Riverkeeper manager to discuss sampling program

Dan Shapley, the water quality program manager for Riverkeeper, will speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 16, at The Hop in Beacon as part of Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries of Clarkson University’s ongoing Science Café series.

Dan Shapley (photo provided)
Dan Shapley (photo provided)

In “Science and the Backbone of the Body Politic,” Shapley will describe how water sampling efforts in the Hudson River Estuary are shaping policy, laws and infrastructure investment while building community throughout the Hudson Valley and New York City. Shapley has helped build one of the state’s most extensive citizen science efforts, with communities along 600 miles of shoreline collecting water samples at 300 monitoring locations throughout the Hudson River Estuary.

The data collected is sobering: 100 percent of the river’s tributaries would fail to meet federal guidelines for safe swimming due to frequency of contamination spikes; 94 percent of stream segments monitored would fail due to the degree of contamination.

The talk, which is free, will take place in The Hop’s outdoor pavilion behind the restaurant. Registration is required at bire.org/events.

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