2025 Results Summary
Compiled by Ileya du Boulay, WJL 2025 Youth Mentor
- NATURE Lab Water Justice Lab (WJL) youth fellows processed water samples from 26 sampling sites in the Hudson River Watershed, also known by the indigenous Mohican name the Mahicannituck.
- This year, the NATURE Lab is responsible for testing water samples spreading over 155 miles of the watershed.
- The data is compiled for public science in terms of research, conservation, and general public knowledge utilized by Riverkeeper.
- The sampling locations range from public spaces to residential areas, through rural and urban landscapes, with WJL youth fellows having collected a portion of the samples on a monthly basis.
- The WJL fellows’ sampling contributes to the ‘Swimming + boating’ tab: https://data.riverkeeper.org/recreation. The indicator measured was the concentration of Enterococcus faecalis, a mammalian fecal bacteria, found in the samples in the value of a Most Probable Number (MPN).
- A single freshwater sample should not exceed 60 MPN to be considered safe for recreational contact. On average, the majority of the tested samples exceeded this value during each testing period.
- Some MPN values were so extreme, they exceeded the scale of measurement used by 10x.
- There was no single sampling site that remained within passing MPN values throughout monthly sampling from June to October.
- Moreau Lake State Park Launch (Moreau) and Schroon River at Paper Mill Park Launch (Warrensburg) were amongst the lowest MPN values from June to October.
- Piscawenkill (Troy) and Bradley Beach Kayak Launch (Fort Edward) samples were over 10x fail, with recorded rain up to three days prior, throughout the majority of the sampling from June to October.
- The month with the most 10x failed MPN sample results was September 2025, which concurrently had the most recorded rain up to three days prior to the sampling.
In the Lab
Below are images from our first two days at NATURE Lab for our 2025 testing season. From May through October, WJL Youth Fellows process water samples to test for the presence of sewage contamination, as described on our main page. Sampling and processing takes place at NATURE Lab across two days one weekend a month, and data becomes part of River Keeper’s water quality program. You can check out the data set we contribute to on the Water Quality Portal, which includes the great interactive map seen below (click to view).
