Rivers, streams quality in Fairfield County not good

The quality of Fairfield County’s rivers and streams is not good — a telling indicator of how challenging it is to improve Long Island Sound’s fragile ecosystem.

A new report by the Westport-based Harbor Watch found that water from 20 rivers exceeded acceptable levels of bacteria 77 percent of the time — the same criteria the state uses to close beaches.

“The high incidence of failing bacteria concentrations shows us that there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve water quality in the Long Island Sound watershed,” said Sarah Crosby, director of Harbor Watch, the research arm of Earthplace.

But even with the disappointing results, Crosby said she is buoyed by the willingness towns and cities have shown in finding leaking sewage systems and reducing pollution that enters waterways and ultimately the Sound.

“Despite the problems identified by our study, I am encouraged by the progress being made to improve water quality in our community,” Crosby said.

Harbor Watch tested rivers, brooks and streams from Greenwich to Milford between May and September. Researchers calculated bacteria levels and the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water — both key markers for assessing the health of a waterway.

Some of the rivers and streams — Bruce Brook, Deep Brook, Goodwives River and Greenwich Creek — failed every test for acceptable levels of bacteria.

A few rivers showed better results. The water from the Saugatuck River failed 31 percent of the time; the Mianus River 45 percent; and the Norwalk River 81 percent.

Results vary from test to test for a variety of reasons, including the frequency of rainfall during the testing period and the proximity to sources of pollution.

By taking multiple tests over time, researchers can paint an accurate picture of a waterway’s overall health.

“This monitoring season indicates that there is still considerably more work to be done to improve the overall water quality of the Long Island Sound watershed,” the report concluded.

Warning signs

The concept of an acceptable level of bacteria has been around for decades and is the general standard the state uses to close beaches in the summer. When the level of different types of bacteria rise to a certain point the water is not considered safe for swimming or recreational use.

Crosby said the criteria Harbor Watch used is less strict than the standard the state applies when deciding to close a beach.

“The criteria we used is for ‘all other recreational uses’ of the water, which is actually less stringent than those for swimming and fishing,” Crosby said. “A ‘failing’ bacteria concentration would indicate that there may be pathogens there that could be harmful to people.”

Crosby said the 2018 results are worse than tests conducted in 2016 and 2017.

“Some of that is driven by rainfall conditions,” Crosby said. “This monitoring data is so important because it provides information that towns need for where to focus their pollution reduction

Waterways tested

Here is the list of waterways tested by Harbor Watch and the percentage of those tests that exceeded acceptable levels of bacteria:

Bruce Brook: 100 percent Byram River: 66 percent Comstock Brook: 80 percent Deadman Brook: 77 percent Deep Brook: 100 percent Farm Creek: 87 percent Goodwives River: 100 percent Greenwich Creek: 100 percent Horseneck Brook: 66 percent Keelers Brook: 100 percent Mianus River: 45 percent Mill River: 80 percent Muddy Brook: 100 percent Noroton River: 85 percent Norwalk River: 81 percent Pootatuck River: 100 percent Rippowam River: 66 percent Rooster River: 100 percent Sasco Brook: 71 percent Saugatuck River: 31 percent efforts.”

Crosby noted most towns respond to the report.

“I got an email from a public works staff member from one of our partner towns who read the report and [said] they already had a plan ready for how to respond,” Crosby said.

“We are going to go out next week to conduct additional sampling,” she said.

Forcing repairs

Peter Linderoth, water quality program manager for Save the Sound, said his organization obtained nearly identical failure rates during recent river testing.

“We have about 33 sites that we test, and we found a 74 percent failure rate,” Linderoth said.

“I didn’t expect it to be that high,” Linderoth noted.

“These rivers meander through different areas, from backyards to commercial and industrial areas,” Linderoth said.

“There are septic tanks, leaking sewer lines and illegal discharges. We find quite a few of these.”

Linderoth said Save the Sound notifies those responsible for the pollution — whether private sources or municipalities — and utilizes different methods to induce repairs and cleanup work, including letters, calling state regulators and filing lawsuits.

“It’s not always easy to find leaking sewer lines; they are underground,” Linderoth said. “We work to identify the areas.”

Asked about the risk to people, Linderoth said he would think twice about swimming or throwing out a fishing line in a river or stream that failed a bacteria test.

“I’d be very concerned about it,” Linderoth noted.

“People should ask ‘why is this happening’ and call their towns,” Linderoth said, adding it’s a “problem” when results exceed acceptable bacteria levels during a 10-week testing period. bcummings@ctpost.com