Hudson River Monitoring Station Unveiled in Poughkeepsie

POUGHKEEPSIE – A new Hudson River environmental monitoring station at Marist College in Poughkeepsie was unveiled Tuesday.

The station, built in partnership with the US Geological Survey, State Department of Environmental Conservation, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Marist College, is funded by the US EPA.

The new station will continuously monitor water quality and automatically collect samples for the assessment of toxics, said Stuart Findlay, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute.

“For instance a relevant issue right now is PCBs coming downriver from the dredging project and there is no sensor for PCBs”, Findlay said.  “You need an actual water sample. So if you had reason to believe there was some event for PCBs coming downriver, there is now a site at Marist that will let you collect the samples to determine if that is or is not the case.”

The new monitor is part of a network of 15 stations called the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System that provides round-the-clock data on conditions in the Hudson from Albany to New York Harbor.

The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater carries a mobile station.

The US Geological Survey will be using the Poughkeepsie station to monitor sediment, nutrient, and pesticide conditions in the Hudson. The state DEC will also relay on the information in their assessments of the state’s water quality.