Rye’s two public beaches ranked among the 10 worst in New York and Connecticut, a Long Island Sound water quality report released Tuesday found.
Save the Sound, the environmental group which monitors water quality of the Long Island Sound, graded Playland Beach a C+ and Oakland Beach at Rye Town Park a D+ in their report, which documented more than 200 beaches along the Sound.
Both of the city’s public beaches have historically been plagued by sewer overflows and the runoff of dirty street water during days of heavy rain. Such runoff brings the residue of lawn fertilizer and animal feces straight into the Sound, increasing bacteria counts, according to the findings, which were published on May 20.
“When it rains, it’s poor,” as the report put it.
“Polluted stormwater runoff is one of the primary stressors of water quality at our beaches, especially as storms become more frequent and severe,” said Peter Linderoth, director of Healthy Waters and Land for Save the Sound. “Finding ways to minimize runoff to Oakland Beach … would help improve water quality and, correspondingly, a beach’s water quality grade.”
The grading system compared average water quality with that of water samples — monitored for fecal matter and bacteria counts — and matched it against state public health standards. The findings were based on water samples collected from 2022-24.
Linderoth said there was a general increase in “pathogen bacteria” collected in water samples during wet weather, which impacted results for beaches in Rye and throughout the Sound Shore.
Poor water quality risks “exposing swimmers to pathogens that can cause a variety of symptoms and could result in illnesses of the upper respiratory tract, hepatitis, Giardia (stomach) infection, as well as eye, ear, nose and throat irritations,” the report noted.
Typically, beaches close following major rain storms to protect swimmers from illness. Roughly 1,348 total “beach days” were lost in 2023-24 as a result of Long Island Sound beach closures caused by unhealthy water conditions, according to Save the Sound.
In early August, Playland, Oakland, Coveleigh Club, and eight other beaches along the Sound Shore had to be closed by the Westchester Health Department over elevated bacteria counts due to torrential rains. Oakland Beach at Rye Town Park was closed by the health department for three days at a time on two separate occasions last summer, according to town officials.
Such closures both reduced beach access for swimmers and revenue for the beach’s operating entities.
Overall, Westchester beaches failed to meet water quality health standards 14 percent of the time, the report found.
Other nearby low-scoring beaches included Byram Park Beach in Greenwich, Conn. (D), Harbor Island Beach in Mamaroneck (D), and Hudson Park in New Rochelle scored (C-).
The cleanest New York beaches on the Sound were all found in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where 10, including in Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson, received grades of A or A+.
Another beach that received an A was Orchard Beach in the Bronx — one of the most heavily-trafficked with more than 1.5 million visitors each year.
