Sampled water quality during record breaking rains
When Tropical Storm Henri brought record breaking rainfall to NYC, we decided to team up with our friends at New York City Water Trails Association to collect and analyze daily water quality samples the week after the storm to see just how long a record breaking storm impacts our water quality.
Daily sampling gave us a better sense of ‘recovery time’–that is, how long it takes for bacteria levels in the water cause by CSOs following a major storm to return to acceptable swimming levels. The results in this pdf show how the sites improved from Monday, when it was still raining, to Thursday. The weather after the storm was beautiful; but as you can see it took some time for the water quality to improve.