Geoff Welch said he was preparing for the upcoming Ramapo River Watershed Conference when he received word that there was something funny with the fish in Four Corners Pond. Welch got the report about dead fish along Warwick Brook, which eventually finds its way into We-wah Lake and then into the Ramapo River. Welch and fellow Ramapo River Committee member and Ramapo College Professor of Environmental Studies Howard Horowitz drove out to investigate. The two quickly found what they were looking for.

“Someone told me about it, showed me pictures of dead fish and I was with Howard Horowitz — working on the Ramapo River Watershed Conference — and we decided to go up there,” said Welch, who hiked around Four Corners Pond and the adjacent wetlands. “Beyond the pond you could see all this muck from algae and it smelled terrible. There was a catfish that had swum up to the surface and was trying to gulp air — its whiskers were right at the pond surface. We couldn’t really help. It looked distressed. Hopefully, it was able to get some oxygen.”

Welch believes the likely fish kill culprit is the massive mulch pile on Long Meadow Road. Owned by the Town of Tuxedo, the site is part of the town’s Department of Public Works facility. The mulch pile was cited in October of 2011 by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for wastewater discharges, wetlands contamination and various other violations. The DEC charged that the town had not made sufficient changes from previous citations. For non-compliance, Tuxedo was fined $66,000.

“They’re grinding up organic material,” he said, “and there’s a certain level of nutrients in that that would stimulate plant growth — phosphorus and nitrogen. So when that goes into the wetlands, it over-fertilizes it and gives it too many nutrients. The excessive nutrients cause an algae bloom and you wind up with eutrophic, oxygen depleted water.”

Located smack between Sterling and Tuxedo Lakes, the Town of Tuxedo leases the site to popular local tree trimming company Perfect Cut, which provides free mulch to Tuxedo residents, though there is controversy over how much Perfect Cut has paid the town for use of the location. The current mountain of mulch is so high that it’s regularly watered to prevent the heated compressed composting pile from bursting into flames. Water collected in lagoons adjacent to the mulch has leeched into nearby sensitive wetlands. Drainage pipes at Long Meadow Road were recently cleared of debris to prevent stormwater from overflowing the lagoons and spilling onto Long Meadow. The released nutrient-rich, contaminated water is killing fish downstream all the way to Four Corners Pond, a popular fishing and recreational spot.

“You have a sizable wetlands next to the mulch pile that was in very bad condition because of the run off,” Welch said, referring to brown, brackish wetland to the east of the site where water collects into a natural pond that then feeds Warwick Brook. “Even beyond the pond, you could see all this muck from algae and it smelled terrible. Recent and past tests show that virtually no oxygen is left in that wetlands adjacent to the mulch site.”

Oily, slimy water surfaces and blackened banks with pooling orange foam extend from Four Corners Pond down to the Ramapo River and may go all the way to East Village in Tuxedo.

View Geoff Welch’s photo investigation of Warwick Brook and Four Corners Pond. Source for additional photo coverage of the fish kill and contamination can be found here.

Photos courtesy of Geoff Welch.

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