I like the idea of building a beach to promote public use and stakeholders in water quality... The same reason why Albany should build a public swimming area in the Hudson River as soon as bacteria levels are safe for swimming.
"Dissolved oxygen refers to the level of free, non-compound oxygen present in water or other liquids. It is an important parameter in assessing water quality because of its influence on the organisms living within a body of water. In limnology (the study of lakes), dissolved oxygen is an essential factor second only to water itself ¹. A dissolved oxygen level that is too high or too low can harm aquatic life and affect water quality."
What goes under reported is actually how clean the water is compared to even a few decades ago when whole parts of cities lacked sewage treatment facilities and many private homes along the state's major rivers flushed right into the river. None of state's major rivers have dead zones and the sewage spills and overflows today are usually relatively small and quickly diluted and broken down by natural bacteria. There is work to be done but it's not as awful as one might think by reading the reports from the Sewage Right to Know law.
"Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that 43,000 cubic yards of materials will shipped to the shores of Long Island to create six reefs in the Long Island Sound and the South Shore."