it is a large water body that has lots of inputs,” Noble said. “Combined Sewage Overflows (CSO) in the Hudson River, unfortunately, are common still because of all the old infrastructure that exists in all of the river cities. And so whenever we have really heavy rains it overflows those systems.”
In Kingston there are four CSO locations, all monitored on the city website. At press time, three were listed as normal, meaning there are no overflows currently occurring. A fourth, at Wilbur Avenue, is active, which means there is a discharge happening.
“Whenever we have really heavy rains where it overflows those systems, in our case, we discharge into the Rondout Creek,” Noble said. “But Albany, Troy, that whole kind of metropolitan region in the Albany area has very large CSO discharges. And so we try to tell folks that after really, really heavy rains, swimming in the Hudson River is not really great.”
In New York State there are around 800 CSO outfalls, though it’s unclear how many are linked directly to the Hudson River. According to the DEC, “CSO outfalls may discharge rainwater mixed with untreated sewage during or following rainfall or snowmelt events and may contain bacteria that can cause illness,” and recommends the public “avoid contact or recreation (swimming, boating, and fishing) within the waterbody during or following a rainfall or snowmelt event.”
The good news, Noble said, is that it doesn’t usually take long for nature to clear the water.
“It does flush very quickly as a river,” he said. “And there’s a lot of water, so dilution is definitely good.”
In the Village of Saugerties, Water Superintendent Mike Hopf said the process was similar, with the wet weather the likeliest cause for the increased presence of bacteria in the water that led to a brief July closure.
“I think it was the rain more than anything else kicking the water up,” Hopf said
In Saugerties, overheated residents were still able to find relief in the Lions Club Wading Pool at Cantine Field along Washington Avenue, which remained open during the Village Beach’s closure and is still open today.
The same was true in Kingston, where even with extensive renovations underway at Dietz Stadium, Andretta Pool has been open all summer long.
“That’s free and open to folks, so we at least have a backup system in place for folks to be able to go to,” Noble said. “And in case they can’t swim, there’s also the splash pad so you can still kind of get wet.”
Kingston is hoping a $3.5 million project to separate their sewer systems from stormwater will help alleviate a problem that Noble said is likely to increase due to climate change.
“We have never had rain like we’ve had rain the last couple of years,” Noble said. “Even last year, we had a drought and we had very little rain, but when we did get it, we had very heavy rain in very short periods of time and our systems can’t handle it. And so that’s why for us separating is so important because when we are discharging it’s just a lot of storm water. And there’s still environmental effects of stormwater too, but at least you don’t have the same types of drinking water and bathing issues as you would when you’re putting sewage mixed with stormwater into water bodies.”
In both Kingston and Saugerties, public beaches try to stay open through late August, when they lose some of their summer lifeguards to college.
Kingston Point Beach is open dawn to dusk, while the Saugerties Village Beach is open with lifeguards from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. seven days a week
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