Casperkill Watershed Oral History Project

In February 2009, the Vassar College Environmental Research Institute, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Environment Program, and the Casperkill Watershed Alliance researched and compiled a thorough report on the health of the Casperkill Creek. Students and faculty working with ERI (Vassar’s Environmental Research Instutitue) spent two years studying the creek and the watershed. This post is the first in a series that will summarize the findings of that report.

The research began in spring of 2006, after members of the ERI grew concerned about the health of the stream (especially for the aquatic communities in the stream) after they noticed several algal blooms on Sunset Lake and read about raw sewage spills in the Poughkeepsie Journal. Research continued for 22 months, as student and faculty worked to determine what the overall health of the stream is, identify the sources of pollution, and reach out to local residents and government officials to improve water quality.

Research included water quality monitoring on a monthly basis, assessing parameters such as the amount of road salt in the stream; dissolved oxygen,nutrient, bacteria, and heavy metal levels; stream water pH; the extent and type of streamside vegetation; and the state of aquatic organisms. The majority of samples were taken between rainfall events, at times of low flow.

An aerial photograph of the Town and City of Poughkeepsie, highlighting the location of the Casperkill, its watershed boundaries, and the 21 sampling sites used in the study. (Channel location between Tucker Dr. and Manchester Gardens is approximate due to the fact that much of it is underground in pipes. The Fontyenkill tributary flows between the Park Ave. and Fonteynkill sites.)

Another crucial aspect of the project was community outreach:

Casperkill Assessment Project (CAP) members presented their findings at public forums in September of 2006 and 2007, during which streamside residents expressed concerns about pollution, flooding, and loss of biodiversity. These forums led to further presentations before the town board of the Town of Poughkeepsie and at local Hudson Valley watershed conferences. CAP members also distributed a survey to residents and business owners in the watershed to determine how residents viewed and used the stream and whether sufficient interest existed to create a watershed protection group. The goal of the CAP is to build a collaborative project involving residents of Poughkeepsie and students and faculty at Vassar College to help make the Casperkill the best and healthiest possible community resources.

This post adapted from and quoted,

“The Health of the Casperkill, Dutchess County, New York.” Prepared by the Vassar College Environmental Institute, with Cornell Cooperative Extension Environment Program and the Casperkill Watershed Alliance. February 2009.