The Bronx River
There is a hidden place in New York City, an artery where beavers once thrived, known long ago as the “River of High Bluffs” to Indigenous Peoples that lived along the banks. The 23 mile-long Bronx River is New York City's only freshwater stream, once considered a potential source for city drinking water. After more than a century of human encroachment, the river is currently designated as an "Impaired Stream" by the EPA, its water unsafe for human contact. This story documents contemporary community efforts to reclaim the river's water and riparian areas that began with the Bronx River Restoration Project in 1974. In 2022, the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Clean Water Act, this river long thought of as an open sewer remains one that people cannot safely set foot in.
This story is in progress.
Algal blooms in a sewage outflow that joins the Bronx River near Bronxville High School. Algae growth contributes to one of the main impairments to the river's health: low levels of dissolved oxygen, which inhibits the river's ability to provide a proper habitat for aquatic plants and animals.
A hammock along the Bronx River's beginning in Valhalla, NY.
A sewage outflow in White Plains, New York. Water quality samples completed in Westchester County during the recreational season from May-October, 2018 registered the highest possible values for fecal bacteria, and led to 2018 being the river's worst year for water quality in over a decade.
Bronxville High School Science teacher Justine McClellan assists students in her Bronx River Research class in taking water quality measurements during class in September of 2019.
A student in Justine McClellan's Bronx River Research class presents her research after a morning of field work in the Bronx River.
The Bronx River passing over bedrock formations beside the River House Apartments in Bronxville, New York.
The Kensico Dam in Valhalla, New York, completed in 1917 severs the Bronx River from the connection with its original headwaters.
A view of the Bronx River at Starlight Park during construction of a bicycle and pedestrian bridge. The bridge is a critical crossing of the river along the Bronx River Greenway, a 25 mile long multi-use path that, when complete, will connect communities along the entirety of the Bronx River's length.
Victoria Toro, Community Outreach Coordinator with the nonprofit Bronx River Alliance instructs participants before a canoe trip down a portion of the Bronx River.
Rodrick Bell, Recreation Coordinator for the Bronx River Alliance guides a community paddle down a portion of the Bronx River.
Litter adjacent to the banks of the Bronx River in Concrete Plant Park. Street litter can make its way to riparian areas before ultimately ending up in the Bronx River.
Bronx residents Maura Mast and Julio Figueroa document litter caught in a boom installed by the Bronx River Alliance at Muskrat Cove, just south of the border separating the Bronx from Westchester County. All litter is hand sorted and accounted for as a part of the Bronx River Alliance's Project WASTE (Waterway And Street Trash Elimination). On this day, 11,235 pieces of trash were collected for a total of 23 bags of garbage. Styrofoam accounted for 85% of the garbage, with plastic garbage adding up to 11% of the waste collected.
A Great Egret stands on the river bank near a boom that collects floating refuse and debris at Concrete Plant Park.
Katie Lamboy, Environmental Educator and Science Coordinator at Center for the Urban River at Beczak (CURB) uploads water quality data to the web. A native of the Bronx, Katie's duties at CURB include processing the water samples collected for the Bronx River Alliance's citizen science data collection initiative: Project Water Drop. The program tracks multiple indicators of the river's water quality: average dissolved oxygen (DO), PH, and levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus indicator bacteria. This data is crucial in assessing the river's health and locating sewage outfalls illegally discharging waste into the river.
The West Farms rapids in the Bronx, where modern day reclamation efforts began with the Bronx River Restoration Project in 1974.
Linda Cox, the first Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance poses for a photograph at the overlook for the dam at E 180th street.
A school of fish swim downstream of the combined sewage outfall in Starlight Park in the South Bronx.
Maggie Greenfield, Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance and Bronx River Administrator for the City of New York speaks with a journalist from News 12 after the release of 400 Alewife Herring into the river at the Bronx Zoo, April, 2019.
One of the 'Pillars of Moses' in the Bronx River at Starlight Park, a support column for a planned, though never completed connection from the Sheridan Expressway onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. At this point the Bronx River was artificially straightened and given armored embankments by Robert Moses to allow for the project.
Kinney Glass, Program and Operations Assistant with Rocking the Boat instructs students from the Bronx Academy for Multi-Media in sailing at the mouth of the Bronx River. While attending weekly programming at Rocking the Boat, students experience sailing and rowing on the Bronx River, along with environmental education.
Diana Fu, Education Field Science Specialist at Billion Oyster Project describes oyster anatomy and the process of measuring oysters to students of The Bronx High School of Science. On this day the students placed three cages of live oysters in the river at Concrete Plant Park as a part of the Oyster Research Station Program, an initiative meant to engage students from the city in hands-on science education.
Dr. Allison Fitzgerald, New York Oyster Program Coordinator with NY/NJ Baykeeper holds an oyster being measured during citizen science monitoring of the 5 acre Soundview Oyster Reef, New York City's largest reef.
The first cages installed at the Soundview Oyster Reef revealed during a 'King Tide', Summer 2021.
The remnants of an old boat along the shoreline at Soundview Park, where the Bronx River connects with the Long Island Sound.