Underwater Drone Sanitary Survey

Roux was contracted by Friends of + POOL, Inc to assist in preparing a sanitary survey developed in accordance with the newly developed New York State Department of Health requirements for the design of a novel bathing facility. The + POOL Project is designed as a floating bathing pool which would be accessible to the public, located in the East River between Pier 35 and the Manhattan Bridge. The pool will utilize a continuous flowthrough filter and UV disinfection reactor to treat the raw source water of the East River to bring the water quality to within acceptable standards for public bathing.

The sanitary survey is an assessment of the East River, which will serve as the water source for this project, to review the current conditions of the water source as well as outline potential scenarios which could adversely affect the incoming raw water quality. As part of the survey, Roux conducted an underwater survey of the river bottom in the proposed location of the future pool utilizing a FiFish underwater drone. The underwater survey consisted of photographic and video recordings of the area for signs of sensitive aquatic life which could be adversely affected by construction of the floating structure. Species observations included blue crab, black sea bass, red beard sponge, and various red and green algae species.