New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton today announced the adoption of water quality standards and classification regulations to strengthen water pollution protections in the majority of waterways in and around New York City. The amendments are a key component of an unprecedented and ongoing collaboration to elevate and achieve water quality and ecological health in saline (or marine) waters, ensuring future generations will inherit cleaner, safer waterways for swimming, boating, and fishing.

“These landmark regulatory changes are a result of decades of progress in reducing pollution and a clear sign that New York City’s waterways are the cleanest they’ve been in more than a generation,” Commissioner Lefton said.  “Under Governor Kathy Hochul’s leadership, DEC is committed to working with our environmental agency partners at New York City and federal levels to ensure all New Yorkers, including those in environmental justice communities, have access to clean water. These new classifications raise the bar and allow -- for the first time -- the potential for safe fishing, boating, or swimming in some of the city’s resurgent waterways.”

“The waters around New York City are cleaner than they’ve been in decades,” DEP Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala said. “The return of whales, seals, and other marine life is the result of billions we’ve invested to reduce combined sewer overflows by nearly 85% since the 1990s. As climate change fuels stronger storms and causes more flooding, we must ensure that our ongoing work to clean our waterways will also address the issues New Yorkers talk to me about most: stormwater resilience and affordability. I thank DEC for their thoughtful work on these standards and I look forward to working with them to design programs that achieve all the goals New Yorkers care about.”

Since July 2022, DEC led the effort to elevate water quality and public health protections in the state’s saline waters. Through a series of regulatory advancements, DEC is ensuring that the goals of the Clean Water Act – making waters fishable and swimmable – are realized to their fullest potential. This initiative represents one of the most significant elevations of water quality goals in a generation.

DEC’s regulatory updates amend key water quality classifications under State environmental regulations, including: 

• Upgrading the classification of 30 waterbody segments, significantly expanding the areas that are protected for swimming and fishing;
• Strengthening water quality standards for saline waters, ensuring better protection for recreational and ecological uses year-round; and
• Providing enhanced protections for historically impacted areas such as the Harlem River, Gowanus Canal, New York Harbor, and Long Island Sound. 

These landmark regulatory changes are not just incremental improvements—they build upon decades of progress to deliver a transformative impact. Opportunities for recreation in saline, or marine, waters, were historically limited due to pollution from untreated sewage via combined sewer overflows (CSO), particularly in and around New York City. Since 1974, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection worked closely with DEC to limit CSOs and greatly improve water quality. The rule adopted today will bring about additional water quality improvements and greater opportunities for safe swimming and boating in the State’s saline waters. While these efforts do not instantly permit swimming or fishing in all waters, they establish the strongest protections to date, allowing DEC to further reduce pollutant inputs and safeguard the progress already made. These upgrades ensure that future generations inherit cleaner, safer waterways.

Among the many highlights of the regulation changes, DEC’s amendments set the goal of making swimming possible in the Harlem River for the first time. The upgraded classifications of the Harlem River reflect years of work and investment that will result in water quality that is appropriate for swimming for the majority of the recreational season, with the number of days increasing over time. The reclassifications include wet weather designations, which are an interim step while water quality improvement projects are underway. This is necessary because our work towards improving water quality in the Harlem River is not over. DEC will reevaluate the river to analyze the improvements achieved by the ongoing projects. The current effort is evidence that DEC takes setting protective goals for New York’s waters seriously and will revise such goals to make meaningful improvements into the future.

DEC reminds the public to always swim only at State- or locally permitted beaches and to follow the New York State Department of Health fish consumption advisories before eating any fish caught in any state waters. Waterbody reclassification and application of the amendments alone do not guarantee the safety of swimming or other uses of waterways. Variable conditions including rainfall, currents, boat traffic, and bottom conditions or submerged hazards each contribute to the safe use of any waterbody. If swimming somewhere other than a regulated bathing beach, DEC has resources to help the public make informed decisions and avoid potential hazards. DEC also encourages those fishing and shellfishing in any State waters to closely consult consumption and harvest information available on the State Department of Health and DEC websites.

Today’s announcement is the completion of the third phase in DEC’s multi-phase approach to align standards and best uses assigned to the State’s saline, or marine, waters to uses currently practiced. Phase one was the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) released July 2022 that solicited data from the public on how they used these waters for fishing and recreational purposes. Phase two adopted in October 2023 included new water quality standards to strengthen Enterococci standards. Phase three began in April 2025 with a proposal to expand protections to additional waterbodies where they did not previously apply. Additional future phases will reclassify the remaining 24 Class I and SD waters and provide use attainability analyses where applicable.