The amount of overnight rainfall (>0.6 inches) has led to a Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO) event which discharges stormwater runoff and raw sewage directly into the waters of NY Harbor.  Sadly, this is an ordinary result of sufficient rainfall in NYC as the 14 sewage treatment plants throughout the boroughs are outdated and insufficient to handle common amounts of rainfall.  These discharges can have obvious health consequences for those who would participate in activities on the waters such as ours.

The CSO advisory in effect forces us to cancel today’s Walkup program, where the public, including children, are put in direct contact with contaminated waters.  This also necessitates that we cancel the associated trips to and from Hallets Cove itself. We regret the inconvenience.

The CSO Warning from the NYC DEP can be found here:

  You are encouraged to speak to your elected officials about your thoughts of the impact of these CSO events and request that they take action to invest in infrastructure and equipment updates to be able to handle normal rainfall.

 CSO effects resolve themselves through the natural tidal cycles, typically within ~24 -36 hours.

We look forward to our next opportunity to paddle through our public program on Sunday, July 22nd at Anable Basin 12pm-4pm.