HV Communities Fight NYC Reservoir's Massive Muddy Discharges

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Dozens of organizations and communities in the Hudson Valley are delivering a message to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation demanding a stop to NYC's practice of dumping massive amounts of turbid water from Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek for months at a time.

They are calling for a thorough study of impacts and alternatives. Up to 40 percent of the drinking water in New York City’s system passes through the Ashokan, and turbidity is expected to be a growing challenge with climate change.

"New York City is trying to safeguard its drinking water supply on the backs of the downstream communities along the Lower Esopus Creek and the Hudson River," said President and Hudson Riverkeeper Paul Gallay. "It’s time for the city Department of Environmental Protection to take its responsibilities below the Ashokan Reservoir as seriously as it takes its responsibilities to its customers."

Formal demands came during a 3-month-long public comment period over the turbid discharges. The comment period ended Wednesday.

“The staggeringly high levels of turbidity in the Lower Esopus Creek pose a direct threat to our quality of life, our tourism economy, our local businesses and recreational activities, and our precious wildlife," said New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey. "The way the system is working is not working, and with severe storms growing in number year over year, sustained turbidity will only get worse for the Esopus Creek and surrounding communities."

Turbid water turns the creek muddy brown, and sends a sediment plume into the Hudson River. This interferes with fishing, kayaking, ecological health along the creek, and the treatment of drinking water downstream along the mid-Hudson River.

The latest release, triggered by a combination of rain and snowmelt, began in late December 2020 and lasted well into April 2021.

The volume of solids discharged by New York City just following the Christmas 2020 storm was estimated at 8.24 million pounds (4,120 tons), equivalent to 294 loads by 14-ton dump trucks, said the Hudson River Drinking Water Intermunicipal Council, known as the Hudson 7.

The Hudson 7 is made up of elected leaders from seven municipalities with more than 100,000 residents who rely on drinking water drawn from the Hudson River: the City of Poughkeepsie, the Village of Rhinebeck and the Towns of Esopus, Hyde Park, Lloyd, Poughkeepsie and Rhinebeck.

The City of Poughkeepsie relies on the Hudson River to supply safe and potable drinking water to its thousands of residents…(and has) serious concern about New York City!s discharge of turbid water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the lower Esopus Creek, which in turn flows into the Hudson River.

– City of Poughkeepsie resolution, April 19, 2021

Riverkeeper calls on both the state and city to find a solution that does not impair water quality downstream of the Ashokan Reservoir.

“New York City’s drinking water should not come at such a high cost to the Lower Esopus Creek and the environment,” Riverkeeper Associate Staff Attorney Victoria Leung wrote to the DEC.

The Ashokan releases have been found to violate New York State water quality standards, as evident by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's listing of the Lower Esopus Creek as an impaired waterbody.

While a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, released late last year, found no significant impacts from the releases, Riverkeeper demands that the DEC require major modifications and/or a supplement to the document.

Specifically:

• The impacts to mid-Hudson drinking water intakes require further study. Seven communities rely on the Hudson for drinking water, and they are raising concerns that the discharges impair water treatment.
• Potential alternatives to the muddy releases should be thoroughly studied for effectiveness, and assessed in combination with one another, not just by themselves. Alternatives could include a bypass tunnel from Upper Esopus to Lower Esopus, improved flow controls between the reservoir’s east and west basins, operational requirements that limit turbid reservoir releases to the Lower Esopus, a greater use of east and west basin diversions to the Catskill Aqueduct; and releases to the Lower Esopus of some portion of the high quality, low turbidity water from the reservoir’s east basin.
• New York City must study how potential structural solutions could help mitigate climate impacts. The city predicts that by mid-century, extreme levels of turbidity could increase by more than 50 percent in the watershed surrounding its reservoirs, and that these high turbidity events could become more frequent.
• New York City must examine whether the releases will affect the achievement of Saugerties’ waterfront revitalization program, which seeks to preserve views and improve recreational use of the Lower Esopus.

Read: Riverkeeper’s fact sheet: Stop the Mud