An annual report by environmental watchdog Save the Sound shows that despite overall progress, hot spots for dangerous pollution levels still linger in several of Mamaroneck’s waterways.
According to the report, which was presented to the village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees’ public meeting this month, Beaver Swamp Brook remains one of the most polluted waterways monitored throughout Westchester County.
Beaver Swamp has been consistently named an area of concern by Save the Sound as far back as 2014, when the group first began to monitor Westchester’s waterways. That same year, Beaver Swamp showed the highest levels of bacterial contamination in all of the sample areas countywide, clocking up to 17 times the limit benchmarked by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for safe recreation.
The culprit behind high levels of fecal contamination found in Beaver Swamp Brook samples, according to the report, are decrepit county sewer lines that run adjacent to the waterway. Specifically, the report highlights a “softball-sized hole” found in one of the lines this year, through which raw sewage leached into the ground and eventually the brook.
The highest pollution levels were recorded in the city of Mount Vernon at an outfall located at Farrell and Beechwood Avenues which saw more than five times the amount of bacteria found in Beaver Swamp Brook.
Most recently, Mount Vernon was fined $55,000 by the state in late December for its failure to repair leaking sewer lines, though pollution has been ongoing for at least two decades.
Although Beaver Swamp Brook remains one of the key areas of concern on Save the Sound’s report, other sample locations in Mamaroneck, including Harbor Island Park and Shore Acres Yacht Club, have improved their scores over time, earning clean bills of health by the agency this year. Overall, the report says that contamination of sample areas has dropped from 2016 levels, during which 49 percent of samples failed, to 2017 levels where 43 percent failed.
Save the Sound’s crusade to clean up contamination in waterways and the Long Island Sound continues, however, as the agency works to settle lawsuits brought against 11 municipalities across the county in 2015 and establish timetables for critical sewer repairs.
Last summer, both the villages of Mamaroneck and Port Chester settled their lawsuits with Save the Sound after years of bargaining, and have set timetables for their sewer repairs.
