State aid sought for Wallkill River monitoring

Watchdog groups are looking for help toward conducting a $1.2 million project aimed at identifying contaminants.

Watchdog groups are seeking state aid for a $1.2 million monitoring project aimed at identifying contaminants in the Wallkill River.

The project is being proposed by the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, which has been working with Ulster County, Orange County and Riverkeeper to develop a plan to clean up the 93-mile river, which extends from Sparta, N.J., to the Sturgeon Pool near the Esopus hamlet of Rifton.

The proposal calls for water samples to be collected periodically at 21 sites along the 66 miles of the river within New York state.

“In terms of getting a baseline, this will be enormously beneficial to finding out what’s in the river,” said Jason West, executive director of the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance and a former mayor of the village of New Paltz.

Among the river’s problems are toxic algae blooms that develop during the summer. The blooms have been linked to chemicals largely associated with agriculture practices and septic runoff.

“The river ... contains everything from nontoxic substances like iron and manganese, which make it difficult to treat drinking water, all the way up to arsenic and pathogens,” West said. “So we’re going to get a broad snapshot of the river and what’s polluting it now.”

The algae blooms have forced a beach to close, a kayak rental business to suspend its operations on the Wallkill and the cancellation of several public paddling events, among other things.

West said Riverkeeper has found that “most times and in most places, the Wallkill River is not safe to swim in.”

A report by the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance says there are 36 state permits, including 23 for wastewater treatment facilities, that allow the discharge of pollutants into the Wallkill River.

State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill has submitted a letter seeking $800,000 for the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to be put toward monitoring the Wallkill.

“Algal blooms have been growing more rapidly in the Wallkill River in recent years,” Cahill, D-Kingston, wrote to the department.

“In 2016, it is believed that as much as 30 miles of the river were affected,” the assemblyman wrote. “This study will help DEC and our community identify where the pollutants are coming from, how dire the current situation is and allow the creation of a road map for how we can reduce these pollutants from entering the river in the first place.”