July 28 river foam sighting offers a chance to revisit how to evaluate

Driving across the Veteran's Memorial Bridge into Sunbury today (Tuesday, July 28), it was hard to ignore the cloudy layer of foam gathered along the shoreline below the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam.

Foam along creeks, streams and the river within the Middle Susquehanna River watershed can be caused by a variety of different agents -- much of the time, the scuzzy foam layer is naturally produced, as we explored in this Study the Susquehanna experiment.

As we shared in a previous blog post, an early assessment of whether or not a foam is potentially an issue comes via its appearance and smell. The foam found in this stretch today was off-white to yellow/brown in color and smelled earthy/fishy -- all signs of a naturally forming phenomenon. Considering it was directly below the dam where the water is agitated and whipped up more than other areas also suggests that it very well could be natural organic matter such as fats, lipids and tannin frothed together.

We will keep an eye on this site and if there are any changes or updates, they will be posted here. If you have questions, concerns to report or anything else to share about the health of our watershed's waterways, email us by clicking here.