05-05-2025
New Water Quality Regulations in New York Won't Necessarily Make Water Any Cleaner
Just a handful of relatively short miles upriver from New York City's outer-borough surf breaks, a tiny little sliver of river is the involuntary recipient of about two billion gallons of untreated sewage and polluted storm water per anum.
Yes, it should come as no surprise to anyone that when it precipitates on New York City, the Harlem River gets dumped on in every sense of that phrasal verb. And, what with that river being so naturally close to the color of our refuse, who is at all the wiser? Apart from those with an acute sense of smell, probably not many of us, save for when we find out the hard way by entering it and emerging with staph infections, E. coli, and, well, you name it.
Still, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has drafted a proposal to update and upgrade water quality ratings throughout the state. A number of bodies of water within New York City are receiving newer, more dignified distinctions, some of which—like the one suggested for the Harlem River—deem that with the exception of 'wet weather' events due to combined sewer (storm runoff and raw sewage), once unfathomably foul waterways are now suitable for recreational fishing and even bathing. The newly introduced measure comes under a sweeping measure to improve water quality in and around New York City and is a celebration of how far our waterways have come, particularly since the Clean Water Act of 1970.
But as is often the case in bureaucracies, 'The devil is in the details,' as Dan Shapley, Senior Director of Advocacy, Policy, and Planning at Riverkeeper, a veteran (and storied) nonprofit environmental-watchdog organization founded shortly after the Clean Water Act with the Hudson River's interests in mind.
'And unfortunately,' Shapley explains, 'the details here would allow for all of the currently programmed pollution for the Harlem River to continue indefinitely. Further, and where surfing and surf-bathing interests are concerned, he says '...that will set the benchmark for what we will see elsewhere in the city as other waterways come up next for their spotlight. And so that means Coney Island Creek and the East River and Bronx River, several tributaries of Jamaica Bay'—just around the corner from our usually small and gutless but nevertheless beloved surf zone—'and other places that are likely to have a similar prescription.'
'Riverkeeper is calling on NYC and NYS to take real, lasting action to fix this,' the organization wrote in an Instagram post. 'The Harlem River deserves better. So do the people who live, work, and play along it,' it continued.
And play we do, even on surfing sticks along beaches here in the Big Apple, however septic and fetid it may be on any given day. Granted, it could stand to get a little less septic and fetid.
Downriver in the Rockaways, where it could well be firing during, say, a tropical storm or hurricane, which, yes, is about the only source for summer swell in the Northeast and tends to bring rain—lots and lots of it, as a matter of how are surfers and surf-bathers to take caution? One could suppose that, like our cousins in Southern California, we might be best behoven by staying out of the water when it rains. But would be no testament to our eastern seaboard grit, would it? Not in the least.
Regardless of new labeling, New York's water quality standards are sure to stay the same for the time being, which, with more than 21 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted runoff flowing annually, cannot and should not stand. Riverkeeper has drafted a letter on behalf of one and all entitled 'Don't give up on the Harlem River,' which you can edit and sign here. After all, today's Harem River, Coney Island Creek, and Jamaica Bay are tomorrow's Rockaway jetties.A virtual hearing will be held on Monday, June 16 at 2:00 p.m. (EST), and an in-person hearing will take place on June 18, 2025 2:00 p.m. at the below address:
NYS DEC – Region 2 Office8th Floor Conference Room 83447-40 21st StreetLong Island City, NY 11101More details on the DEC DEC events calendar.
