Water pollution has returned to Sandburg Creek. Just a few weeks ago, residents noticed foul and neon colored water in the creek in Woodridge with the smell reportedly traveling all the way to Ellenville.
New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) responded to these concerns on October 5th and are currently investigating the source. In a statement to Radio Catskill’s Patricio Robayo, the DEC Staff observed a “gray, odorous, turbid discharge” from the Newburg Egg Processing Corporation facility.
While the investigation is still ongoing, the DEC did issue a Notice of Violation to the Newburg Egg Facility on October 8th for violating New York’s water quality standards.
Flowing through Sullivan County and intersecting with Ulster, Sandburg Creek is central to fishing in Upstate communities. The creek contains wild trout, large mouth bass, and over 1,000 brown trout. In a statement to Radio Catskill, Carlos Vega of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 said “Clean water for every American is one of EPA’s core missions. Protecting all water bodies is critical. Sandburg Creek, like any water body, is a part of the local ecosystem. When pollution enters the picture, it can impact the whole ecosystem.”
And this isn’t the first time the aquatic ecosystems in Sandburg Creek have come under threat.
Newburg Egg Facility has been situated just under a mile off the banks of the creek for over 50 years, but residents started to take notice of pollution coming from the facility in Sandburg Creek and alert EPA in early 2021
Then in 2023, the EPA fined Newberg Egg Processing Corporation $100,000 for dumping excessive amounts of nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus and other materials into Sandburg Creek between January 2018 and June 2021. In accordance with the Clean Water Act, Newburg Egg made a promise to take concrete steps toward addressing this problem in the future, even adding a polymer mix and feed system aimed at removing key pollutants.
Now, many are questioning what happened to the steps that Newberg Egg promised to make. Vega confirmed the company did take the required steps towards improvement of their wastewater maintenance at the time, saying “Newburg Egg has complied with EPA’s requirements. In addition to the penalty, Newburg Egg upgraded its pretreatment of its wastewater process to reduce the impacts to Woodridge Village Wastewater Treatment Plant.”
Water quality regulations have been loosened nationwide under the Trump administration, most notably the EPA’s May 2025 decision to delay compliance deadlines monitoring forever chemicals in drinking water, pushing the deadline back from 2029 to 2031. When asked if decisions like these were to blame for the Sandburg Creek Pollution, Vega said “the specific regulations that EPA enforced in this case have not been changed.”
Newberg Egg Processing Corporation has not responded to Radio Catskill’s request for comment.
Image: Sandburg Creek’s current condition (Credit: Patricio Robayo)