page_title: Fonteyn Kill
section_title: Watershed and hydrology
hierarchical_section_title: Fonteyn Kill / Watershed and hydrology
caption_attribution_description: English: The Fonteynkill looking downstream from the first floor of the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, US.
context_page_description: The Fonteyn Kill is a 1.5-kilometer-long urban stream flowing through Dutchess County, New York, onto the campus of Vassar College, and into the Casperkill. The stream was first on land inhabited by the native Wappinger band before being transferred to the Dutch and then the British. A mill was built along the kill by 1714 and the stream's presence influenced Matthew Vassar's decision to locate his college in the area. The artificial Vassar Lake lies midway down the Fonteyn Kill and was once used for ice skating and boating.
  While historically pure, the stream now suffers from urban stream syndrome, partially due to the amount of impervious surfaces within its watershed. Flowing over glacial till, the stream's bed is rich in cobbles and the kill supports populations of benthic macroinvertebrates, trees, shrubs, fish, birds, snapping turtles, and frogs. As of 2016, a Vassar–Cornell University program is monitoring the water quality of the Fonteyn Kill.
context_section_description: Historically, the Fonteyn Kill's water has been noted for its cleanness. In 1924, the stream's "purity" was noted while an 1867 book describes the kill's waters as "pellucid". More recently, the stream has been cited as suffering from urban stream syndrome. Surfaces surrounding the Fonteyn Kill are highly impervious; the stream drains an urban zone of the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, of which over 60% is impervious. The exact size of the kill's watershed is not known; an area at least as large as the known watershed is presumed to contribute to the stream's flow in the form of storm drainage. In spite of this, the stream itself is bordered by a combination of residential lots and forested swaths ranging from 4–70 meters (13–230 ft) in width. On Vassar's campus, the kill runs along the 4-acre (1.6 ha) outdoor Edith Roberts Ecological Laboratory and past the school's Shakespeare Garden.
  A 2010 study of the stream found that the Fonteyn Kill's specific conductance, a measure of the amount of dissolved road salt in the stream's water, was nearly 1.0 mS/cm, higher than any value recorded in the Casperkill. Sites upstream of Vassar Lake were recorded in a separate study as having specific conductances twice as high as locations downstream of the lake, suggesting a regulating effect caused by water mixing and retention in Vassar Lake. The total inorganic nitrogen in the kill, which is usually correlated with surrounding green cover, was about 0.6 milligrams per liter (2.2×10⁻⁸ lb/cu in), average for measurements taken in the Fonteyn Kill and Casperkill in that study. The study also found that the Fonteyn Kill's score on the Hilsenhoff family biotic index (HBI), a scale measuring pollution based on the tolerance of endemic benthic macroinvertebrates, was approximately six, indicating fairly poor water quality, with scores for the rest of the Casperkill–Fonteyn Kill watershed were as high as seven (poor water quality) to as low as four (very good water quality).
  In 2015, Riverkeeper was alerted of a sewage leak in the kill, noting high levels of bacteria indicating the presence of fecal matter. A New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) investigation found nearby private sewer pipes and manholes to be filled with sludge; they were cleaned and plans have been instated to ensure that sewers would stay clear henceforth. An oil spill was observed in the kill in 2016 and DEC staff were again sent to respond. The DEC installed booms to absorb the oil and began an investigation into the spill's source, which was unknown as of December 6.
  Efforts are being made to monitor the water quality of the Fonteyn Kill, led by Vassar College's Environmental Research Institute and the Cornell University Cooperative Extension Dutchess County Environment Program. Three sites are regularly sampled for water quality while devices such as sondes continuously record temperature, conductivity, and pH. Benthic macroinvertebrates are frequently counted and fecal coliform counts are also run.
caption: The Fonteyn Kill looking downstream towards the Ecological Laboratory (right) from the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences
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