We want your sewage!
BY KAREN ANGEL
Sunday, July 29th 2007, 4:00 AM
"Hey, you workin' today?" boat owner Sal Zeppetella calls to Jim Ferchland.
The answer is yes. Ferchland, 32, works every day. When he isn't working as a New York City firefighter with Engine 266 in Rockaway Beach, he is out on NY/NJBaykeeper's 24-foot sewage-pumpout vessel, which provides a free service to boat owners docked or anchored in Jamaica Bay from April through October.
Baykeeper launched the service four years ago, using $100,000 from the settlement of a 1999 lawsuit the clean-water advocacy group filed against the city for excess nitrogen discharges from four sewage treatment plants in the bay and the East River.
Ferchland, who grew up and still lives in Broad Channel, runs the pumpout boat about three days a week, for up to eight hours, depending on demand and his schedule. The gig came about after Ferchland spotted the vessel and a help-wanted sign at the New York National Boat Show four years ago.
"This is something I've always wanted to do, just to clean up the bay because people take it ... for granted," he said.
Marketed under the slogan "Help Protect Jamaica Bay One Gallon at a Time!", the service offers boat owners who might otherwise illegally discharge their sewage into the bay a convenient way to dispose of it. Though there are stiff fines for dumping sewage in the bay, boaters say it's nearly impossible to catch someone doing it. And because of the service, many boaters say, the bay is looking cleaner now than it has in years.
"It seems to be working," said Andy Willner, executive director of NY/NJBaykeeper, which hopes to raise enough money to add two more pumpout boats, one off Staten Island and one in Raritan Bay. "Hundreds of people are using this pumpout boat. We have a lot of repeat customers."
Boat owners can call Ferchland and make an appointment to have him pump out their sewage-holding tanks. But many, like Zeppetella, 64, a retired plumber, and Mike Bracci, just flag him down when they see him out on the bay or tooling around Gateway Marina, where the pumpout boat receives a courtesy slip. Then Ferchland ties up alongside their boats and vacuums out the sewage through a hose attached to a pump.
Bracci, 65, a recently retired fence builder from Breezy Point who was relaxing on his 30-foot sailboat, said the service is great.
Noting he grew up on the bay in Mill Basin, he said: "I remember when the fishing was truly, truly great, and then when you wouldn't dare eat anything from the bay. And it's coming back."
Vince Daly, 56, a homicide detective in Suffolk County, said the service is especially helpful to sailboats like his 36-foot sloop because the mast is too tall to fit under the bridges on the way to the various pumpout stations.
"It becomes essential for people like us, and Gateway Marina doesn't do it," he said.
The nearby Coney Island Boat Pumpout Station is where Ferchland empties his 225-gallon sewage tank. Then the sewage goes to the plant for treatment.
On the way to the pumpout station, Ferchland pointed out some menhaden.
"See the fish jumping?" he asked, breaking into a broad grin. "Who says this bay is dying?"
In four years of doing this work, he has "never, ever" seen another boat at the pumpout pier, he said, suggesting boaters were either illegally dumping their sewage in the bay out of laziness or waiting to legally discharge it when they were at least 3 miles from shore.
Ferchland also investigates reports of pollution, and gets the word out about the pumpout service to yacht clubs and marinas. He and Willner recently have started brainstorming ways to remove the derelict boats rotting on the marshes.
"He's really become a valued member of the Baykeeper team," Willner said.
"It's gone way beyond just being an operator of the boat."
