Crappiest Swimming Areas In NY, Literally! Safe to Swim Here?

Summer is here and the water is calling! The lakes, rivers and swimming holes around the Capital Region are some of the best ways to cool off when the temperature rises but sometimes you just want to hit the road and take a dip in other waters. Before you take that trip, here is something you need to know.

Some water destinations are crappier than others and I am not talking about the view.

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Save the Sound is a an organization whose mission is to protect and improve the land, air, and water of Long Island Sound. Recently they monitored fecal bacteria in the waters of Long Island Sound. Their findings vary from location to location with some getting a clean and safe result while others failed as much as 10 times.

Save the Sound collects and tests water quality from Greenwich, CT, through Westchester County, to Queens, and into Nassau County. Samples are analyzed for fecal indicator bacteria to determine if waters are safe for swimming. Here are some of these results.

Photo by Jillian Werner on Unsplash

These locations had a 10TXs FAIL:

Playland Lake at Edith Read Natural Park, Rye, NY
Blind Brook, Rye Nature Center, Rye, NY
Glover Field, Mount Vernon, NY
Pelham Lake at Wilson Wood Park
Parsons Beach at 233rd Street, Queens, NYC, NY

These locations were cleaner but still failed:

Van Amringe Millpond, Mamaroneck Village, NY
Shore Acres Yacht Club, Mamaroneck Village, NY
Flint Park, Larchmont, NY

This is just a partial list. Complete findings can be found HERE.

New York's 14 Best Beach Towns You Need To Visit ASAP

LOOK: See America's 50 Best Beach Towns

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.