Quassaick Creek
Encyclopedia
Quassaick Creek is an 18.4 miles (29.6 km) tributary
of the Hudson River
in Orange
and Ulster
counties in the U.S. state
of New York
. It rises in the glacial ridges west of the river, near the boundary between the towns of Plattekill and Marlborough
. From there it flows south into the town of Newburgh
and then the city
, where it eventually forms part of the border between it and neighboring New Windsor
before emptying into the Hudson.
It was one of the earliest places settled by Europeans
in the vicinity of what is present-day Newburgh. Milling and other industries were drawn to its banks, and it is impounded
several times in its lower course, most significantly at Chadwick Lake
, the Town of Newburgh's local water supply
. The industrial development of the lower banks led to serious pollution
of the creek in the 20th century. In the wake of successful cleanup efforts, some local citizens and organizations have proposed a system of parks and trails along the lower creek.
, a half-mile east of the small hamlet known as Tuckers Corners in the Ulster County town of Plattekill. From there it flows downward into the valley through a minimally developed series of swamp
s and ponds, south but trending further to the west. Just south of the hamlet of Plattekill
, it reaches the Orange County line, then quickly jogs back due west into Ulster County, crossing under its first major road, NY 32
, in the process. Then it resumes a southerly heading, paralleling Old Mill Road, the New York State Thruway
and Route 32 back into Orange County. Two miles (3 km) to the south, it opens up into Chadwick Lake
, a reservoir built in 1926 as the town's main water supply. It is today a town park, with trails and a playground
at the southern end.
After the dam, NY 300
crosses and Quassaick Creek remains parallel what is now Route 300 as it continues south. Here the surrounding land grows more developed and primarily residential. Finally, just north of Newburgh's Town Hall, it crosses 300 again and turns to the east, paralleling Gardnertown Road for almost a mile to county-owned Algonquin Park. In the marshes at the southeastern corner, it receives Bushfield Creek, its largest and only named tributary, then crosses under NY 52
and into another impoundment, Winona Lake, which gives the suburban area and its local fire district their name.
From the lake's decaying spillway
the creek goes under Interstate 84
to Brookside Pond, in an undeveloped area just outside the city of Newburgh. The outflow from here veers east and then forms the line between the city and town of Newburgh as NY 17K
crosses. A short distance below this, it enters Harrison Pond and then veers east into the city, crossing NY 207
near its northern terminus. It parallels 17K through a slightly wooded corridor, then is impounded again to create Muchattoes Lake, the center of a housing project built during the city's urban renewal
efforts in the early 1970s. It crosses under Route 32 again, then widens and becomes the boundary between the city and the town of New Windsor
to its south. A short distance later, after crossing under US 9W
, a small valley opens up as it drops its last 100 feet (31 m) to reach the Hudson near a tank farm
.
settled along the north side of the creek near the Hudson, with the encouragement of Queen Anne
. They were the first inhabitants of what later became Newburgh, and as a reward for making it productive, every man, woman and child among them was later granted 50 acres (20 ha) each by the British crown. No trace of this settlement survives today.
As the settlement grew into the city, and other towns were established nearby, both before and after American independence, the creek proved to be very useful first for mill
ers and later to the developing factories
. Development continued far upstream. At today's Algonquin Park, a large gunpowder
mill complex, claimed at the time to be the largest in the country, was built. It is today recognized as the Orange Mill Historic District
, and some of the stone buildings are still standing.
In 1879 a large squatters' camp on the banks of the creek along the Newburgh-New Windsor divide caused some local concern. The men in it were alarming residents by drinking, reveling, littering and poaching
local produce, many refusing to or unable to find work. Newburgh police kept chasing the men away only to find they had reestablished themselves on the New Windsor side, where they had no jurisdiction nor (at the time) authority to pursue. They arrest
ed those they could and eventually most of the group left of their own accord.
The increasing development led the Town of Newburgh to build Chadwick Lake along the creek further upstream, where water came from lands that remain rural, in 1926. Throughout the rest of the century, the factories clustered along the creek in the city of Newburgh continued to freely discharge wastes into it.
Nothing was done about this until 1984, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
, sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service
with Hudson Riverkeeper
after an arrest for heroin possession the year before, heard from the organization's founder, John Cronin, about local complaints about the pollution of Quassaick Creek. The work with Riverkeeper had led Kennedy to decide on environmental law
as a career, and he resolved to identify all the polluters along the creek and sue them.
He and Cronin hiked along the lower seven miles (11 km) of the creek, taking notes and photos wherever they could. They dived and swam into ponds to collect samples, exposing themselves to raw sewage
and many toxin
s such as naphthalene
in the process. They sneaked
onto company roofs late at night to find illegal pipes. Eventually they identified 24 different sources of pollution and sued 16 different companies under the federal Clean Water Act
, all of which settled
before trial and helped clean up the lower Quassaick. Kennedy has since cited the experience as an epiphany
, the moment he grasped the connection between environmentalism
and his family's traditional involvement in social justice
: "The battle for the environment ... was the ultimate civil rights and human rights contest, a struggle to maintain public control over publicly owned resources against special interests that would monopolize, segregate and liquidate them for cash." Since then the creek has recovered to the extent that residents have begun planning on how it could made accessible and used as a park.
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
in Orange
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
and Ulster
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
counties in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It rises in the glacial ridges west of the river, near the boundary between the towns of Plattekill and Marlborough
Marlborough, New York
Marlborough is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 8,263 at the 2000 census. The town was named after the Duke of Marlborough....
. From there it flows south into the town of Newburgh
Newburgh (town), New York
Newburgh is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The 2010 census determined the population is 29,801. This is the first time ever that the population of the Town of Newburgh officially exceeded that of the adjacent but totally separate municipality known as the city of Newburgh...
and then the city
Newburgh (city), New York
Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...
, where it eventually forms part of the border between it and neighboring New Windsor
New Windsor, New York
New Windsor is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 25,244 in 2010 by the US Census.The Town of New Windsor is in the eastern part of the county, bordering the Town of Newburgh and the City of Newburgh....
before emptying into the Hudson.
It was one of the earliest places settled by Europeans
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
in the vicinity of what is present-day Newburgh. Milling and other industries were drawn to its banks, and it is impounded
Impoundment
Impoundment is the election of a President of the United States not to spend money that has been appropriated by the U.S. Congress. The precedent for presidential impoundment was first set by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The power was available to all presidents up to and including Richard Nixon, and...
several times in its lower course, most significantly at Chadwick Lake
Chadwick Lake
Chadwick Lake is a reservoir supplying water to the Town of Newburgh, in Orange County, New York, United States. It was created by damming Quassaick Creek in 1926. It is located immediately to the northwest of the junction of NY 32 and 300 in the Cronomer Valley section of the town...
, the Town of Newburgh's local water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
. The industrial development of the lower banks led to serious pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
of the creek in the 20th century. In the wake of successful cleanup efforts, some local citizens and organizations have proposed a system of parks and trails along the lower creek.
Course
The creek rises on the western slope of the long glacial ridge known as Marlboro MountainMarlboro Mountains
The Marlboro Mountains, sometimes Marlborough Mountains, are a group of hogbacked mountains arranged in a 25 mile long ridge extending from Newburgh, New York to just south of Kingston, New York. Considered to be part of the Ridge and Valley Appalachians, the mountains, which reach elevations...
, a half-mile east of the small hamlet known as Tuckers Corners in the Ulster County town of Plattekill. From there it flows downward into the valley through a minimally developed series of swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
s and ponds, south but trending further to the west. Just south of the hamlet of Plattekill
Plattekill (CDP), New York
Plattekill is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 1,050 at the 2000 census. The community like its town is named after a local stream, the Platte Kill....
, it reaches the Orange County line, then quickly jogs back due west into Ulster County, crossing under its first major road, NY 32
New York State Route 32
New York State Route 32 is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with few divided and no limited-access sections. From Harriman to Albany,...
, in the process. Then it resumes a southerly heading, paralleling Old Mill Road, the New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
and Route 32 back into Orange County. Two miles (3 km) to the south, it opens up into Chadwick Lake
Chadwick Lake
Chadwick Lake is a reservoir supplying water to the Town of Newburgh, in Orange County, New York, United States. It was created by damming Quassaick Creek in 1926. It is located immediately to the northwest of the junction of NY 32 and 300 in the Cronomer Valley section of the town...
, a reservoir built in 1926 as the town's main water supply. It is today a town park, with trails and a playground
Playground
A playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors...
at the southern end.
After the dam, NY 300
New York State Route 300
New York State Route 300 is a state highway located west of the city of Newburgh in the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at a five-way intersection with NY 32 and NY 94 in the hamlet of Vails Gate...
crosses and Quassaick Creek remains parallel what is now Route 300 as it continues south. Here the surrounding land grows more developed and primarily residential. Finally, just north of Newburgh's Town Hall, it crosses 300 again and turns to the east, paralleling Gardnertown Road for almost a mile to county-owned Algonquin Park. In the marshes at the southeastern corner, it receives Bushfield Creek, its largest and only named tributary, then crosses under NY 52
New York State Route 52
New York State Route 52 is a long state highway in the southeastern part of New York in the United States. It generally runs from west to east, beginning at the Pennsylvania state line in the Delaware River near Narrowsburg, crossing the Hudson River on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, and ending...
and into another impoundment, Winona Lake, which gives the suburban area and its local fire district their name.
From the lake's decaying spillway
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...
the creek goes under Interstate 84
Interstate 84 (east)
Interstate 84 is an Interstate Highway extending from Dunmore, Pennsylvania at an interchange with Interstate 81 to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, at an interchange with the Massachusetts Turnpike . I-84 has mile-log junction numbering in Pennsylvania; otherwise, exit numbers are roughly sequential...
to Brookside Pond, in an undeveloped area just outside the city of Newburgh. The outflow from here veers east and then forms the line between the city and town of Newburgh as NY 17K
New York State Route 17K
New York State Route 17K is an east–west state highway located within Orange County, New York, in the United States. It extends for from an intersection with County Route 76 east of Bloomingburg to a junction with U.S. Route 9W midway across the city of Newburgh...
crosses. A short distance below this, it enters Harrison Pond and then veers east into the city, crossing NY 207
New York State Route 207
New York State Route 207 is a state highway located entirely within Orange County, New York, in the United States. It serves as a connector between the village of Goshen and the city of Newburgh. It has for a long time provided the main access to Stewart International Airport...
near its northern terminus. It parallels 17K through a slightly wooded corridor, then is impounded again to create Muchattoes Lake, the center of a housing project built during the city's urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
efforts in the early 1970s. It crosses under Route 32 again, then widens and becomes the boundary between the city and the town of New Windsor
New Windsor, New York
New Windsor is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was estimated at 25,244 in 2010 by the US Census.The Town of New Windsor is in the eastern part of the county, bordering the Town of Newburgh and the City of Newburgh....
to its south. A short distance later, after crossing under US 9W
U.S. Route 9W
U.S. Route 9W is a north–south U.S. Highway in the states of New Jersey and New York. It begins on Fletcher Avenue in Fort Lee, New Jersey as it crosses the US 1 & 9, US 46, and the Interstate 95 approaches to the George Washington Bridge, where it heads north up the west...
, a small valley opens up as it drops its last 100 feet (31 m) to reach the Hudson near a tank farm
Tank farm
Tank farm may refer to the:*Alternate name for an oil depot, a facility for storage of liquid petroleum products or petrochemicals*Tank Farm, also known as 'Tuff Crater', a volcanic crater in the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand...
.
History
In 1709, over 50 German PalatinesGerman Palatines
The German Palatines were natives of the Electoral Palatinate region of Germany, although a few had come to Germany from Switzerland, the Alsace, and probably other parts of Europe. Towards the end of the 17th century and into the 18th, the wealthy region was repeatedly invaded by French troops,...
settled along the north side of the creek near the Hudson, with the encouragement of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
. They were the first inhabitants of what later became Newburgh, and as a reward for making it productive, every man, woman and child among them was later granted 50 acres (20 ha) each by the British crown. No trace of this settlement survives today.
As the settlement grew into the city, and other towns were established nearby, both before and after American independence, the creek proved to be very useful first for mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
ers and later to the developing factories
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
. Development continued far upstream. At today's Algonquin Park, a large gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
mill complex, claimed at the time to be the largest in the country, was built. It is today recognized as the Orange Mill Historic District
Orange Mill Historic District
The Orange Mill Historic District is the only one in the Town of Newburgh in Orange County, New York. It encompasses the of county-run Algonquin Park and many of the surrounding lands...
, and some of the stone buildings are still standing.
In 1879 a large squatters' camp on the banks of the creek along the Newburgh-New Windsor divide caused some local concern. The men in it were alarming residents by drinking, reveling, littering and poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
local produce, many refusing to or unable to find work. Newburgh police kept chasing the men away only to find they had reestablished themselves on the New Windsor side, where they had no jurisdiction nor (at the time) authority to pursue. They arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
ed those they could and eventually most of the group left of their own accord.
The increasing development led the Town of Newburgh to build Chadwick Lake along the creek further upstream, where water came from lands that remain rural, in 1926. Throughout the rest of the century, the factories clustered along the creek in the city of Newburgh continued to freely discharge wastes into it.
Nothing was done about this until 1984, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
, sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
with Hudson Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is an environmental non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water...
after an arrest for heroin possession the year before, heard from the organization's founder, John Cronin, about local complaints about the pollution of Quassaick Creek. The work with Riverkeeper had led Kennedy to decide on environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
as a career, and he resolved to identify all the polluters along the creek and sue them.
He and Cronin hiked along the lower seven miles (11 km) of the creek, taking notes and photos wherever they could. They dived and swam into ponds to collect samples, exposing themselves to raw sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
and many toxin
Toxin
A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...
s such as naphthalene
Naphthalene
Naphthalene is an organic compound with formula . It is a white crystalline solid with a characteristic odor that is detectable at concentrations as low as 0.08 ppm by mass. As an aromatic hydrocarbon, naphthalene's structure consists of a fused pair of benzene rings...
in the process. They sneaked
Trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels and trespass to land.Trespass to the person, historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem, and maiming...
onto company roofs late at night to find illegal pipes. Eventually they identified 24 different sources of pollution and sued 16 different companies under the federal Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
, all of which settled
Settlement (law)
In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. The term "settlement" also has other meanings in the context of law.-Basis:...
before trial and helped clean up the lower Quassaick. Kennedy has since cited the experience as an epiphany
Epiphany (feeling)
An epiphany is the sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something...
, the moment he grasped the connection between environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
and his family's traditional involvement in social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
: "The battle for the environment ... was the ultimate civil rights and human rights contest, a struggle to maintain public control over publicly owned resources against special interests that would monopolize, segregate and liquidate them for cash." Since then the creek has recovered to the extent that residents have begun planning on how it could made accessible and used as a park.