Water Quality

By 1998, improvements in water quality around the harbor were noticeable, and CSHH initiated a hard-clam density survey, working with local baymen, the Town of North Hempstead, and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The results of the survey were promising and set the stage for the work that would begin eight years later to start the stringent water-quality testing necessary to determine whether the harbor’s shellfish beds could be reopened for harvesting.

CSHH worked hard to develop a credible water-testing program that could be relied on to indicate the health of the harbor. However, the primary purpose of the program was to encourage all who live, work, and enjoy recreational activities around Hempstead Harbor to renew their interest in the harbor, as well as in Long Island Sound, and to participate in restoration efforts. An important component of the program since its start has been to involve citizens in observing changing conditions around the harbor and notifying CSHH as well as appropriate municipal and environmental agencies of any unusual events affecting the harbor.

Over the years, the scope of the water-monitoring program expanded, as had the network of partners supporting it. In 1995, as CSHH continued its monitoring efforts, the nine municipalities that share jurisdiction over Hempstead Harbor formed the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee—a municipal partnership—to address the harbor’s water-quality problems using a watershed-management approach. CSHH became the first environmental organization to join the committee—as a nonvoting member and technical adviser.

In 2006, the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee was able to assume financial responsibility for the water-monitoring program through a grant from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, which has been a critical source of funding over the years. The Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor continues to coordinate and implement the program.

The Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor and the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee continue to work closely together on improving Hempstead Harbor’s water quality. The two organizations illustrate the great successes that can result from creating valuable partnerships that pool resources and maximize results to benefit the environment and local communities.

The Hempstead Harbor core water-monitoring program now encompasses weekly testing at up to 21 monitoring stations and includes a winter-monitoring component that assesses the bacteria and nitrogen loading to Hempstead Harbor at key shoreline outfalls. The program has an EPA-approved Quality Assurance Project Plan, and the data collected through the program have been used in local policy and planning decisions.

By 2006, NYS DEC had begun the water-quality testing necessary to determine whether a portion of the outer harbor could be recertified for shellfish harvesting. Over the next several years, CSHH worked with local municipalities and environmental agencies in shellfish-seeding programs for the harbor and expanded the citizen’s monitoring program to support the goal of reopening shellfish beds in Hempstead Harbor.

After five years of rigorous testing of water samples as well as samples of hard-shell clams from Hempstead Harbor, NYS DEC and NYS Department of Health determined that 2,500 acres of the outer portion of the harbor could be reopened for shellfish harvesting year-round. June 1, 2011, was the opening day for the recertified shellfish beds. For the first time in more than 40 years, commercial and recreational clammers could take shellfish from Hempstead Harbor.

In 2019, in anticipation of the first-ever aquaculture project in Hempstead Harbor, CSHH received the first of three grants from the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District (NCSWCD) to monitor water quality in Tappen Beach Park Marina. The program supports efforts by the Town of Oyster Bay to place floating upweller systems (FLUPSYs), which act as nurseries for clams and oysters, in three town parks. The clams and oysters ultimately will be used to reseed town waters. The monitoring program for Tappen Marina is the first of its kind and has been able to assess water-quality conditions within the marina prior to the arrival of seed stock and during the growth of the clams and oysters placed in the FLUPSYs.

NCSWCD awarded CSHH grants for this project in 2020 and 2021 as well, and work proceeded despite COVID-19 restrictions, precautions, and delays. Two million seed clams and 50,000 oysters were placed in four Tappen Marina FLUPSYs in 2020, and 4 million shellfish seeds were placed in six FLUPSYs in Tappen Marina in 2021. The seed clams are removed for the winter, but the success of this aquaculture project has prompted plans for expansion like growing kelp in town marinas, including Tappen Marina, during the winter months.

Since 2016, CSHH has participated in the Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Embayment Research (UWS), funded by the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative and now coordinated by Save the Sound. The UWS is an ecological study of Long Island Sound bays in both New York and Connecticut. It is intended to engage citizen scientists in assessing the health of the bays through use of uniform monitoring equipment and methodologies.

CSHH conducts water sampling in Hempstead Harbor for this program biweekly from May through October and performs three days of seaweed assessments. In 2023, 26 groups monitored 46 bays from the Bronx River to Wequetequock Cove. The data collected from this program is used to compile a biennial report card comparing water quality for each bay based on testing parameters such as dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll a.