2021 Citizens Water Quality Testing Results (Weeks 11-20)
/Week 17: September 10
BOP's Week 17 sampling team: volunteer Austin Tucker, Assistant Waterfront Director Marc Melendez. Field Station Assistant Hana Isihara
WATERWAYS NEWS:
Remembering the 9/11 boatlift (NY Post)
Don't flush the pills--new pharmaceutical drop boxes coming soon! (Albany Times-Union)
HARBOR EVENTS:
Need a last-minute plan for tonight? At 7 pm Marie Lorenz and collaborators Dana Spiotta, Kurt Rohde, and Charlotte Mundy will be performing a 10-minute floating opera on the Hudson River at 147th St.
Bioblitz and Boating with The Guardians of Flushing Bay this Sunday, September 12th; the bioblitz is 11 AM-1 PM, and boating is 1 PM-2:30 PM and 2:30-4 PM. Reservations required!
Wrap up your summer by helping to clean up Starlight Park on Thursday, Sept 16 10 AM-12 PM
WEEKLY SLIDESHOW:
Last Week’s Quiz Answers
Species ID: dead whale temporarily secured to floating dock (photo is from the next day, after the Army Corps towed the carcass to Staten Island; cause of death TBD)
Harbor Geography: Sebago Canoe Club gangway and dock, Paerdegat Basin, Jamaica Bay
Week 16: September 3
WATERWAYS NEWS:
Worst storm since Sandy? (NY Times)
Basement apartments as death traps (NY Times)
WEEKLY SLIDESHOW
Last week's quiz answers:
Species ID: Atlantic silversides, aka spearing (Menidia menidia)
Harbor Geography: Triboro Bridge, Hell Gate Railroad Bridge, Astoria Generating Station
Week 15: August 27
Au revoir Henri: Tuesday's sample at Brooklyn Bridge Beach.
WATERWAYS NEWS:
2 Months of Rain in a Day and a Half: New York City Sets Records (New York Times)
First it was hemp, now it's kelp (The Guardian)
Wiring the Hudson: update on riverbottom power cables proposed for the Hudson (Riverkeeper)
When Environmental Racism Causes a Hygienic Hell (New York Times)
WEEKLY SLIDE SHOW:
Week 14: August 20
What does dirty water look like in the lab? Here's a sample tray from Second Street on the Gowanus Canal with all but one well illuminated, signifying a very large 'most probable number' of 'colony-forming units' of fecal indicator bacteria per 100 ml of sample water.
WATERWAYS NEWS:
Yes, people live there too: the unexpectedly rich ecosystem of Newtown Creek (New York Times)
Who was Michael J. Ollis and why is the newest Staten Island Ferry named after him? (SI Live)
Modified rapture: cruise ships are back and they're bigger than ever (Daily Mail)
$16 billion for sea gates for the Jersey Shore? (NBC New York)
WEEKLY SLIDE SHOW:
Last week's quiz answers
Species ID: Twelve-scaled polychaete worm (Lepidonotus squamatus), and no it doesn't bite (humans anyway)
Harbor Geography: South tip of Roosevelt Island, where misguided park designers entombed the original bedrock in concrete and riprap
Week 13: August 13
Frontal assault: looking south from Pier 40 on Tuesday evening (Ingo Gunther)
Waterway News of Notes
Beach closures in Jersey and beach advisories in New York
EPA to NYC: Your Math Does Not Add Up (Brooklyn Eagle)
"Some of Brooklyn would remain liveable" (Brooklyn Paper)
Get Involved
Got a waterway story? Sign up to tell it at the annual Harbor & Estuary Program conference, Nov. 15-18.
Got $100 and a strong back? Sign up here to row around Manhattan
Beach cleanup in Shirley Chisholm Park, Aug 23
NYC Environmental Justice for All Report--second public comment period is open.
Weekly Slideshow
Last week's quiz answers
Species ID: juvenille blackfish
Harbor Geography: Flushing Creek, Queens
Week 12: August 6
Finally feels like summer out there
Waterway News of Note
Can Kate Orff's gray-green infrastructure save the city? (the New Yorker)
Got $395? Take a seaplane to Boston (CBS New York)
Weekend Events of Interest
Hong Kong Dragonboat Festival on Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Park, Saturday Aug 7 (tomorrow) in Flushing Meadows Park https://www.hkdbf-ny.org/
Hindu Lamp Ceremony, Main St. Beach, Dumbo, Saturday August 7 (tomorrow) 4-7:30
Build paper boats and expand your aesthetic horizons at the arts center at Governors Island
Weekly Slide Show
Last week's quiz answers
Species ID: Wharf Roach (Ligia exotica)
Harbor Geography: Dyckman St. Beach, upper Manhattan
Week 11 : July 30
Bumper cars: New York Harbor School freshman orientation at the tunnel vent embayment on Governors Island
The Season So Far…
Waterway News of Note
Bacon and eggs are killing Britain's rivers, and probably ours too (Monbiot.com)
Stewardship Opportunity
Be a rain garden maintainer!