Tempers Flare Over Jamaica Bay Airport Expansion by Erica Sherman - Sheepshead Bay News Blog

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Members of the Jamaica Bay Task Force Group (JBTF) hosted a meeting last week to decry plans calling for the destruction of 400 acres of Jamaica Bay wetlands to clear the path for a runway expansion project at John F. Kennedy Airport.

More than 150 people, including the JBTF — a cadre of citizenry, scientists, and federal, state, regional, and local agency representatives, staunchly guarding the wildlife refuge for more than 20 years — crowded into the American Legion Hall at 209 Crossbay Boulevard in the Broad Channel section of Queens during what was, at times, a heated dialogue over the Regional Plan Association’s (RPA) report, “Upgrading to World Class – The future of the New York Regions Airports” (pages 150 to 154), which proposes eliminating a sizeable acreage of “what is not simply New York City’s ecological crown jewel but a wetlands and estuarine area of national importance,” according to a press release from NYC Park Advocates.

“One of the major shortcomings of the report was that actual users, including environmentalists and civic organizations were not consulted,” said Geoffrey Croft, the president of NYC Park Advocate, of the report, developed by a conglomerate of multi-tiered stakeholders from all levels of government and funded by the Port Authority.

Croft’s blog A Walk in the Park reports that attendees delivered impassioned pleas, and one — Daniel Mundy, Jr. vice president of Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers and president of Broad Channel Civic Association — even presented a PowerPoint presentation refuting the alleged findings of a multitude of the RPA’s “inaccurate air travel projections from prior reports beginning in 1947.”

“The nature of the proposal is outrageous,” said Mundy.

According to the release by NYC Park Advocates, the destruction of the wetlands, “whose federal wildlife refuge is ‘the size of 10 Central Parks,’” would require an act of Congress.

“I am not going to let that happen,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, of the plan. In a letter voicing their opposition, signed by 21 groups and sent last month to Port Authority Executive Director Christopher O. Ward, they pleaded that the Port Authority “consider other available alternatives for meeting the region’s airport capacity needs.”

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JFK Expansion Options Debated by David J. Harvey - The Forum Newsgroup

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John F. Kennedy Airport is one of the nation’s busiest airports and travellers face frequent delays. As air travel around New York increases, it could get worse. A new report on air traffic capacity contains, among several options to alleviate overcrowding, the possibility of expanding JFK Airport into Jamaica Bay. Local residents and conservation groups have reacted in an uproar.

At the beginning of the year, the Regional Plan Association (RPA)—an independent urban research and advocacy group—released a report on the growth of aviation traffic in New York City.

The report’s authors predict that passenger volume in New York will grow from 104 million passengers in 2010 to 150 million passengers in the 2030s. This growth, without improvements to the current aviation infrastructure, could cost billions of dollars in lost wages and business income. The report predicts that by 2030, as many as 125,000 jobs, $6 billion in wages and $16 billion in business sales would be lost yearly due to airport congestions and delays.

Among the possible solutions for accommodating increased commuter traffic is expanding JFK into Jamaica Bay. One proposal suggests an expansion of nearly 400 acres—almost two-thirds the size of LaGuardia Airport—while another would involve no reclamation of the bay.

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After RPA released their report, a tide of criticism rose in the community that left some residents calling the RPA tools for the Port Authority.

On April 7, at the American Legion Hall on Crossbay Boulevard in Broad Channel, Dan Mundy of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers hosted a presentation to counter the RPA report.

Mundy opened the presentation by arguing that the central premise of the RPA report—that New York will have a significant rise in airline traffic—is based on a growth that would bring the city’s aviation to “a crippling halt.”

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) who flew in from Washington D.C. and was running late for a flight back to Washington, spoke briefly during Mundy’s presentation and promised he would do everything in his power to stop expansion into the bay.

“I have made it very clear that while there is ability for the Secretary [of the Interior] to make minor changes to the map, this is not minor, this is major, I’m against this, and I’m not going to let it happen,” Weiner said.

One of the biggest complaints Mundy had with the RPA report was that previous reports about air traffic growth were always overestimated.

“It’s a doomsday prediction,” he said. “We went back 55 years and looked at all these reports. What we found was that the predictions were always overstated.”

A 1969 RPA report predicted that by the year 2000 there would be at least 250 million air passengers per year in the New York area—there were actually 90 million. Mundy said that by following historical data, an increase to between 115 and 125 million air passengers by 2030 could be predicted, rather than the 150 million predicted in the RPA report.

RPA Director of Transportation Richard Barone, one of the report’s authors, defended the current report and joked that he “wasn’t even born when [the 1969] report came out.”

“[The 1969] predictions were very optimistic, it was a period of very aggressive growth in air travel,” he said, adding that the old RPA reports used a six percent growth rate.

The recent report was based on a conservative, two percent growth rate, he said.

Barone said the RPA had attended the meeting to get input and hopes to return to the area and present updates.

“Obviously in the report we state that expanding into Jamaica Bay is huge deal,” Barone said. “We’re not opposed to making changes.”

Despite Barone’s concessions, and insistence that the RPA has no other agenda than presenting their analysis to “start a conversation,” the immediate response after he finished speaking was vitriolic. “I should take that as a direct insult to my intelligence,” said John, a local resident.

Don Riepe, Director of the American Littoral Society’s Northeast Chapter, pointed out that the bay has been reclaimed for development since New York City was founded. At one time, the bay was twice its current size, spreading out as salt marshes across Brooklyn and Queens. Today, the bay’s wildlife, including migrating hawks, peregrine falcons, osprey, herons and more than 100 types of finfish, compete for less and less livable space, Riepe said.

He noted that JFK already has problems with animals trying to coexist with planes. Last year, the city euthanized thousands of geese over fears the migrating birds would cause an incident like the forced Hudson River emergency landing. JFK now has a full time biologist on staff to deal with local wildlife.

“Just because you have an urban airport doesn’t mean you won’t have wildlife,” Riepe said.

Bradford H. Sewell, Senior Project Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, explained that proposed changes would alter the flight paths, adding to noise pollution over the bay—disturbing the natural “soundscape” of the bay. He added that new flights would pass, at an elevation of 1,000 to 1,500 feet, directly over the Jamaica Bay visitor center. If the frequency of traffic doubles at the airport, flights could pass overhead every 30 seconds.

“I hope that we can double our efforts … because the impacts of this sort of expansion into Jamaica Bay would be unacceptable,” said Sewell, who has had prior experience in airport expansion battles.

In the RPA report, there are four proposals for the expansion of JFK. Three include reclaiming some of the bay. The report’s authors noted—based on NY Port Authority reports—that the area of expansion is a dead zone, depleted of oxygen as a result of dredging. Mundy, Riepe and Sewell all refute that claim.

Vinnie Calabro, a Jamaica Bay fisherman and charter boat captain, said the area the NY Port Authority considers a dead zone is teeming with wildlife, and is the site of several recent catches.

“We’ll be on the boat some days looking at the people on the tarmac reading the New York Timesand we’ll catch another one of these big fish.” said Calabro. “They don’t realize what’s going on. They’re caught up in the headlines, but there are headlines right here in the bay. We have to speak out.”

One RPA proposal that does not include expansion of JFK into the bay, which Barone said was overlooked by Sewell, would require upgrading the airport’s air traffic control with NextGen capabilities. NextGen, being implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration over the next few years, includes Global Positioning Systems and operational and procedural changes.

The biggest hurdles JFK must overcome—be aided by NextGen—is reducing flight delays and optimizing capacity, said the report.

Despite the report’s findings, no one is planning an actual airport expansion so far.

Edward Knoesel, manager of the New York Port Authority’s Environmental Services Aviation Department, said that the RPA report was commissioned by the Port Authority, stressing that the organization has a responsibility to look into their facilities and plan for the future of commerce and travel in the tri-state area.

“The RPA is a long-standing, very respected organization,” he said. “They have produced a series of options for further study. … The Port Authority is not proposing to do any fill in Jamaica Bay.”

“We’re not proposing to do any expansion at any airport,” Knoesel added. “What were doing is taking a look at what the RPA proposed and what [the community says] and see what is feasible.”

Bay Area Locals Fret Over JFK Plan by Domenick Rafter - Queens Tribune

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Residents and environmentalists living around Jamaica Bay are concerned a recent report detailing possible expansion plans for JFK Airport will severely impact the environment around one of the East Coast's largest wetlands.

Earlier this year, the Regional Plan Association released a 158-page report on the future of air travel in the New York area. Among its recommendations was to expand all three major airports, including JFK. Three of the four options the RPA outlined would require building new runways into Jamaica Bay, reclaiming as much as 400 acres of the bay.

The report sparked outrage among residents in neighborhoods around the bay, including Howard Beach, Broad Channel, Rosedale and the Rockaways. The Jamaica Bay Task Force, a group of private citizens and organizations concerned about the bay, met April 7 at the American Legion Hall in Broad Channel to discuss the potential the RPA's plan has to damage the ecological makeup of Jamaica Bay. The meeting was attended by more than 150 residents and civic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens), who flew back to New York from Washington D.C. during last week's budget negotiations just to make an appearance at the meeting.

"I'm against this and I'm not going to let this happen," Weiner said to the crowd, noting that any reclamation of land needed to expand JFK would require federal legislation. Most of Jamaica Bay is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, owned by the federal government and managed by the National Park Service.

Dan Mundy Sr., of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers, criticized RPA for both the general tone of the report and for a lack of outreach to civic leaders and groups around Jamaica Bay.

Mundy also said the plan showed RPA did not have good knowledge of the bay. A section of Grassy Bay, part of Jamaica Bay directly off the main runway of JFK, was termed "dead" by the RPA because of a lack of oxygen does not support life, but local fishermen fought the accusation, saying the location was anything but dead.

"The people in the back of the Bay, they know the Bay," he said.

Don Riepe of the American Littoral Society showed photos of birds and animals that live 150 yards or less from the airport. Some of them live and thrive along the boundaries of the airport. The bird populations, he said, could interfere with air traffic coming in and out of new runways in nesting areas.

"Birds like the snow goose can really get into trouble with aircraft," he said.

Capt. Vincent Calabro, a fisherman who fishes in Jamaica Bay, fought the labeling of Grassy Bay as "dead," showing pictures of fish he has caught within yards of JFK, including two-to-three-foot-long striped bass, flounder and fluke.

"We have to speak up for the Bay," Calabro said. "The Bay asks nothing for us."

An expansion project reclaiming land in the bay would be a "disaster," he added.

Mundy suggested that the Port Authority, which will use RPA's report to examine how to deal with future air traffic growth, should utilize airports like MacArthur on Long Island, Westchester County, and Stewart Airport in the Hudson Valley before expanding any of the existing ones, which is another option named in RPA's report.

Besides environmental concerns, some were worried about noise issues and the potential for disasters like the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 into a Rockaway neighborhood in 2001. One proposal calls for a new runway to be constructed on the west side of JFK that would send air traffic directly over Broad Channel at low altitudes, a problem that has already plagued Howard Beach, South Ozone Park, Rosedale and the Rockaways.

"Putting aside the potential environmental catastrophe, what about the quality of life issues," asked Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park).

The implementation of NextGen, new air traffic control technology, will allow planes to fly closer together, meaning planes would be flying over residential neighborhoods as often as every 30 seconds.

JFK Expansion Plan Unsettles Residents By Jamaica Bay by Mari Fagel - NY1. com

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NY1 VIDEO: A proposal to expand John F. Kennedy International Airport into Jamaica Bay is not flying with some bay residents and environmental groups who are urging the Port Authority to look at other options.

Ground a Proposal to Fill Parts of Bay to Grow JFK, Foes Say by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Daily News

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Obama Cabinet Member Takes Tour of Jamaica Bay by Ivan Pereira - YourNabe.com

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U.S. Rep. Anthony Wiener (from l.), U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Park Ranger Dandelion Dilluvio remove an invasive vine in Jamaica Bay during Salazar's visit to the ecosystem. Photo by Christina Santucci

The U.S. secretary of the Interior paid a visit to Jamaica Bay Monday and borough elected officials said they hope his trip will have a positive impact on the future of its environment.

This is the first time Ken Salazar visited the 31-square-mile ecosystem and got up close with its fauna and flora, according to U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), who accompanied the secretary during the tour.

“There are a lot of, ‘Oh, wow,’ moments when you visit Jamaica Bay,” the congressman said.

Salazar, who was touring several Gateway National Recreation Area sites, including the Statue of Liberty, walked the path of the bay’s wildlife refuge and took a boat tour of the bay along with park rangers, Weiner and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica).

Park experts explained to Salazar how Jamaica Bay’s environment is closely tied to the nearly 400 species of birds, fish and other wildlife that populate the area. The ecosystem serves as a home to many of the animals during their migratory patterns, according to Barry Sullivan, the superintendent of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

“It’s unbelievably important to the ecosystem, not just for the city ... but also for the entire Atlantic coast,” he said.

Leaders and environmentalists say the bay’s importance to the area means it should qualify for more preservation projects.

Its saltwater marshland has been dissipating for decades and more than 70 percent of the ecosystem has been lost. Over the last 10 years, city, state and federal governments have been providing funding, planning to stop the decay and restoring some of the lost marshland.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been restoring several sections of the marshland, including Elders Point West. In the winter, the city announced it was dedicating $100 million over the next decade to enhance its wastewater treatment plants around the ecosystem so the facilities discharge less nitrogen, which causes the plants to decay.

Dan Mundy Jr., a member of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, an environmental group that has been advocating for protecting the bay, said projects are coming along well.

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“The results for the sites of growth are doing very good so far,” he said.

Weiner said he thinks Salazar’s visit will help bring more funding and attention to the environment since the secretary has had a hands-on experience with the bay.

“So much about the [restoration projects] is about oiling the squeaky wheel. This is not a well-known park,” he said.

Additional photos from the Rockaway Wave...

Can the City -- and the Oyster -- Save Jamaica Bay? by Anya Khalamayzer - (Gotham Gazette, May 2010)

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The marshes of Jamaica Bay have been shrinking for decades, essentially vanishing into New York's toxic waters. Photo by Unforth

The largest urban wildlife preserve in the United States sits adjacent to Kennedy Airport, near the high-rise apartments of Starrett City and the Rockaway housing projects. Home to the peregrine falcon, the loggerhead sea turtle, the short-eared owl, the area -- Jamaica Bay -- at the intersection of Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island, serves as a stopover for 20 percent of American bird species on their annual migration along the East Coast.

For years, though, this estuary, a shallow marsh where fresh and saltwater meet, has been vanishing into the toxic waters of the New York City harbor, losing an estimated 33 acres annually to deterioration, nitrogen buildup and rising sea levels. Spanning some 16,000 acres about a century ago, the salt march islands have shrunk to a mere 800 acres. Thought not nearly as dramatic as the environmental catastrophe now confronting the Louisiana coast, the threat to Jamaica Bay could completely destroy the marsh by 2024, decimating the home for an abundance of rare and endangered plants and animals.

"Marshland completely changes the nature of the bay," says Larry Levine, staff attorney for the Natural Resource Defense Council. "If it were to ever disappear and become open water, it would be a tremendous loss of natural habitat."

Now, the federal state and city governments, prodded by citizen's groups, have stepped up their efforts to preserve the area. This year, government and private groups collaborated to update the Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan to try to avert disaster in the urban refuge. Whether government will keep its commitment and whether its actions can reverse the decades of deterioration remains to be seen.

[For more on efforts to revitalize New York's waterfront, go here.]

Destruction of an Ecosystem

Spartina cod grass anchors the land of the marsh in place. To survive, the grass must receive fresh water rich with oxygen and nutrient-loaded sediment. Small streams in Queens and Brooklyn once provided this, but many of these vital veins have been paved over the decades.

Four sewage plants ringing Jamaica Bay contribute further to the deterioration of the marsh by spewing 250 million gallons of nitrogen and large amounts of chlorine into the water every day. Ironically the nitrogen has worsened since 1992 when the government, in an effort to prevent pollution, banned the dumping of sewage into the ocean and instead diverted the treated wastewater into the bay. The excess nitrogen in the water is naturally converted into hydrogen sulfide, which kills the roots of the marsh grass.

In this nitrogen-rich environment, weed-like algae blooms thrive, suffocating the estuary by draining it of dissolved oxygen. Algae blooms kill the thousands of fish found floating belly-up in the very waters that are meant to nourish them.

In addition, during heavy rains, untreated oils and toxins wash from nearby streets and parking lots when storm drains overflow and end up in the bay. The bay also shares many of the contaminants that pollute the rest of New York harbor, such as dioxins, PCB particles, and mercury.

"The New York harbor is a wasteland," said Jeff Levinton, professor of marine ecology at SUNY Stonybrook.

Photo by Gail Robinson

Humans have taken their toll on Jamaica Bay.

Next-generation issues also are emerging, explained Levine. Studies show that Jamaica Bay flounder are affected by pharmaceuticals flushed through the sewage system and not removed by treatment plants. The population of male flounder has drastically diminished because of the feminizing effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals -- a pattern Levine says is being observed around the world.

Sounding the Alarm

Dan Mundy, founder of citizen group EcoWatchers, noticed that Jamaica Bay was ailing in the mid 1990s. By 2000, he said, as many as 50 acres of saltwater marsh were being lost every year. And in 2002, the state authorized a study of why the marshland might be vanishing.

It was not until 2005, though, that Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a measure calling for the city Department of Environmental Protection to devise a plan to save the bay and creating a seven-person advisory task force. The committee included community activists and representatives of nonprofit organizations and government agencies. The resulting report presented a number of options, including installing storm sewers for flood prevention, dredging and re-contouring creeks, restoring eroded land, re-oxygenating the water and hiring pump-out boats to clean waste. Overall, the committee wanted visitors to Jamaica Bay and the government to be more vigilant of the estuary's condition.

Gradually, steps to restore and preserve the marsh began. Between 2006 and 2007, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers allocated $13 million to restore Elders Point East, an island marsh which once spanned 132 vegetated acres, but which had broken apart to a mere 21 acres.

While activists applauded many of these efforts, a number of them faulted the city for failing to do more to reduce nitrogen levels in the bay. For years city officials maintained that little evidence linked the disappearance of the marshes and nitrogen levels in the bay and balked at spending millions and millions of dollars to address the nitrogen levels.

By 2010, New York City faced a possible lawsuit under the federal Clean Water Act. The threat spurred intense negotiations between citizen groups, the Department of Environmental Protection, then Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler and other City Hall officials. The city, according to Mundy, expressed concern about the cost of the technological upgrades needed to address the nitrogen problem, but over time became convinced that the installations were necessary for the bay's survival.

"It shouldn't be a matter of economics. Not when it comes to the environment. Not when it comes to Jamaica Bay," Mundy said.

Cutting the Nitrogen

In February 2010, Bloomberg announced the city would commit $115 million for a combination of efforts to safeguard the only wildlife refuge accessible via subway. As part of that, he said New York would spend $100 million to install new nitrogen control technology at sewage treatment plants on the bay.

Don Riepe, who headed negotiations on behalf of the American Littoral Society, said the city pledged another $15 million to support marsh restoration. The Army Corps of Engineers will match the restoration funds two-to-one.

The first of the plant upgrades will begin operating in 2014. Technology to control nitrogen will be installed at the 26th Ward and Coney Island wastewater treatment plants in Brooklyn, and at the Rockaway plant in Queens. These efforts are predicted to reduce nitrogen discharges by 50 percent over the next decade and to allow the bay to filter its waters over time.

Reclamation of Elders Point West Island has already begun. Clean fill, or "slurry" -- muck being dredged from waters around the city -- is currently being shipped from the harbor and Long Island and will become 35 new acres of marsh. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers is hand-seeding Spartina grass into the fill. When they finish this at the end of the summer, they will move on to reclaim Yellow Bar island.

Photo by Gail Robinson

Restoring grassland is essential to the survival of marshes so many animals call home.

Wave attenuators, marina-like docks that act as buffers against beach-deteriorating waves, are to be installed between 2014 and 2019.

Despite all this technology, though, Jamaica Bay's brightest new hope may be a bivalve that once lived in the 350 square miles of the estuary: the oyster.

A Natural Solution

Oysters last thrived in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary in the early 20th century. Describing the bivalve as a "keystone" species that affects other components of its ecosystem, NY/NJ Baykeeper has championed experimental oyster farming. Every animal can filter nitrogen and pollutants from 50 gallons of water daily. They eat oxygen-guzzling phytoplankton that suffocates the bay. In, addition the beds where the oysters live serve as homes for small marine organisms and the fish that feed on them.

"Right now you can hardly find a live oyster in Jamaica Bay," says Levinton.

Their decline both signifies and intensifies the bay's ailments. Chester Zarnoch, associate professor of natural sciences at Baruch College, and his colleague Tim Hoellein have received funds from the National Science Foundation to study the growth and survival of oysters in the estuary and to determine their potential in restoring it.

Zarnoch says that there has been tremendous growth and evidence of spawning where the bivalves have been re-introduced.

While that is good news, the oysters may not solve the nitrogen problem in the long term. Research has brought to light that oysters, while they do filter nitrogen, they simply store the substance in their bodies and release it back into the environment upon their death. Scientists now hope to harness the oyster's digestive cycle to remove the nitrogen from the water.

"In Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound, you can remove nitrogen from the water by removing oysters and consuming them," said Zarnoch. "But we can't consume them from Jamaica Bay because of the amount of bacteria present."

Oyster gardening is still in the beginnings stages of a two-year experiment that will determine whether they will benefit the bay's condition. The next several years will be critical to see if the oysters can once again thrive in the estuary as part of a recovering environment and if the marshes can once again shelter and nourish an authentic mix of native New Yorkers.

This article was written under a partnership between Gotham Gazette and the Baruch College's Department of Journalism and Writing Professions.

Great News for Jamaica Bay: New York City Commits to Major Water Quality Improvements in Jamaica Bay - NRDC

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New York City Commits to Major Water Quality Improvements in Jamaica Bay

Mayor, City Vow to Make Sewage Plant Upgrades, Marsh Restoration in Response to Calls from Environmental Groups

Mayor Bloomberg, the City Department of Environmental Protection, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and four environmental groups today announced an agreement-in-principle to significantly improve the health of Jamaica Bay through major sewage treatment plant upgrades and investments in marsh restoration.

“Today marks a new beginning for Jamaica Bay -- an amazing recreational and economic resource for New Yorkers,” said Lawrence Levine, staff attorney for the NRDC. “The city has committed to address the biggest source of pollution that has plagued Jamaica Bay for decades. We look forward to continuing to work with Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Holloway to turn today’s historic commitments into reality.”

This announcement follows months of intensive negotiations among the city, state, and environmental groups represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council as legal counsel -- including Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers, American Littoral Society and NY/NJ Baykeeper -- over alleged permit violations at four city sewage treatment plants, which currently discharge levels of nitrogen pollution into Jamaica Bay that are among the highest in the world.

Today’s announcement is a critical milestone in the effort to restore the Bay. The groups will continue over the next several months to work with the city and state to finalize the agreement, in a way that ensures long-term implementation of a 10-year water quality improvement plan and can help secure federal funding to back up the city’s efforts.

Specifically, the agreement-in-principle announced today includes commitments from the city to:

• Upgrade four sewage treatment plants to drastically reduce nitrogen discharges to the bay, on a schedule running through 2020
• Spend at least $15 million on marsh restoration over the next five years, which could leverage nearly $30 million in additional federal funding through the Corps of Engineers
• Resolve a long-running dispute over the city’s Clean Water Act permits by agreeing to new, stricter permit terms that will lock in the treatment plant upgrades, and the resulting water quality improvements, into the future
• Improve water quality monitoring in the bay, which may include using new equipment to provide continuous, real-time information on conditions in the bay.

Nitrogen discharges from the sewage treatment plants are the biggest cause of the severe water quality problems in Jamaica Bay. The plants discharge nearly 40,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay daily, which cause harmful algae blooms that frequently render portions of the bay inhospitable to marine life and unusable for people. There is also mounting evidence that elevated nitrogen levels contribute to the rapid and accelerating loss of the bay’s signature marshlands, which provide not only invaluable wildlife habitat but also shoreline erosion control and a protective flood barrier to the neighborhoods ringing the bay.

Jamaica Bay is considered the crown jewel of the city’s ecological resources, with more than 25,000 acres of water, marsh, meadowland, beaches, dunes and forests in Brooklyn and Queens, all accessible by subway. It contains a federal wildlife refuge the size of 10 Central Parks, a portion of Gateway National Recreation Area, Bayswater State Park and nearly a dozen city parks. It provides a nursery for the region’s marine life, including valuable recreational fisheries like summer flounder, and a critical bird habitat area that is visited by nearly 20 percent of North America's bird species annually. It is also home to various endangered and threatened species -- from sea turtles to peregrine falcons. More than a half million New Yorkers live in the Jamaica Bay watershed/sewershed, and the bay is a popular fishing and boating area.

“We applaud Mayor Bloomberg and the new DEP commissioner Holloway for their good faith effort in finding solutions that work for Jamaica Bay,” said Deborah Mans, Baykeeper and Executive Director of NY/NJ Baykeeper. “Based on very productive negotiations with both the Mayor's office and the DEP Commissioner, we feel confident that we can finalize our preliminary agreement and secure lasting commitments to measures that will improve and save the precious waterways of New York City and its citizens, especially those affected by pollution in Jamaica Bay.”

“The Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers are pleased to support this agreement which will go a long way to assure the future health of the bay. Jamaica Bay is a unique environmental jewel and the largest natural resource of our city,” said Dan Mundy of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers. “The heavy nitrogen loading from these four plants have long been identified as the primary causes contributing to low dissolved oxygen problems, harmful algae blooms and saltwater marsh loss. The upgrades to the wastewater treatment plants that this agreement will require will ensure significant nitrogen loading reductions are achieved at this critical juncture in the future of Jamaica Bay. In addition the funds allocated to the saltwater marsh restoration will help in recreating critical habitat that has been lost.”

“This agreement holds great promise to bring cleaner water to Jamaica Bay,” said Don Riepe, Director of American Littoral Society, Northeast Chapter. “We are encouraged by our discussions over the last several months and the work we’ve been able to do with the city towards cleaning up serious sources of pollution.”

Vacant Jamaica Bay Property Originally Tabbed for Private Developments Set to Become Waterfront Park by Daniel Edward Rosen - NY Daily News

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A vacant Jamaica Bay property originally tabbed for private developments is slated to be transformed into the borough's newest waterfront park.

The 1.2-acre site along Beach 88 St. near the Cross Bay Bridge, will offer a range of activities to the public such as picnicking, fishing and boating.

The property was snapped up by the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit group that specializes in land conservation, for $1.925 million, more than $1 million less than its market price, according to the owners.

"We basically purchased and donated the property within five minutes," says Matt Shaffer, assistant director of marketing services for the nonprofit group. Funding by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey allowed the Trust to give the property to the city for the park's construction set to begin in Spring 2010.

"(The Trust for Public Land) is proud to continue supporting both the needs of New York neighborhoods in gaining new, much-needed park space, and our city harbor and estuaries in maintaining sound ecological balance. This does both," said Leslie Wright, the state director of the Trust.

Hudson Companies LLC, the original owners, planned to build 20 single-family homes on the waterfront property sometime in the next year, said Alan Ball, an owner of Hudson Companies.

"We had no debt on the property, and we could have held on to it pretty easily, so we said we might as well cut bait and move on," he said. "Moving this project to the Trust for Public Land was a very good thing to do.

The addition of the waterside park would bring much-needed parkland and open space to the Jamaica Bay area, which some environmental activists say is being overdeveloped.

"The more public access we have in the area, the better. We have too much development in the area," says Daniel Mundy Jr. of the Jamaica Bay Eco-watchers.

Don Riepe, director of the Northeast chapter of the American Littoral Society noted that "Any park of any size is welcome... every piece of open land has been developed in the Rockaways in the past10 years."

Jamaica Oysters No Shell Game: Bay's Pollution Hinders Renewal by Lisa Colangelo - NY Daily News

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It's been a long time since oysters called Jamaica Bay home.

Pollution, overharvesting and other woes wiped out what was once a healthy population of the bivalves.

But a new study is showing that oysters may be able to return and even help clean up Jamaica Bay.

Researchers have been able to grow oysters in certain test areas. And now they are trying to find out if there is any natural oyster larvae flowing into the waterway.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) pointed out that tons of treated wastewater is dumped in the bay, making it tough for anything to survive.

"Oysters are a natural filter," Weiner said during a news conference at Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field with researchers who are conducting the study. "This could help us deal with that problem. We don't want this waterway to go the way of the Gowanus Canal."

Prof. Jeffrey Levinton of SUNY Stony Brook, who is overseeing the study, said it's a good sign that he was able to grow oysters in parts of the bay.

Seafood lovers, however, shouldn't get their hopes up.

"We are not looking to restore them as a food source," said Barry Sullivan, superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area. "But they are a really effective filter."

For the next few weeks, Levinton will check to see if any oyster larvae attach themselves to shells submerged in the water.

During the current phase of the study, which is being funded by the National Park Service and the Hudson River Foundation, several bags of shells were placed in different locations around the bay.

The hope is that oysters will be able to grow on their own. But that may be a long shot.

And if that fails, officials said, much more study will have to be done before any full-scale plan is developed to reintroduce oysters to the bay.

One fear is that bringing in nonnative oysters could hurt the bay's already ravaged ecosystem.

But Dan Mundy of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers fears officials are being too cautious.

"We wish we could bring in thousands of oyster shells, spread them around the bottom of the bay and bring in live seed oysters tomorrow," said Mundy. "Time is of the essence. We are losing acres of marsh and the water is declining."

He said bringing back oysters would boost other efforts to clean up the bay, which include restoring the marshes and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.

"There is no magic bullet," Mundy said. "We're trying everything."

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

Earth Day Restoration Project at Plum Beach, Jamaica Bay - April 18th from 10am-3pm...

Join us on Saturday, April 18th from 10am-3pm for a marsh/beach/dune cleanup and planting at Plum Beach, Jamaica Bay. Volunteers needed to help remove floatable debris and plant native coastal plants ( beach plum, red cedar, pitch pine, American beachgrass ) at this National Park Service site.

Meet 10am at the parking lot just off the eastbound lane of the Belt Parkway between Knapp St. ( exit 9) and Flatbush Avenue ( exit 11 ). Bring lunch and old clothes, shoes, etc. We will provide water, bags, gloves, tools, plants and free investment advice.

This is a cooperative effort between the National Park Service and the American Littoral Society, NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection, NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation, Bloomberg Company, NYC Audubon Society, NYC Sierra Club, Sebago Canoe & Kayak Club, Jamaica Bay EcoWatchers, as well as several school and community groups (TBA).

This project funded in part by grants from the NOAA-RAE Partnership and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation...

For more information and registration

Call: (718) 318-9344

E-mail: driepe@nyc.rr.com

An Informational Presentation on the proposed Liquefied Natural Gas Site Off the Coast of Rockaway on March 24th...

An Informational Presentation on the
proposed Liquefied Natural Gas Site Off the Coast of Rockaway...Click Image to Enlarge

Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: P. S. 225
190 Beach 110th Street
Rockaway Park, NY

Rockaway Worried by Gas Plant Cleanup by Brendan Brosh - NY Daily News

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ROCKAWAY RESIDENTS are criticizing National Grid for being unresponsive to community concerns as the utility giant prepares to clean up the site of a former gas plant.

The company will begin remediating the site along Beach Channel Drive next month and is expected to excavate more than 130,000 tons of toxin-laden soil from the 9-acre property.

Neighbors believe that excavating the soil, instead of using new remediation technology, is putting the community at risk.

"When toxins become unearthed, they become volatile," said Ronald Joseph, 46, a Verizon worker and homeowner who lives less than 100 yards from the site. "If the remediation is done incorrectly, then we'll be the ones paying for it."

A state Department of Environmental Conservation report in 2004 identified seven probable human carcinogens at the site, which operated as a gas plant from the 1870s until 1958.

"There's a limited amount of monitoring devices near where people live," said Noreen Ellis, a member of the Rockaway Park Homeowners and Residents Association. "Let's test and find out what's in the ground and where it has moved."

National Grid, which inherited the largely barren site from its corporate predecessor KeySpan, said the company "protects the public and on-site workers."

It also has started a Web site and sends updates to more than 9,000 addresses, said company spokeswoman Karen Young.

"National Grid maintains a Web site with a weekly update of activities on the site, particularly those that may have a community impact," said Young. "The weekly update also includes the results and an analysis of the 24-hour-a-day air monitoring done at the site perimeter."

Ellis, however, disputes the company's numbers.

"Since the first meeting, we've asked for more communications about the meetings," she said. "Why don't they send notices with our bills?"

"We've made numerous requests for more up-to-date testing and it's gone unanswered," she added.

Joseph said he had a problem getting a response to a letter he sent the DEC in November.

"Their response didn't answer any of my eight particular questions," said Joseph, who resubmitted the questions a second time through Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer's office in January.

Some community members are concerned that the contaminants have migrated underground to neighboring properties and into Jamaica Bay. Those toxins have been detected in a marsh nearly a mile from the site, said Dan Mundy Sr., head of the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers.

"It seems like [National Grid] didn't want to explore alternatives or listen to any community input," he said.

Weiner Takes A Tour Of Jamaica Bay Marshlands - NY1

Watch video report...

NY1 VIDEO: Marshlands in Queens may be disappearing. NY1's Robert Moses joined a local lawmaker for a closer look at the situation.

Dump Retired NYC Subway Trains in New York Waters, Weiner Says by Lee Landor - Queens Chronicle

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Photo taken at Pier 1 in Battery Park, Manhattan. Pictured from left to right: Dan Mundy, Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers, Rep. Anthony Weiner, Eugene O’Reilly, recreational fisherman, and Captain Bill Reddan, President of the Eastern Dive Boat Association.

Seeking both environmental and financial benefits, Congressman Anthony Weiner on Sunday urged the state to allow the dumping of retired subway trains into New York City waters.

He called on Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Peter Grannis to immediately update what he called New York’s “outdated” foreign materials dumping permit process to allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to discard its retired subway cars in the city’s waterways.

Not only would that allow for the creation of artificial underwater reefs in New York’s own waters, it would save the MTA millions of dollars, said Weiner, a member of the House’s Environment and Hazardous Materials subcommittee.

Because of the outdated permit procedure, the MTA is forced to spend millions of dollars shipping its retired subway cars to other states, which use them to create artificial reefs in their own waterways. The agency has already footed a $6.3 million bill to ship 2,091 retired train cars to waters off New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and other states.

In 2001, the MTA began stripping down and shipping aged or worn subway cars to other states that use them to create reefs. Prior to that, the agency stored the old cars at city rail yards.

The states that receive the cars submerge them to create “havens for underwater wildlife and a boon for the environment and fishing industry,” Weiner noted. Meanwhile, he added, “New York’s waters remain barren.”

If the permit procedure is updated, New York would benefit from both the environmental and financial aspects — enhancing the ecology of the city’s waters and saving taxpayers $300 per subway car. It would also allow planning to create four new reefs in the waters of Nassau and Suffolk counties to begin.

“These subway cars may be old, but they can become new homes to fish and wildlife,” Weiner said. “We shouldn’t allow bureaucracy to prevent New York from reaping the benefits of these artificial reefs.”

Just three months ago, Weiner call for a three-part federal aid package to aid Gateway National Park in its cleanup of Jamaica Bay. The plan aimed to enhance “Operation Clean Bay” — a project intended to rid Jamaica Bay of hazardous abandoned vessels and stop illegal boat dumping. Old subway cars, unlike abandoned craft, are drained of all toxic fluids before they are submerged.

Jamaica Bay Marshes Washing Away with Tides by Ivan Peireira - YourNabe.com > Howard Beach Times

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For years, lifelong Broad Channel resident Dan Mundy has seen the once lush marshland in Jamaica Bay rapidly deteriorate into nothing.

"You'd be able to look at that clump over there and it would be alive with tall marshes," he said while riding in his boat recently through Yellow Egg marsh. "Now there's nothing left and what used to be grass is now all water."

A report issued last year by the Jamaica Watershed Protection Plan Advisory Committee, a special city-run group that Mundy is a part of, warned that if nothing was done to stop the loss, the 3,000-acre ecosystem would be gone in four years.

Although government restoration efforts have been implemented during the last five years, Mundy said the rate of the deterioration is so rapid that it negates the expensive efforts to bring back the marshes.

Nevertheless, the 70-year-old retired firefighter, who has been trying to alert officials for more than a decade, has had some successes in raising awareness of the problems and said there is much more work to be done if the marshland is to be rescued.

The discovery

Mundy said he first discovered the decline in the ecosystem's plant life in 1995, when he went boating around Big Egg Marsh, located in the bay's northeast section. He noticed that a creek within the middle of the marsh had gotten wider and over the years the grass had not grown as high as before.

"That kind of opened your eyes to say, 'Hey, what's going on here?' " he said.

Mundy and his friends, who would eventually form the environmental group known as the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, took their concerns to the bay's owner, the National Park Service, but initially their calls went unheard.

After more calls to government officials at the city, state and national level and after the Ecowatchers conducted their own studies of the marshland loss, the federal government convened a blue ribbon panel to investigate the allegations.

In May 2001, the panel confirmed Mundy's fears: The bay had lost nearly half of its marshland between 1974 and 1999.

The cause

A follow-up study issued last year by the Jamaica Bay Watershed Committee, which was created by the City Council in 2005 and the city Department of Environmental Protection indicated that excess nitrogen levels in the bay's water were an important factor in the deterioration.

The study found that an excess of nitrogen in the water was causing the oxygen levels to drop. Without the oxygen, the marsh soil loses its nutrition, which weakens the plants' roots.

"The nitrogen affects the soil. As it breaks up, it becomes clumsy and it can't handle the storms or tides," Mundy said.

The study indicated that one of the possible sources of the excess nitrogen could originate from four DEP water filtration plants located around the bay. The DEP made recommendations last year to upgrade its facilities with new equipment that would reduce the nitrogen that is dumped in Jamaica Bay, but no action has been taken at the plants as of yet.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has created a special task force that will work with the city to find a solution to the problem and has been in constant talks with the DEP, according to a DEC spokesman.

Mundy said he is fed up with the lack of action by the government agencies to stop the nitrogen problem at its source.

"We've got to stop talking and start doing. It's a long process to get those things done," he said.

The effects

Mundy pointed out how great the marshland deterioration has become over the years as he took his boat to Black Wall Marsh, which has lost more than 60 percent of its original 41 acres over the last 30 years. His 6-year-old boat's GPS map showed the craft could navigate over areas where there is now water in place of what had been marshes.

"Right now, I'd be over the marsh," he said as he steered the boat over the area.

In some areas of Black Wall Marsh, the original shoreline footprint was clearly visible despite the fact that there was no grass. Mundy predicted that the entire marshland would be gone very soon without any type of restoration project.

In addition to the loss of plant life, the 142-square-mile ecosystem suffers in a symbiotic manner when the marshes are gone, according to the DEC.

Jamaica Bay is the largest wetland in the city and is home to more than 300 species of birds and 100 species of fish, as well as numerous species of reptiles, amphibians and insects. Without rich plant life to sustain some of these animals, the entire area's environment could deteriorate next.

"You'd look at that clump there and it used to be alive with mussels," he said as he cruised near the Yellow Bar marsh island to the south. "It's important because the birds that migrate here need the calories to fatten up and move on."

What's being done

While the government agencies are discussing ways to stop the deterioration, several projects have been completed and are underway to restore the grass to the bay. The first was done at Big Egg Marsh in 2003 by the National Parks Service, which owns and maintains the ecosystem.

The agency used special machines that sucked up the soil near the marsh and spewed it over the areas where the grassland was completely gone. Over a six-month period, engineers planted new seeds on the native soil and today the marsh has regained two acres of its land.

Mundy said he was impressed with how quickly the project came together and believed that its success should be used as a basis for other restorations in the future.

Another restoration project, one undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DEC and DEP, took place at Eldits Point in 2006. The corps, with the help of a federal grant, was able to replant 30 acres on the southern island's east side with new techniques.

The ecological specialists were able to deposit new sand brought in from New York Harbor and planted it with seeds from the marshlands. Some parts that had not deteriorated were either moved and clumped together for better growth or left alone and surrounded by the new soil, according to Mundy.

So far, the grass has grown tall and healthy.

"You can now see the top of the grass and it's all even," Mundy said.

More restoration projects are earmarked for the future by the DEP, including the western portion of Eldits Point and Yellow Bar, which has lost 54.5 percent of its original 176 acres of marshland since 1974, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

The outlook

Despite the restoration efforts, Mundy said more needed to be done to stop the deterioration of the marshes and he has repeatedly called on the city to step up its efforts to reduce the nitrogen.

Nevertheless, the environmentalist said he is confident that the bay will be restored because so many people have been advocating for action since the problem first started. With more help from politicians, scientists and eco-friendly activists around the city, he said the environmental damage would be stopped.

"I think that the momentum is there from all the groups and agencies that are zeroing in [on the bay]," he said. "I think that the fact that we're aware of the problems and if the technology is there. If we keep the momentum up, we can stop the problem."

Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.