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Spotlight News – Elevated levels of trihalomethanes found in Bethlehem water; DPW working to remedy issue

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Spotlight News – Elevated levels of trihalomethanes found in Bethlehem water; DPW working to remedy issue

I hope with the high levels of chlorine they are using to treat the bacteria in the Hudson River water, they have good corrosion control, and they aren't poisoning the children with leaded water.

Trihalomethanes are the byproduct of chlorinating contaminated water, which can make the water slightly acidic which eats away at the calcium that keeps pipes from leaking lead and copper into the water. Trihalomethanes are bad news, but lead is even worse news. Unless they are testing people's home sinks, they may never know the effectiveness of their corrosion control program.

This article on what happened in Flint, Michigan should make everybody concerned. http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/science-behind-flint-water-crisis-corrosion-pipes-erosion-trust/

While gross, leeches aren’t actually dangerous

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While gross, leeches aren’t actually dangerous

"There are some 700 species of leeches in the world, and about 500 of them live in freshwater. Not all of them have been catalogued, but as far as we know, Macrobdella decora is the only hematophagic, or blood-sucking, freshwater leech found in the Adirondacks."

"And even though the gross-out factor is high, leeches don’t pose much danger."

“There is no reason, really, to ‘freak out’ over leeches, even if they are kind of freaky,” said Craig Milewski, professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences at Paul Smith’s College."

Dissolved Oxygen

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Dissolved Oxygen

"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."

200-plus NY waterways hit by untreated sewage spills | WNYT.com

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Report: 200-plus NY waterways hit by untreated sewage spills | WNYT.com

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.