Grant Awards for Hempstead Harbor Water-Monitoring Programs

Last November, the Long Island Sound Futures Fund awarded the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee $89,000 to fully fund the core water-monitoring program for Hempstead Harbor. CSHH established the program in 1992 and has coordinated the program without interruption since that time. The program continues to expand, adding monitoring stations and testing parameters.Beginning in May, we will run the weekly summer/fall program for the twenty-seventh season at up to 21 stations around the harbor and in Glen Cove Creek. We will include tests for dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity, water clarity, as well as for nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia. As we have for past seasons, we will continue to collect water samples for bacteria analysis by the Nassau County Department of Health, which will be used to supplement the data the Health Department collects for its beach-testing program. We also record fish and wildlife observations, and rely on members of our Fish Wildlife Reporting Group to report their observations throughout the year. Find more information on the Hempstead Harbor water-monitoring program here.

We are currently working on the 2017 annual report and conducting the winter monitoring of shoreline outfalls, which runs from November through April. This feature of the program focuses on measuring bacteria levels of water that drains from the Powerhouse Drain Subwatershed and out to Hempstead Harbor through a large outfall located adjacent to the former site of the old brick powerhouse building. We also continue to monitor bacteria levels in water that drains from Scudders Pond and Littleworth Lane and out to Hempstead Harbor.

CSHH was also asked to participate for the second year in the Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research. Funding was provided for this program also through the Long Island Sound Futures Fund and is being managed by Save the Sound with an equipment loan program managed by Harbor Watch/River Watch at the Earth Place, CT. In 2017, Hempstead Harbor was one of 11 bays being monitored around Long Island Sound as part of the program. The program runs for 12 weeks from May through November. All participants use the same monitoring equipment to test for dissolved oxygen, salinity, turbidity, and chlorophyll. The goal is to collect data that can be used in comparing results from the same testing parameters, using the same standard operating procedures among all participating groups, in order to produce a report card for embayment water quality.