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CURB is Participating in this Season's PEERS Program

This month CURB staff kicked off our PEERS water sampling program in the Saw Mill.

The Professional External Evaluations of Rivers and Streams (PEERS) program was created in 2012 by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation as a way to allow trained partners with appropriate credentials and an approved Quality Assurance Protection Plan to collect data that becomes part of the official state record.

CURB staff are collecting a number of physical and chemical water quality parameters from 6 sites along the Saw Mill’s mainstem on 4 occasions this year. Of particular interest are nutrient levels, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, as these are listed as suspected but not known impairments in the state’s Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List (WI/PWL). The WI/PWL is the state’s main method of tracking the health of streams and “monitoring progress toward the identification and resolution of water quality problems, pollutants, and sources.” However the last time the state sampled the Saw Mill to update this information was 2003.

Thus by engaging in PEERs and collecting these data CURB will bring updated water quality  information to light and have the potential to influence both how the Saw Mill is listed in these reports and prioritized for state management actions and funding.

This program is made possible with support from the Westchester Community Foundation. Thank you!