Planning to tap into $15 million in available federal stimulus money, the city is finally ready to restore 38 acres of salt-water wetlands and natural grasslands in Canarsie that have been polluted by decades of contamination from raw-sewage overflow.
The city’s Department of Environmental Protection today registered a $15 million contract for the work with contractor Tully/Posillico Civil to restore the wetlands adjacent to the DEP’s Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow facility by Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn.
“This investment will greatly improve the ecology of the Paerdegat Basin area,” said DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway. “When finished, the community will be able to enjoy a five-acre ‘Ecology Park’ with native plant life.
“The combination of absorbing more storm water and the creation of tidal wetlands will improve water quality in Paerdegat Basin.”
Construction is expected to begin this spring and be completed by January 2012.The public would gain access in 2013.
The restoration is part of a DEP’s long-delayed abatement project for the Combined Sewer Overflow facility so it may store 50 million gallons of overflowing sewage during storms.
The larger project was announced in 1999 and was supposed to be finished by 2003. But the anticipated completion date is now 2011 and the project’s price tag skyrocketed from $270 million to $357 million in the past two years alone.
During heavy rainfall, the Knapp Street plant doesn’t have the capacity now to treat the full volume of the water, so all untreated water is forced out into Paerdegat Basin.
The wetlands/grasslands project will help absorb storm water by reintroducing local plant life and restoring the shoreline, officials said.
Five acres of parkland will be called “Ecology Park.” It will offer access to salt marshes and grassland area and include educational exhibits about coastal habitats.
