What’s in the Hudson Valley Beach Water?

When summer creeps in towards the end of May, it brings a whole new set of regulations and responsibilities for Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties’ health departments. One important responsibility is to test the quality of beach water across the Hudson Valley.

Each county begins to take the beach water samples a bit before the start of summer. This is because they need to have a substantial amount of samples done before summer camps start. 

The main family of bacteria that is tested is coliform. The coliform tests are broken up into two groups in most cases; that is, total coliform (TC) and fecal coliform (FC). Total coliform tells you the total amount of bacteria and fecal coliform is essentially a subset of that total that relates to fecal matter.  

In each county, there are caps for both TC and FC. On the charts, when a number is in bold or in red, it means that the number exceeded the cap on a given day. Reasons for this include excess runoff from rainwater or a lack of fresh water coming in when there is not enough rainfall. A  could also cause an overflow of sewage. In most cases beaches will be closed until satisfactory results are received.

According to Mark Boda, who has been a sanitarian with the Westchester County Health Department for 10 years, “If it rains half an inch, we preemptively close for 24 hours; one inch we preemptively close for 48 hours. If it’s above two inches, we have to take it day by day and do some sampling to see how the water is clearing up.”

Take a look at Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties’ most recent beach water reports for details. For more information on how beach water sampling works, check out the video above!