Experts are warning people not to swim in the Hudson River after heavy rains and to avoid swimming near sewer pipes that empty into the waterway at all times. But Hudson Riverkeeper John Lipscomb said he fears the public has no idea how long to wait after a storm or just where those sewer pipes are.

"The guideline is correct," he said, "but that guideline alone isn't going to help the public."

Lipscomb and Greg O'Mullan, a microbiologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., have invested nearly a year in taking rwater quality samples at 30 locations up and down the Hudson. The pair shared an overview of their study with The Journal News while sitting on the Riverkeeper's boat, which was anchored at the Julius Petersen Boat Yard.

According to Lipscomb and O'Mullan, people should stay out of the Hudson after a storm because even modest amounts of rain can wash dangerous amounts of raw sewage into its waters. The rain overwhelms combined sewer overflow (CSO) plants, which carry storm water and raw sewage away from communities and into the river as a way of disposing of waste and preventing flooding. On dry days, however, CSO plants release raw sewage more slowly.

Typically sewage treatment plants do not carry storm water, said Lipscomb and O'Mullan, but rather they use biological and chemical means to treat and disinfect sewage before releasing it into the river. But many New York treatment plants are getting old, and some are leaking. The experts warn, then, that people should refrain from swimming in the areas surrounding discharge pipes.

O'Mullan said that when people ask whether it is safe to swim in the Hudson, they are usually told correctly that it is. "It doesn't matter what the water was like in the last 10 years," he added. "You want to know what the water was like on the day you were in the water."

Lipscomb and O'Mullan plan to release preliminary sampling results in coming weeks. The researchers hope their work will inspire further study and inspire communities to keep a closer watch on the river's quality for the sake of humans and the Hudson's plant, animal and aquatic life.

Source: The Journal News