On April 6, citizen scientists fanned out across the Saw Kill watershed to collect water samples from more than a dozen sites (photo by Claire Greenburger).
Contaminants linked to road salt, PFAS—also known as “forever chemicals”— and high levels of bacteria associated with untreated sewage were detected at multiple sites across the Saw Kill and Stony Creek watershed in Red Hook, according to an analysis of recent water testing.
Areas of particular concern include two sites downstream of Red Hook’s wastewater treatment plant, where results pointed to the presence of raw, untreated sewage, and the retention pond behind the Red Hook Public Library, which showed elevated levels of multiple contaminants, including PFAS.
The data, presented at Red Hook Town Hall Wednesday night by the Saw Kill Watershed Community, came from water samples collected by citizen volunteers on April 6 as part of a broad effort to assess the region’s water quality.
“We have basically done a blood test for the watershed,” said Karen Schneller-McDonald, chair of the Saw Kill Watershed Community, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting local water quality. “And just like a blood test, you go in and you test for a whole bunch of different things to see how your overall health is.” The results offer a snapshot, she added, but water quality can shift with conditions like rainfall, drought, erosion, and land use. That’s why continued monitoring is so important, she said.
Every month, Bard College’s Community Sciences Lab conducts routine water testing at several sites across the watershed, but the scope is limited by funding and the capacity of the Bard lab. With funding support from the Town of Red Hook, the Saw Kill Watershed Community was able to expand that effort this spring by testing for a broader range of contaminants, including PFAS, and by adding new sampling sites. Citizens collected water from 15 locations across the watershed, and the samples were sent to an independent lab for analysis of more than 100 pollutants.
The Watershed Community and Bard researchers organized the results by site and contaminant type to identify patterns across the watershed and pinpoint places where pollution is particularly high.
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