The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park have reported to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation what we believe to be a continuous illicit discharge into Tibbetts Brook within Yonkers. The staff of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and community members have reported this pipe discharging during dry weather and strong smells of detergent and discoloration, a blue-green color, have been reported too. The 4 foot pipe is located along the South County Trail adjacent to Lawton Street nearby where the Brophy Brothers Wholesale is located. The coordinates are 40.9122, -73.8842 and the best way to access the pipe is by entering the South County Bike Trail from Alan B Shepard Jr. Place and heading south to the next block, before you reach the overpass that is McLean Avenue.
The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park have been running a monitoring program of Tibbetts Brook and the connected Van Cortlandt Lake within Van Cortlandt Park weekly since December 2015. The data we were collecting led us to believe that some of the pollution sources affecting the water quality were located within Westchester County and therefore we took samples on August 9th, 2016 (picture above taken on that day). The data we collected that day shows an increase in Fecal Coliform colonies from 260 MPN/100ml, upstream of the pipe, and 4,800 MPN/100ml., downstream of the pipe. This is an alarming increase and significantly higher than the EPA standards of 200 MPN/100ml.
The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park look forward to working with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and other authorities to determine the source of this illicit discharge and to fix the problem. The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park will continue our weekly water quality monitoring and will report other sources of pollution as we find them. We are dedicated to be the voice for this waterway.
Thanks to Ms. Christina Taylor,
Executive Director of Friends of Van Cortlandt Park
Email: christina@vancortlandt.org
Phone: 718-601-1460.
Website: www.vancortlandt.org
No comments:
Post a Comment