Braving Possible Poo, Hundreds Swim In East River

Yesterday, NYC Swim held its annual Brooklyn Bridge swim, a 1K across the East River. About 400 people participated, which apparently was less than in previous years. It seems that some may have been thinking about the warnings about raw sewage which was dumped into waterways after a four-alarm fire that devastated a wastewater treatment plant.

One swimmer told the Daily News, "I had two moments when I felt something that wasn't water, but I don't want to know what it was. It could've been a plastic bag, it could be ...seaweed, but you don't ask. You just swim." Another explained his secret to keeping healthy after swimming in the river: "I do a shot of tequila to clean out my system."

The swim race's founder says the water is clean and the race was won by Katherine O’Connor, who crossed the river in 13 minutes and 30 seconds. For what it's worth, the East River has always had an infamous reputation, whether as a place where the mob would dump bodies or as being polluted. In an episode of Seinfeld, Kramer takes to swimming in the East River. Jerry was concerned, "You're swimming in the East River? The most heavily trafficked overly contaminated waterway on the eastern seaboard?" but Kramer pointed out, "Technically Norfolk has more gross tonnage," and noted that he had company, "I saw a couple of other guys out there... Floating, they weren't moving much. But they were out there."

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on July 31, 2011 2:35 PM

Comments [rss]

mike35225

Oh Gothamist:
How I love to regularly read you, but this was disappointing.

The Daily New piece was pure trash (nice picture though).

Ellen Weinberg is a friend - and on her facebook page commented at the time of the interview and after the article was printed - that the Daily News reporter was trying to get her to says things about the water that were untrue.

The advisories were lifted on the waterways on Thursday and the NY DEP and NJ DEP tests were definitive - that is why the swim event was allowed to be held, people were allowed to kayak/sail the rivers and the beaches reopened.In this environment, the politicians are too gun shy to allow syringes to jeopardize their careers. They waited, I believe too long, to lift the advisories when they were sure it was OK.

Please issue a retraction and please QC your re-purposing of other quotes - especially the Daily News and NY Post.

Thank you.

NYC_Swim

The interviews quoted herein are mischaracterized and the result of the DN reporter going back to the post-event festivities, under the instructions of her editor, to hunt down negative comments about the water after her initial interviews failed to produce any such thing. Since 1993, NYC Swim has attracted 15,000 participants in more than 125 swimming races. There have been incidents when events were canceled due to unsatisfactory water quality. Had the tests shown that yesterday's event was unsafe, it would not have been held. Please do not perpetuate mistruths that make compelling headlines but alarm current and future participants and undermine the hard work of numerous local agencies and groups who appreciate our vibrant waters. -NYC Swim

Christopher J. Stephens

Despite all the worrying about water quality, the event was great. I've done this swim every year, and I can't say that I noticed any issues with the water yesterday. I was grateful that there wasn't much wind, and hence not much chop. The tides were stronger than last year, pushing some of the swimmers a little off course in the middle of the channel, but nothing to worry about. You might have mentioned that DEP testing done on Thursday showed that the East River was measurably cleaner then than it was before the fire at the North River Water Treatment Plant. NYCSwim.org has another race scheduled for September, this time around Governors Island.