page_title: New York Harbor
section_title: Water quality
hierarchical_section_title: New York Harbor / Water quality
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photo of Jamaica Bay, NY from the northwest.
context_page_description: New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the United States Board on Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental, commercial, and ecological usages. It is the largest part of the Port of New York and New Jersey.
context_section_description: The water quality in New York Harbor has been affected by centuries of shipping activity, industrial development and urbanization. Water pollution from these sources has been a constant phenomenon, although there have been improvements in some areas of the harbor complex in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A 2019 study of the harbor identifies water quality trends in nine regions of the harbor, using data collected during 1996 to 2017. The Lower New York Bay region has the highest quality, due to frequent exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean. The poorest regions are those with limited exchange of water flows: Newtown Creek, Flushing Bay and Jamaica Bay. High levels of nutrient pollution (nitrogen and phosphorus) were observed throughout the various harbor regions, although there has been a general lowering trend in total nitrogen, and some other indicator parameters show improvements. The implementation of pollution control laws, cleanup programs and conservation measures throughout the region have begun to yield some improvements, and the authors state that "the New York Harbor ecosystem is much healthier than it was 30 years ago."
caption: Jamaica Bay
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