Save the Sound’s 2025 monitoring data shows recurring bacteria failures at private beach clubs in Throggs Neck, including during dry weather. White Cross Fishing Club recorded failures in 39% of 57 samples: 60% of 15 wet-weather samples and 31% of 42 dry-weather samples, according to the Sound Health Explorer.
Trinity Danish Young People’s Society recorded failures in 33% of its samples. The site lists a 60% failure rate for 15 wet-weather samples and a 23% rate for 39 dry-weather samples, according to the Sound Health Explorer. The contrast between wet- and dry-weather results suggests rainfall is associated with higher failure rates, while the dry-weather results show that rain is not the only condition in which failures occur.
The results provide clues, not a source determination
The testing looks for enterococci, bacteria used to indicate fecal contamination in marine waters. Those bacteria can come from people or other warm-blooded animals, including geese. Save the Sound monitors nearly 200 public and private beaches through its certified Healthy Waters Institute laboratory in Larchmont, according to the Bronx Times. The results document elevated bacteria at the sampled locations but do not, on their own, establish which source caused a particular failure.
The broader comparison is unfavorable for New York City. In Save the Sound’s 2025 report, 77% of 192 Long Island Sound beaches received A or B grades, compared with 27% of New York City beaches. Talk of the Sound reported that 72.7% of New York City Sound beaches received C, D or F grades and that the city beaches had a 47.4% wet-weather failure rate. Orchard Beach received the highest grade among Bronx beaches, a B+, according to Talk of the Sound.
Rain-related sewer discharges are one possible pathway. In areas with combined sewers, household sewage and stormwater share pipes; heavy rainfall can overwhelm those systems and send both into surrounding waterways, the Bronx Times reported. Save the Sound also mapped drainage areas and stormwater outfalls feeding Eastchester Bay. One discussed outfall, HP-648, collects runoff from a particularly large drainage area, while outfalls affecting the clubs drain nearly 16 million square feet that includes part of Interstate 695. These are potential pathways, not evidence that HP-648 or another outfall caused any particular beach failure.
The city’s regulatory response includes a Long-Term Control Plan for the Hutchinson River, which empties into Eastchester Bay. The plan received state approval in March 2017, according to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. The supplied information does not show how that plan relates to the private-club sampling results.
What the existing plans and standards show
The available planning documents do not quantify how often combined-sewer overflows or related discharges affected Hutchinson River or Eastchester Bay in recent years. They do show a longstanding concern: in April 2015, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection said the Hutchinson River did not meet existing Class SB criteria for fecal coliform bacteria or dissolved oxygen and identified periods after rain when wet-weather advisories should be considered. A 2023 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation notice said the plan approved in March 2017 included work at CSO outfall HP-024, later revised to a 2.8 million gallon storage conduit with floatables control and a July 2033 construction-completion milestone. A failed enterococci sample should be read as an indicator that bacteria levels exceeded the applicable monitoring criterion, not as proof of a particular pollution source. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says its recreational-water criteria are health-protection recommendations that states and tribes can use as guidance when setting their own standards. Its 2024 technical materials also recognize that recreational waters may have predominantly non-human fecal loading and describe source-based approaches for developing alternative criteria. The supplied information does not identify a specific enterococci threshold for these clubs or establish that a failed sample alone triggers a particular advisory.
The clubs’ proposed responses
The monitoring prompted White Cross Fishing Club to organize a Sept. 8 town hall attended by club members, elected officials and environmental advocates. The Bronx Times reported that White Cross, American Turners New York, Danish American Beach Club, Trinity Danish Young People’s Society and Manhem Beach Club took part after a New York Post report on poor grades at several Bronx beaches.
According to the Bronx Times, participants discussed an Interclub Water Quality Committee that could coordinate with the Department of Environmental Protection, Save the Sound and elected officials. State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez also called for attention to pollution sources and existing infrastructure, the outlet reported. The account does not establish that the proposed committee has been formed or that it has identified a cause.
A separate project at American Turners New York involves an oyster monitoring cage installed by City Island Oyster Reef. Volunteers and children are tracking oyster growth, survival and biodiversity. Oysters and mussels filter water, but the project is described as a small-scale habitat and research effort rather than a replacement for larger infrastructure measures, according to the Bronx Times.
The Bronx Times also reported that attendees discussed the proposed Bally’s Bronx casino at Ferry Point as a possible avenue for funding water-quality, environmental-mitigation and infrastructure work. Whether that idea produces money for cleanup remains unresolved. The monitoring establishes repeated failures at the sampled clubs, but the available reporting does not establish a single cause or a confirmed remedy.
