The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Hudson River

Cleaning Up the Hudson River… One Bit of Trash at a Time 

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Kayaker collecting trash at Annsville Creek, Peekskill Photo by Makiko Parsons

The Inside Press is again pleased to shine a spotlight on Sweep, the annual mega volunteer event sponsored by Riverkeeper.org, which ‘brings together science, law, and advocacy to heal the Hudson River and safeguard drinking water.”   

With those worthy goals, is it any surprise that Sweep, now entering its 14th year, attracts volunteers who care enough about the Hudson River to devote a day in May to remove trash and debris from its shores and tributaries? 

LET’S GO, VOLUNTEERS 

The Sweep event attracts both families and singles. This past May 4, a record-breaking number of everyday people — 2,720 all totaled — came out. Ages ranged from under a year old to 90.  Katie Leung, the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for Riverkeeper.org, estimates that 600 volunteers were new to Sweep. 

While those numbers alone are impressive, even more impressive is the level of commitment demonstrated by the stalwart band of local volunteers. 

Leung says, “When volunteers get together at these cleanup sites, there is a sense of community building and partnership that drives them to pick and dig up every single piece of litter and debris that pollutes the river or the tributaries. They want to do a good job cleaning their sites and leave them better than when they found them.” 

Adds Char Weigel, Sweep leader from Sleepy Hollow: “The beauty of Sweep is not just that thousands of people work together to improve the health of our Hudson. It is that thousands of strangers, who might never otherwise meet, find common purpose and a shared soul for a few hours every year on a spring morning.” 

Organizing and coordinating Sweep takes a lot of hard work.  Leung says: “However, I am not alone in this effort, and I’m lucky to have amazing support from the numerous Sweep leaders, as well as my Riverkeeper colleagues. Sweep leaders are a critical part of the event, making sure their volunteer groups are safe while having fun.” 

A SITE TO BEHOLD 

If anyone doubts Sweep is a large-scale endeavor, try coordinating 150 project sites throughout what’s called “the New York City and the Hudson River Watershed.” Each year, Sweep has added more and more sites. This year, the southernmost location was in Staten Island, and the northernmost was in the Adirondacks. 

Leung says, “One of the biggest hurdles is making sure that all the sites get the volunteers that they need. This year, we’re thinking of new ways to recruit more volunteers to some of the less busy sites.” 

Given the “generous support from the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, Riverkeeper expanded Sweep into an ongoing program, conducting cleanups, native tree plantings, and invasive species removals throughout the year,” according to Leung. On top of expanding Sweep, Riverkeeper has given it a new name: Sweep + .  

The ultimate goal is “to continue to grow the number of project sites, volunteers, and impacts each year until Sweep+ is the largest volunteer clean-up program in New York State.“ ‍‍ ‍‌ ‌‍ ‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌ ‌‍‌ ‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍ ‍ ‍‌ ‌‍ ‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌ ‌‍‌ ‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍ 

No update on Sweep 2024 would be complete without hearing about the 27 tons of trash that were collected. In addition to the typical debris like cigarette butts, tires, paper, and plastic, this year’s notables included a VHS tape of “My Cousin Vinny” in surprisingly “perfect” condition; mannequin legs; a playground set; lottery and parking tickets; a metal safe; and a set of house keys. 

 

Volunteers with trash collected at Yonkers Riverfront  Photo by Jasmine Olmo

PLAYING A ROLE 

Let’s face it. Volunteering isn’t for everybody. If that describes you, Leung suggests other helpful things readers can do to protect the Hudson River, along with helping Riverkeeper: 

  1. Stay informed on the latest clean water fights and ways to take action
  2. Become a riverkeeper by donating and becoming a member
  3. Get involved in community science by collecting water quality data at a tributary or waterfront
  4. Report a polluter by submitting a report to the Riverkeeper Watchdog team
  5. Shop for Riverkeeper gear on their website to support their work.

Everyone can play a role in helping to safeguard our precious water resources. 

Leung is correct when she says, “Sweep has so many moving parts and can get pretty hectic, but what overshadows that is the untiring and unrelenting commitment I’ve seen from everyone caring for the river.” 

Let’s hope that Sweep+ 2025 proves to be another record-breaking event! 

Eldest volunteers cleaning up at Sleepy Hollow River Walk    Photo by Char Weigel

 

 

 

A Sweep in Time — What You Need To Know about Riverkeeper’s Volunteer Event

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Congratulations to Riverkeeper.org on its 10th Anniversary of Sweep, the annual event bringing community volunteers together to clean up parks and shorelines along the Hudson River!

Jen Benson, who has served as Sweep Coordinator for six years, planned the milestone event with help from assistant Corey Watanabe. The exciting news is that in spite of Covid-19, Sweep was a great success: “We had an explosion of interest–2,607 people at 147 sites. That’s a record for us!”

Most astonishing of all, volunteers collected 2,056 bags of trash, 2.7 tons of recycling, and two tons of tires, as well as other large debris including such things as couches, toilets, metal pipes, plywood, barrels, ropes, and foam blocks.

How did Sweep 2021 deal with the ubiquitous pandemic guidelines? The biggest challenge was “site capacity,” referring to how many volunteers could be placed at a site. This year, some sites needed to have fewer volunteers. All of the sites fully complied with social distancing and mask requirements.

Sweep Means More Than Meets the Eye

Jen, who moved to a new position at Riverkeeper, reflected on her six years of coordinating Sweep: “Riverkeeper Sweep has become a prime example of our approach to work together across a vast region to help restore the Hudson.”

Monica Dietrich, Senior Membership Manager, who stepped in to support the volunteer effort until a new Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator was hired, said that Riverkeeper Sweep is “way more than a single day of service for the Hudson River. It represents a collaborative effort between the Riverkeeper team and local partners,” people who care about their communities and want to help in some way.

As of September 19, Katie Leung has assumed the role of Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator. In addition to handling Sweep, she “will be overseeing Riverkeeper’s year-round volunteer opportunities–from habitat restoration projects to administrative support.” Monica is especially pleased that Katie will be key in re-envisioning and launching the Ambassador program “for dedicated volunteers who can represent Riverkeeper at community events.”

Katie Leung said, “I hope to carry on the great and inspiring work that my colleagues laid down already…. The groundwork is there for me… and I aim to continue the effort of getting volunteers who are willing to help in Sweep and other service opportunities onboard.”

Participating in Sweep does not require membership in Riverkeeper. But joining Riverkeeper is easy. In fact, a donation as small as a dollar snags you a membership in this worthwhile organization. That membership, Monica said, “helps to make it possible for us to protect and restore the Hudson River as well as to safeguard drinking water sources.”

Plans for 2022

If you and your family, neighbors and friends are interested in participating in Sweep 2022, jot the tentative date of Saturday, May 7, on your calendars!

Katie and Monica encourage readers to check out www.riverkeeper.org/sweep and “sign up to be on our mailing list.” Interested in leading a site or recommending a site that you think could use a community clean-up? Don’t hesitate to email Katie at kleung@riverkeeper.org.

Given the outstanding success of Sweep events and their positive impact on our environment, why not become part of this coming year’s 11th Annual Sweep?

“I Must Go Down to the River Again…”

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Riverkeeper’s patrol boat logs more than 5,000 nautical miles a year along the Hudson River, from the Mohawk and Upper Hudson down the Estuary to New York Harbor. The boat provides a deterrent to polluters, a platform for research, and a means of educating and connecting with the public. Its “home port” is Westerly Marina in Ossining.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVERKEEPER

Are visions of fishing, swimming, boating, kayaking and gardening swirling in your head? Obviously, the common denominator in these fun pursuits is w-a-t-e-r.

Like the Hudson River, the largest body of water among us, water is a year-round commodity that we easily take for granted, but shouldn’t. So much revolves around this amazing body of water, which the Mahican Indians named Muh-he-kun-he-tuk, “the river that flows both ways.”

Volunteers clean up the Sing Sing Kill, a Hudson River tributary, in Ossining during Riverkeeper Sweep on May 4, 2019.
PHOTO BY GARETH HOUGHAM

What Makes the Hudson River So Special?

Named after Henry Hudson, the English navigator who visited the river in his schooner Half Moon circa 1609, the Hudson River makes its 315-mile journey from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains to New York Harbor before blending in with the Atlantic Ocean.

Extending for around 153 miles, the lower part of the Hudson is a tidal estuary, meaning that it “ebbs and flows with the ocean tide,” per Riverkeeper.org. It contains a combination of salty ocean water and freshwater from tributaries, aka small streams and creeks, all stretching from New York Harbor to Troy, NY.

Most people don’t realize that the Hudson River “supports a biologically rich environment, making it an important ecosystem for various species of aquatic life” for whom it “provides critical habitats and essential spawning and breeding grounds,” say the Riverkeeper’s proponents.

Riverkeeper.org, which started over 50 years ago as the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association, plays a major role in protecting the Hudson River’s ecology and the drinking water supply. Dan Shapley, its Water Quality Program Director since 2014, shared some interesting facts about Hudson River water quality that apply specifically to Ossining and Briarcliff Manor, as well as to other river communities.

For example, “The Hudson is only as clean as its tributaries…. In Ossining, it’s our [Riverkeeper’s] job to take care of the small streams like the Sing Sing Kill and Sparta Brook….” That makes sense since whatever goes into the streams ends up in the Hudson.

Village of Ossining Mayor Victoria Gearity highlighted the aesthetic aspect of what’s known as “the Sing Sing Kill Greenway,” which has become a wonderful place to walk. In her February 10th “message” to residents, she noted: “The Sing Sing Kill Greenway began as an infrastructure project whose purpose was to protect the Hudson River from contamination by encasing in concrete the sanitary sewer line that runs through this tributary. Modest upgrades transformed the project to become a greenway, with a vision to eventually connect pedestrians all the way to Water Street from downtown.”

And Dan Shapley added: “The Sing Sing Kill, particularly, is such a community asset, with the greenway trail that runs along it. It’s something we should cherish and protect.”

Shapley’s passion for the Hudson River comes out loud and clear: “The Hudson River is an amazing engine of life for the Atlantic Ocean, a source of drinking water for more than 100,000 people, and a source of joy for those of us who paddle or swim in it or visit the water’s edge.”

This time of year, it’s important to note that as one moves “away from shorelines or tributaries,” Shapley said, “water quality is often safe for swimming… However, nearer to the shoreline, water quality is much more variable, and is often risky for swimming after rain.” So, for communities along the shoreline, such as Ossining and Briarcliff, swimming might be a problem.

However, Shapley continued: “…Ossining beach at Louis Engel Park is right on the cusp of meeting the EPA’s criteria for a safe swimming beach.” Since “water quality is so close to meeting EPA’s threshold for safe swimming, we and the elected leaders of Ossining (Town and Village) have been looking for opportunities to expand public recreation at the beach.” That’s good news particularly for post-COVID times.

Meanwhile, Ossining-area residents will have to be content with a number of other water-related activities.

William Garrison, the Village of Ossining’s Superintendent of Recreation and Parks, cited the popular kayaking tours and lessons, a sailing program, and the Spray Park, which is “a designated area with special spouts that squirt water for young children and their parents to cool off during the hot summer days.”

Keeping the River Clean

The recreational benefits of the Hudson River are greatly enhanced by Sweep, Riverkeeper’s annual one-day service event. Co-directed by Jen Benson and Nick Mitch, Sweep coordinates 2,000 volunteers who “sweep up” trash and debris from 120 locations along the Hudson River Watershed and its tributaries. So, how much trash has Sweep scooped up over the years?

“Over the last eight years,” Benson said, “Sweep projects have removed 259 tons of debris [riverwide], including 28.6 tons of recycling.” And in Ossining alone, Shapley noted, 3.5 tons of trash (7,009 lbs) have been removed. And 60+ storm drains have been “stenciled,” meaning that the drains were marked with reminders “that trash on the street reaches our streams via storm drains and pipes.”

What an astonishing amount of junk. I cringed just hearing those figures.

Recreational and water-quality issues aside, Riverkeeper and other groups, along with elected officials from the Village and the Town of Ossining and Briarcliff Manor, also have their eyes on the future of the Hudson River–and with some level of concern.

In discussing the importance of the Hudson River, Ossining Town Supervisor, Dana Levenberg, stressed that the Hudson is “critical for economic development, recreation, and commerce. It is a defining characteristic of our Town and Village.”

But “… what keeps me ‘up at night’ is the idea that the Metro North railroad line along the Hudson River will not exist in 80 years if nothing is done. The culprit? Sea-level rise causing coastline changes.”

“Sea-level rise causing coastline changes”? That sounds almost ominous.

Levenberg went on to explain: “The Metro North line is the life force of our Hudson Valley. It’s either going to need to be raised seriously by an awful lot or moved or replaced with alternative transportation. Either way, this is going to be a multi-million dollar project in the coming years…. As sea levels rise and climate change impacts our shorelines, we need to plan for short-, medium- and long-term changes effectively.”

For both Town Supervisor Levenberg and Victoria Gearity, Mayor of the Village of Ossining, “the critical question is ‘How can we embrace and take advantage of rising-water levels so that it ends up improving our communities and not destroying them?'”

The same sentiment goes for the Village of Briarcliff, which has a more modest stretch of coastline with which to deal. Village of Briarcliff Manager, Philip E. Zegarelli, explained that there’s “a limited area of water access,” which is known as Scarborough Park.

Scarborough Park

Commuters on the Hudson Line are aware of Scarborough as a train stop along the Hudson. But does everyone know that five out of the six acres constitute the 97-year-old Scarborough Park, an acre of useable land with a dock and a lot of potential?

This park land is currently “being addressed under a capital project–the Scarborough Park Restoration Project.” Zegarelli pointed out its purpose: “restore and stabilize the shoreline,” which has been subject to “constant storm and tidal effects of the Hudson River.”

Like Ossining, it too will have to deal with the impact of sea-level changes in the future. Meanwhile, Briarcliff Manor residents and visitors are encouraged “to use the area for picnicking, for enjoying the gorgeous river sunsets, and for fishing.”

And there are always the small lakes that Briarcliff Manor Mayor Steven Vescio says have “great trail ways,” which have been enhanced, “making them more enjoyable for our residents to hike or bike along them.”

So what do you say? Perhaps a trip down by the riverside to the Ossining or the Briarcliff Manor coastline is indeed an idea whose time has come.

For Riverkeeper programming during the pandemic, be sure to visit riverkeeper.org for rescheduled and/or online events.