Restoration and Resilience in NYC

The Mohegan Indians called the river Aquehung, meaning River of High Bluffs. European traders came in the early 1600s, attracted by the healthy beavers in the region. Jonas Bronck—whom the river and the part of the city was eventually named after—bought 500 acres surrounding the Bronx River in 1639. Following that, many mills and industries were built along the river. Still, in the 1820s to 1830s, the water quality remained pristine enough to be considered as a drinking water source. By the end of the century, however, the quality had decreased so significantly that one commissioner called it an “open sewer.” Highways and other transportation hubs built through the mid-1900s fragmented neighborhoods and created barriers to river access, particularly in the South Bronx, many of which remain to this day. Today, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation recognizes the neighborhoods in the South Bronx as environmental justice communities. 

Starting in the 1970s, the community began organizing to protect the Bronx River watershed. In 2001, this group formed the  Bronx River Alliance , an organization that works with community partners to promote river clean-up and restoration, greenway development, and community education and outreach.

"Without the Federal Partnership, local communities would be left with a gap in the Bronx River Greenway in the South Bronx that is essential for thousands of people to access the river and our new parks along it. The Partnership supported the efforts of the Alliance and NYC Parks to work through the myriad issues—liability, assembling the capital funding, coordination with Amtrak—to make that project possible." ~Maggie Scott Greenfield, Executive Director, Bronx River Alliance

The Harlem River and surrounding regions were inhabited by the Coastal Algonquin Indians who harvested the large tulip trees to make canoes. As European settlers colonized the land, bridges were built across the river to connect Manhattan and the Bronx, including the High Bridge, which was built in 1848 and used as a freshwater pipeline for the city. As  more and more bridges  were constructed to connect to Manhattan, the river was “forgotten” and became a thoroughfare for transportation hubs, especially railways. Used mainly for shipping purposes, the Harlem was channelized and diverted in its  northern section, severely altering Spuyten Duyvil Creek—the original outlet to the Hudson River—in 1895 to enhance shipping routes. Today, the river is not swimmable or fishable, and about 90% of the shoreline is hardened and inaccessible, with considerably less access on the Bronx side of the channel.

Learn more about  Harlem River History  from  Confluence: The History of North American Rivers , an environmental humanities project at Columbia University. 

Since 2011, the program has expanded to 20 locations nationwide. The program’s accomplishments and milestones are summarized in EPA's  Urban Waters Program Progress Report , which celebrates its first decade.

The  Bronx and Harlem River Watersheds Urban Waters Federal Partnership  was designed to reconnect marginalized communities in the Bronx to healthy and clean waterways and riverfronts.

Located between the High Bridge and the Alexander Hamilton Bridge,  NYC Parks’  upcoming Bridge Park South will expand the Harlem River Greenway by half a mile and include about 5 new acres of waterfront park space. The location is currently an inaccessible and busy thoroughfare for cars and trains along the Harlem River.

Efforts supporting the development of the park include water quality monitoring by the USGS, creating 100 feet of living shoreline, and ensuring equitable and safe pedestrian access to the site.

The park is currently in the design phase and construction is projected to begin 2023 with support from New York State Department of Transportation, New York City Council, the Office of the Bronx Borough President, and the New York State Department of State.

With support from the US Department of Transportation  TIGER  funding, the Partnership (including the Bronx River Alliance, NYC Parks, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, NYC Department of Design and Construction, NYS Department of Transportation, and Amtrak) broke ground on the  Starlight Park expansion  in 2016. Three phases of construction include (1) re-naturalizing the hardened shoreline and restoring salt marsh ecosystems along the Bronx River, (2)  connecting Concrete and Starlight Parks  with a pedestrian bridge over the river and over an Amtrak line, and (3) linking the east and west banks of the park with a pedestrian bridge.

Ultimately, the project will improve the existing park, expand the park by 11 acres, create a link where there was a gap in the Bronx River Greenway, and increase resiliency of nearby communities while providing greenspace and accessibility to around 400,000 residents in the South Bronx.

Using a  monitoring framework  developed by the New York State Department of State, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Measuring Success of Natural and Nature-Based Resiliency Features (NNBF) targets four locations along the Bronx and Harlem Rivers. Student interns from local organizations are working during the summer of 2021 and into 2022 to collect data on the capacity of NNBF to increase ecosystem and human health as well as mitigate storm impacts. These data are crucial to informing decision-makers and urban planners; and the experience fosters environmental leadership in local students.

A joint effort by EPA, NY-NJ Harbor and Estuary Program, NYC Parks, the Bronx River Alliance, Natural Areas Conservancy, and Randall's Island Park Alliance, this project occurs at multiple locations throughout both the Bronx and Harlem watersheds, including Bridge Park South, Randall's Island, Soundview Park, and others. [Refer to the  Key Locations  map to view these areas.]

Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972,  water quality has improved  in the Bronx and Harlem watersheds, but issues with bacteria from combined sewer overflows (CSOs), legacy pollutants, and floatable litter pollution  remain .

Bronx and Harlem partners assess different water quality parameters—like Enterococcus (Entero), metals, and nutrients—to help inform water-users and decision-makers.

Agencies including the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), NYC Parks, and the USGS also have a visible presence in the community, participating in local events like the NY & NJ Harbor Estuary's  City of Water Day  to educate community members and youth about the science behind the monitoring results.

In 2015, the NYC DEP completed a  Long Term Control Plan  (LTCP) for the Bronx River in an effort to understand the impacts of CSOs on water quality as well as identify best management practices and infrastructure updates to control them. Other monitoring efforts within the river support the overall goals of the LTCP.

 Project Water DROP  (Detecting River Outfalls and Pollutants) is a community science program to monitor Entero led by the Bronx River Alliance. Entero is a bacteria that strongly suggests the presence of raw sewage and a high likelihood for negative human health impacts. Results are reported on the  Riverkeeper  and  Bronx River Alliance  water quality program websites.

The USGS, using  cooperative matching funds , also partners with the Bronx River Alliance to study Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and microbial source tracking.

Floatable litter and street trash remain persistent problems within the Bronx and Harlem watersheds. The Partnership supports multiple efforts at reducing urban litter.

Spearheaded by the Bronx River Alliance in partnership with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission,  Project WASTE  (Water And Street Trash Elimination) was launched in 2016 to eliminate waste in the Bronx River watershed through community, science-based stewardship. The projects use a combination of on-land and in-stream litter collection activities that have successfully engaged over 3,500 students, educators, and residents to collect more than 200,000 pieces of trash.