Save the Sound: Sewage Leakage is Nothing New

While the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities works to repair a pipe leaking sludge into the Long Island Sound, a group dedicated to improving water quality along the Sound Shore is highlighting that sewage issues are not a new problem in this area.

“It is important for people to recognize that it is only July 16 and this is the twelfth day these beaches have been closed this season,” said Tom Anderson, New York Program & Communications Coordinator of Save the Sound.

 The Westchester County Department of Health closed nine beaches in Mamaroneck and Rye and warned swimmers and boaters to stay out of the water due to the potential hazard of sludge in the water at Milton and Mamaroneck Harbors. The warning issued Monday night stated that beaches would most likely not be reopened until Wednesday afternoon the earliest. The County has not released the cause of the leak at this time.

Anderson says his best guess is that the pipes were just too old and broke.  

While this is the first closure the Department has publicized in the media this season, it is not the first time pipes carrying sewage have jeopardized swimmers at these beaches, Anderson said. The same nine beaches were closed 11 times already this summer season due to rain that washes sewage into the water, he said.

“ Any time it rains more than half an inch these same beaches are closed because the rain washes sewage out into the sound.”

Sludge is the semi-solid material that is left after sewage has been treated. Rye and Rye Brook’s sewages is treated in Rye and then pumped to Port Chester through the pipe that is now leaking, Anderson said.

“I don’t know if this is worse (than the other times the beaches were closed, but it is definitely different,” Anderson said. “Whether or not it is worse, it is still pretty bad.”

Despite the warnings about the water, boaters did not mind taking their vessels out today, according to Boat Basin Director Peter Fox.

“This is normal for a Tuesday,” he said of the marina, filled with boats. “A couple of people went out,” he said. One man he spoke to knew about the sludge leak but still took his boat out to go to Hen Island, he said.

Rye and Oakland Beaches are still open, but Patch users on Facebook said they would not go in the water knowing there was a sludge leak nearby.

“You would probably have some stomach problems if you went swimming in it,” Andreson said.

Save the Sound is using the sludge leak as another opportunity to repeat its message that the community and the county need to increase efforts to fix old and leaking sewage pipes and do preventative maintenance, Anderson said.