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Background Heavy metals, phosphorus, and organic contaminants in water and sediments of the lower Genesee River, resulted in the designation of fourteen beneficial uses as impaired in the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern (AOC). The benthic macroinvertebrate community or “benthos” Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) was designated as degraded in the Genesee River because the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) impairment metrics generally identified slight to moderate impacts through the 1990s and 2000s. Accumulation of “sediments on more suitable substrates” and “contaminants in sediment of the Genesee River related to past municipal and industrial waste-water treatment plant discharges...
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Background The invasive diatom Didymosphenia geminata (didymo) has historically been a wide-spread, but rare, micro algae found in moderately flowing cold-water streams of North America, Europe, Asia, and (more recently) New Zealand. Demographic patterns of didymo have recently changed resulting in greater spatial coverage and temporal persistence (e.g. blooms) in streams worldwide. Didymo blooms can form dense “woven fabric” aggregate up to 20 cm think, that trap algae, macroinvertebrates, detritus and other debris. The recent discovery of didymo in parts of New York State, including the Upper Esopus Creek in 2009, is concerning because blooms can affect benthic habitat, river hydraulics, the structure and function...
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Background Past water-quality issues in the St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY resulted in a determination that selected beneficial uses were impaired in a surrounding Area of Concern (AOC) and on the Canadian side of the international boundary (Cornwall, Ontario). The benthic macroinvertebrate community or “benthos” Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) was designated degraded because impairment metrics were unavailable or inconclusive. Recent sampling efforts by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) as part of their Rotating Integrated Basin Studies (RIBS) program indicate that macroinvertebrate communities in some sections of the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries in the Massena AOC are...
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Background The Esopus Creek is located in the Catskill Mountains of New York State and is part of the New York City (NYC) drinking water supply system. The basin was dammed in 1915 to form the Ashokan Reservoir splitting the creek into Upper (upstream of the reservoir) and Lower segments. The drainage area of Upper Esopus Creek, between the source (Winisook Lake) and the Ashokan Reservoir is approximately 192 mi2. The Schoharie Reservoir, located 27 miles north of the Ashokan Reservoir, also supplies water to Upper Esopus Creek (and to the Ashokan Reservoir) via the Shandaken tunnel. Waters from the Schoharie watershed enter Upper Esopus Creek at the Shandaken portal and travel 18 km before entering the Ashokan...
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Background Past water-quality issues in the St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY resulted in a determination that selected beneficial uses may be impaired in a surrounding Area of Concern (AOC) and on the Canadian side of the international boundary (Cornwall, Ontario). The plankton (phytoplankton zooplankton) Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) was so designated because impairment metrics were unavailable or inconclusive. Recent investigations, however, suggest that plankton communities are relatively healthy and no longer threaten the local ecosystem. Thus, the BUI for plankton may now be outdated in all, or parts of, the St. Lawrence River in the Massena AOC. The primary goal for the Massena (and Cornwall) Remedial Action...
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Background Fish communities of the mainstem Mohawk River and Barge Canal have been well-documented (Carlson, 2015; George et al., 2016) but comparatively less information is available regarding the current status of fish communities in tributaries to the Mohawk River. This information gap is problematic because long-term shifts in species distributions or abundances due to climate change, eutrophication, or other anthropogenic stressors may go unnoticed in the absence of baseline data. More importantly, an approaching invasive fish species, the Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus), is expected to colonize much of the Mohawk River and the lower portion of many major tributaries. Introductions of Round Goby have had...
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Background Discharges from non-point sources, municipal and industrial point sources, and combined sewage overflows over the last century resulted in elevated levels of heavy metals, conventional pollutants, phosphorus, and toxic organic contaminants in water and sediments of the Lower Genesee River and Rochester Embayment. As a result, the zooplankton and phytoplankton or “plankton” communities were designated as one of fourteen Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI); i.e., the resource was either impaired or in need of assessment in the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern (AOC). The Rochester Embayment Remedial Action Committee (RAC) was formed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Aquatic Community Health, Aquatic Community Health, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, BiogeochemicalandHydrologicAssessment, All tags...
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Background - Turbid waters originating in the Schoharie Reservoir allegedly impair habitat and resident trout populations in Upper Esopus Creek; however, to date no scientific studies have documented adverse affects of altered thermal, suspended sediment (turbidity), and flow regimes on survival, growth, or behavior of trout or the health of their populations. The 424 mi2 Esopus Creek watershed is a tributary to the Hudson River in the south-central Catskill Mountains of New York State and is often considered to be two systems separated by the Ashokan Reservoir. The Upper Esopus Creek is considered the reach between its source, Winisook Lake, and the reservoir. Flows in the Upper Esopus Creek are supplemented by...
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Background Forested watersheds in the southwestern Adirondack Mountains of New York received some of the most acidic deposition in North America from the 1970s through much of the 1990s (NADP 2005). Thus it is not surprising that associated effects on surface-water quality and ecosystems in lakes and streams of the southwestern Adirondack Mountains of New York were investigated to various extents over the past 35 years; first to document acidification effects and then to evaluate potential recovery. In fact, evidence of adverse impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystems across the region provided much support for implementation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1990. Although the underlying effect mechanisms were...
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Problem Almost 1900 public, private, and commercial waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs), many located upstream of drinking water intakes or within tributaries to water-supply reservoirs, are permitted to release effluents into surface- or ground-waters across New York State. More than 150 facilities have New York State SPEDES permits to discharge waste waters in the New York City East of Hudson and West of Hudson Water Supply Watersheds (NYC Watersheds), which provide drinking water to more than nine million people in and around New York City. Some common waste water treatment plant (WWTP) contaminants (e.g., polycyclic musks, alkylphenols, and estradiol) can cause estrogenic or androgenic changes in the reproductive...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, Biogeochemical and Hydrologic Assessment, BiogeochemicalandHydrologicAssessment, Completed, Contaminants, Emerging, All tags...
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Problem - The Esopus Creek is located in the Catskill Mountains of New York State and is part of the New York City (NYC) drinking water supply system. The basin was dammed in 1915 to form the Ashokan Reservoir splitting the creek into Upper (upstream of the reservoir) and Lower segments. The Schoharie Reservoir, located 27 miles north of the Ashokan Reservoir, supplies water to Upper Esopus Creek via the Shandaken tunnel. Waters from the Schoharie watershed enter Upper Esopus Creek at the Shandaken portal and travel 18 km before entering the Ashokan Reservoir. The two reservoirs account for approximately 40% of NYC’s mean annual water supply. Waters from the portal have been the focus of controversy and legal action,...
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The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is developing a unit management plan/environmental impact statement (UMP/EIS) for the Hudson Gorge Primitive Area, an area of Forest Preserve land encompassing a scenic stretch of the Hudson River in the Adirondack Park. Two goals of the UMP/EIS are to inventory natural resources and ecosystems and take actions to protect those resources while providing for appropriate types and levels of public recreational use. Because of the river's extensive whitewater reaches, it is the setting for a commercial rafting industry that operates during spring, summer, and fall. To increase flows in the Indian and Hudson Rivers, the Town of Indian Lake conducts...
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Problem - Geomorphologic techniques for stream channel and bank restoration are fast becoming the techniques of choice among federal, state, county, and local agencies to reduce suspended sediment loads, reduce flood damage, improve aquatic habitat, and generally stabilize stream channels. One reason for this upswing in use is that appropriate application of these techniques has been shown to reduce the need for repetitive visits to a reach to remove sediments or repair stream banks, and thus reduce long-term channel maintenance expenses. Geomorphologic restoration projects require data that define what a stable stream channel should look like in a given region. Regional hydrologic curves and regional channel-geomorphologic...
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A USGS biologist prepares to collect a sediment sample using a petit ponar dredge. Background:The Niagara River forms the boundary between the United States and Canada and was designated as a binational Area of Concern (AOC) in 1987 because past industrial discharges and hazardous waste sites had caused extensive degradation of aquatic habitats. Within the United States (eastern) portion of the AOC, seven Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) have been identified, including the degradation of the “benthos”, or the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Past assessments of macroinvertebrate community structure and sediment toxicity, which indicated that macroinvertebrate communities were adversely affected by contaminated...
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Background: The USGS propose a collaborative investigation with the NYSDEC to evaluate the current condition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities and toxicity of bed sediments in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern (AOC). Sediment-toxicity data provided by the USGS and benthic-community data provided by the NYSDEC from inside the AOC will be compared to similar data from non-AOC sites in Eighteenmile Creek or nearby reference streams (of comparable drainage areas) to determine if the benthos-BUI (Beneficial-Use Impairment) designation is appropriate or if the BUI could be removed in Eighteenmile Creek. The remainder of this pre-proposal addresses only the direct USGS (sediment toxicity assessment) contribution...
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Problem The mainstem of the Mohawk River extends from Lake Delta Dam near Rome, NY downstream to its confluence with the Hudson River near Cohoes, NY. It supports a diverse fishery that is used extensively by recreational anglers. Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and walleye (Sander vitreus) are among the most popular game species with anglers but past biological surveys have documented at least 56 fish species that inhabit the river. An extensive fish survey of the Lower Mohawk River was last conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) from 1979-1983. Some key findings of this research include: • the river supported an abundant and fast growing smallmouth bass...
    map background search result map search result map Regionalization of Channel Geomorphology Characteristics for Streams of New York State, Excluding Long Island Estrogenicity in Streams of New York State Estimating Acute and Chronic Toxicity of Waters from the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern Using Two Plankton Species Estimating chronic toxicity of waters from the St. Lawrence River at Massena Area-of-Concern using two plankton species Sediment toxicity and status of benthic invertebrate communities in the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries within the Massena Area-of-Concern Sediment Toxicity and Condition of Benthic Invertebrate Communities in the Rochester Embayment Area-of-Concern Spatiotemporal trends in fish assemblages of the Mohawk River Effects of recreational flow releases on natural resources of the Indian and Hudson Rivers Didymosphenia geminata in the Upper Esopus Creek: Seasonal changes in density and distribution, controlling environmental factors, and potential ecosystem impacts Quantitative assessment of water quality in the Upper Esopus Creek using fatty acid content of periphyton Use of telemetry to assess potential effects of Schoharie Reservoir waters on trout populations in the Upper Esopus Creek Quantitative Assessment of Water Quality in Upper Esopus Creek: Fish, Macroinvertebrates, Periphyton, Turbidity, and Nutrients Long-term Effects of the Clean Air Act on Water Toxicity and Brook Trout Survival in Acidified Streams of the Southwestern Adirondacks, 1984-2017 Status of benthic macroinvertebrate communities and toxicity of sediments in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York Quantitative Fish Surveys of Mohawk River Tributaries Niagara River AOC-wide Benthos BUI Assessment Estimating chronic toxicity of waters from the St. Lawrence River at Massena Area-of-Concern using two plankton species Sediment toxicity and status of benthic invertebrate communities in the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries within the Massena Area-of-Concern Estimating Acute and Chronic Toxicity of Waters from the Rochester Embayment Area of Concern Using Two Plankton Species Sediment Toxicity and Condition of Benthic Invertebrate Communities in the Rochester Embayment Area-of-Concern Status of benthic macroinvertebrate communities and toxicity of sediments in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York Didymosphenia geminata in the Upper Esopus Creek: Seasonal changes in density and distribution, controlling environmental factors, and potential ecosystem impacts Quantitative assessment of water quality in the Upper Esopus Creek using fatty acid content of periphyton Use of telemetry to assess potential effects of Schoharie Reservoir waters on trout populations in the Upper Esopus Creek Quantitative Assessment of Water Quality in Upper Esopus Creek: Fish, Macroinvertebrates, Periphyton, Turbidity, and Nutrients Niagara River AOC-wide Benthos BUI Assessment Effects of recreational flow releases on natural resources of the Indian and Hudson Rivers Long-term Effects of the Clean Air Act on Water Toxicity and Brook Trout Survival in Acidified Streams of the Southwestern Adirondacks, 1984-2017 Spatiotemporal trends in fish assemblages of the Mohawk River Quantitative Fish Surveys of Mohawk River Tributaries Estrogenicity in Streams of New York State Regionalization of Channel Geomorphology Characteristics for Streams of New York State, Excluding Long Island