Volunteer to Monitor Local Waters: Workshop Saturday

Members of the public who are interested in monitoring local waters and helping to find and eliminate pollution are invited to a workshop Saturday morning, at SLC Center for the Urban River at Beczak, 35 Alexander St. in Yonkers.

The event from 9 a.m. to noon is being held by the Lower Hudson Urban Waters Collaborative, a new partnership joining the Saw Mill, Bronx River, Pocantico River, and Sparkill Creek communities through collaborative training, sampling, and outreach.

The collaborative is funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Urban Small Waters Grant to the Bronx River Alliance, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, Riverkeeper and the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak.

Ossining-based Riverkeeper and its partners have been testing the Hudson River and its tributaries for Enterococcus, an indicator of sewage contamination, since 2006. The resulting data is published at www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality.

Saturday’s Community Science 2017 Season Kickoff is an opportunity to learn the sampling protocol, the science behind the effort and the successes and challenges of the water quality monitoring program. The event will include a presentation by Andy Juhl, Ph.D., of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.