NYC Needs Runways, But 'Ghost Airport' Quiet by Chris Hawley - msnbc.com

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Could turning Floyd Bennett Field into a commercial airport help ease congestion?

A National Park Service hangar emblazoned with the name Floyd Bennett Field glows orange at sunset March 11 at New York City's "ghost airport" in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Two airports sit less than five miles from each other, their wide-open runways tracing big Xs along the same stretch of Atlantic shoreline.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, air traffic controllers herd a procession of airliners in what has become a chronic choke point in the nation's air transport system.

At nearby Floyd Bennett Field, things are more laid back. Recently, the one-man control tower, John Daskalakis, leaned against a pickup truck with a portable radio as an ancient C-54 cargo plane lumbered toward Runway 24 for takeoff. Cyclists and joggers hung out on the taxiway to watch.

As planners lament the lack of space for new runways in a region plagued by air delays, Floyd Bennett's wide, inviting runways sit just across Jamaica Bay within a federally protected park.

The old airfield opens a few times a year for special flights, but most of the time it sits idle — its hangars, runway and control tower intact but off-limits to air traffic.

The perfectly preserved former Navy base was once frequented by Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart. Today, in the cavernous Hangar B, aviation buffs gather to restore old airplanes and swap stories. Some of them wonder whether turning Floyd Bennett into a commercial airport is a realistic, achievable way of easing congestion in New York.

"That would be a dream — that would really be something," said Dante Dimille, a volunteer. "This would make a great civil aviation field again."

Some experts say it's not unthinkable: a new traffic-control system being installed by the FAA could enable planes to fly into Floyd Bennett without conflicting with those headed to JFK. But others say it would be too costly to realign and lengthen its runways. And getting the airport back from the National Park Service, which now controls it, would be near impossible.

"Physically, it would work, with limitations," said Thomas Chastain, an airport planning consultant. "Practically and politically, I don't see them ever using Floyd Bennett Field again."

Too close to JFK?

Still, he said, it's a tantalizing prospect.

New York desperately needs more runway space. JFK and LaGuardia airports in New York, plus Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, together handle about 3,500 flights per day, and passenger demand is projected to increase from 104 million to 150 million by 2030.

In bad weather, the number of flights that air traffic controllers can put on each runway drops. As a result, nearly one-third of flights in New York were delayed or cancelled in 2009, according to a November report released by U.S. Department of Transportation.

The three main New York airports have nine runways between them but haven't built a new one since the early 1970s. Meanwhile, 17 other major airports have added runways just in the last decade, including Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield, Boston Logan and Washington Dulles.

In January, a report commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the region's airports, said any expansion would be difficult. Three of the five options it recommended would require filling in parts of Jamaica Bay to build runways at JFK.

Floyd Bennett has four existing runways, the longest of them 6,000 feet. But it has space for an 8,500-foot runway, longer than any at LaGuardia.

But experts with the Regional Plan Association, which wrote the study for the Port Authority, decided that the distance between such a runway and JFK would cause airspace conflicts.

"We dropped that early on," said Jeffrey Zupan, one of the authors. "It's just too close to Kennedy."

But not everyone believes that's an obstacle.

A new satellite-based air traffic control system, known as NextGen, will soon allow airplanes to make better use of tight airspace, said Paul Freeman, head of flight testing for ITT Corp., which is building the system.

"That's not really a valid excuse anymore," said Freeman, who in his free time runs a website about defunct airports. "We're working on technology that will really free up a lot of the traditional limits of air traffic control. It definitely would allow something like a Floyd Bennett Field to be active again."

Frozen in time

Floyd Bennett wouldn't be the first New York-area airport to close and reopen. Newark airport closed in 1939 after LaGuardia was built, only to reopen in World War II. Flushing Airport in Queens closed in the 1970s, later reopened and then closed for good in 1984.

Floyd Bennett Field was built between 1928 and 1931 and quickly became the preferred launching site for record-setting flights by Hughes, Earhart, Wiley Post and other aviation pioneers. The airport sported unusual innovations, like a turntable for rotating aircraft and tunnels under the tarmac that passengers used to reach their planes.

The Navy took it over in 1941. Most of the airport closed in 1971, though the New York Police Department still uses a corner of it as its helicopter base.

Unlike other airports that have been ripped up to make way for housing developments and shopping malls, Floyd Bennett remains frozen in time.

The hangars are rusting and missing some windows but still standing. The old terminal is being restored and will reopen as a museum later this year. Runway 33 is now a road, but the others are mostly untouched. The Park Service even mows the grass between the runways, part of an effort to accommodate migrating geese.

In 2007, the Park Service opened the old runways for a fly-in of World War II fighter planes, biplanes and a modern Air Force C-130 cargo plane.

In Hangar B, Dimille and other volunteers with the Historical Aircraft Restoration Project show off their collection of old planes to school groups and aviation buffs. A hulking Boeing Stratofreighter, one of only two such airplanes still flying, looms over the other planes like a condor in a nest of sparrows.

The Stratofreighter and a former Navy C-54 cargo plane dubbed "The Spirit of Freedom" are owned by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, which keeps them at Floyd Bennett under an agreement with the Park Service.

One March afternoon, the C-54 took off, beginning a summer of visiting airshows around the country. A dozen aviation enthusiasts turned out to take pictures of the takeoff.

Daskalakis listened on his radio as the old cargo plane rumbled to the end of the runway and called for takeoff clearance from controllers at JFK. He had filed a special flight permit with the FAA a few days before.

The huge, piston-powered engines roared. The Spirit of Freedom surged forward, past the joggers and the cyclists and the geese. Then it raised its nose skyward.

For a moment at least, Floyd Bennett Field was an airport again

Runway Rumble: Environmental Activists Don't Want JFK's Airport Expansion Into Jamaica Bay to Take Off by Alex Rush - YourNabe.com

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Environmental activists say a proposal to fill in an area roughly two-and-a-half times the size of Governors Island off the coast of John F. Kennedy Airport to build new runways in protected Jamaica Bay would be damaging to sea life, hurt the local fishing industry, and have repercussions as far away as Floyd Bennett Field.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s most drastic plan to reduce bottlenecks at the airport while adding up to 70 flights an hour would install three runways on what is now the bay — a portion of the Gateway National Recreation area — and some think the plan is nuts.

“We’re organizing to fight this lame-brained idea,” said Brighton Beach resident Ida Sanoff, who chairs the marine conservation group Natural Resources Protective Association. “No one in their right mind will let 400 acres of Jamaica Bay be filled in for any reason.”

Even the organization involved with formulating the new runway plan admits to its environmental downside.

The Regional Plan Association, an independent organization that monitors transit issues in the metropolitan area, released a report on Jan. 27 saying that the extra runways would let the Queens’ airport handle millions of additional passengers, but would most likely involve the “disruption to the environment, requiring the Port Authority to regenerate and restore wetlands that have eroded or been eliminated in Jamaica Bay.” The planners also concluded that the fill could destroy marine life near Floyd Bennett Field in Mill Basin, about six miles away.

But environmentalists think things could get much worst — both naturally and financially.

“It will hurt the migratory pattern of birds and fish that breed there and could even weaken the area’s flood protection,” Sanoff said.

A local fisherman agreed.

“The runways will not only hurt our access to the fish, but they’ll take away what the fish survive on,” said Stephen Byrne, who captains chartered fishing boats in Jamaica Bay and is a spokesman for the Fishermen’s Conservation Association. “Airport expansion is important, but recreational fishing is an important industry, too.”

The Port Authority has three additional expansion proposals that are less drastic. One calls for only two additional runways and would fill in about half the amount of Jamaica Bay, and two other plans require little to no fill, but would build runways that can only be navigated by a new, yet-to-be-approved traffic system, according to Regional Plan Association spokesman Jeffery Zupan, who pointed out that approval of the expansion of the airport could take some time.


“Picking the expansion plan to implement will be a political process in which all the stakeholders have to agree, including the Port Authority, the Federal Aviation Administration — and environmental groups,” Zupan said.

'Field' for Dreamers -Developers, Environmentalist Clash over Future of Floyd Bennett Field by Stephen Brown Courier-Life - NYPOST.com

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The battle between developers and tree-huggers is underway at Floyd Bennett Field, where builders want more recreational facilities and bird-lovers insist on bringing back natural habitats.

That became clear Tuesday night, when about 75 people met at the former airport to help write the Gateway National Recreation Area’s management plan, a document that will set the agenda for the national park over the next 20 years.

“Things like trails, walking along beaches and bird-watching have gotten short shrift for too long,” said John Tanacredi, a professor of Earth and Marine sciences at Dowling University, who noted that Floyd Bennett was no different than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite parks, where Mother Nature prevails. “There should be the same principles about preservation of the environment.”

Other, high-powered individuals envision a park that will cater to large quantities of people attending big attractions.

“I’d like to see Floyd Bennett Field used for more events, such as family reunions, cultural celebrations, bicycle rental facilities, kite shows and major trade shows,” said Borough President Markowitz. “How about a high-end antique fair? … Why not set up a drive-in movie? We could even use Floyd Bennett for the East Coast version of Burning Man!”

But using the park for a festival like Burning Man — which attracted close to 50,000 people to Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada in 2008 for a week-long party that culminated with the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy — or any other commercial endeavor would be difficult.

“The law [declaring it a national park] prohibits it from being a commercial space,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Sheepshead Bay), who called the meeting along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Brooklyn). The pair of pols also set up a blue-ribbon panel to help determine what should become of the park. “There’s got to be a recreational use, but open space doesn’t mean you have to build something there.”

For years, concessionaires and nature lovers have coexisted on the site where Amelia Earhart took off for her solo trip across the Atlantic and where, since 1972 when it became part of Gateway, nature has been allowed to take its course.

Despite the fact that viewing it using Google Earth clearly shows the man-made runways that intersect upon it, grassland birds like hawks, owls, meadowlarks and kestrels, along with amphibians like eastern box turtles and spring peeper frogs call the park home.

It is also home to the Aviator Sports and Events Center, a year-round campsite, trails, model plane runways, community gardeners, plus operating bases for the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation.

A plan to house a controversial charter school for at-risk youth at Floyd Bennett Field is already on the table.

The consensus may be that the park is in dire need of better funding and care, but some aren’t keen on radically changing its face.

“Don’t displace what is already there,” said Ida Sanoff. “The model-plane people, community gardeners, and environmental people have all peacefully co-existed here for a long time.”

NYPD Chopper Makes Emergency Landing By Brooklyn Field - NY1.com & NY Daily News

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A police helicopter sits in Jamaica Bay after making an emergency landing on Wednesday. (Jason Andrew for The Wall Street Journal)

A New York City Police Department helicopter needed to make an emergency landing by Floyd Bennett Field in Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn this afternoon.


Officials say all five people aboard are now safe.

Some aboard the chopper received minor injuries and were taken to hospitals for observation, according to police.

It is still not clear why the pilot had to set the helicopter down on the water.

The Coast Guard and the New York City Fire Department are also on the scene.

NY Daily News - NYPD Helicopter Makes Hard Emergency Landing in Brooklyn, Cause Unclear

An NYPD helicopter made an emergency landing Wednesday near the department's aviation base in Brooklyn.

It was not clear what caused the aircraft to suddenly go down, but it appeared to land in Jamaica Bay near Floyd Bennett Field just before 4 p.m., FDNY officials said.

Five police officers were inside the chopper when it landed. There were no serious injuries.

In August of 2009, one of the helicopters in the NYPD fleet made two emergency landings in a three-day span. The first happened at a soccer field in Maspeth, Queens. The second happened in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

Both incidents were attributed to a faulty indicator light in the chopper's control panel.

Public Meetings in Brooklyn and Queens on the Future of Floyd Bennett Field...

Public meetings are being held about the future of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, the 1,400 acre unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. 


Floyd Bennett Field is one of New York City's largest public spaces, it provides many environmental, recreational, and cultural benefits to the people of Brooklyn and beyond, but its full potential has never been realized. 

The National Park Service is now drafting a plan to shape Gateway's future, and Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Anthony Weiner have formed a Blue Ribbon Panel to provide recommendations about Floyd Bennett Field for this plan. 


Be sure your voice is heard by the people creating the plan for Gateway's future and your elected officials.   

Please join this important conversation.

Click on image to enlarge...

Questions? Contact Maya Borgenicht with the Regional Plan Association at maya@rpa.org or 917.652.6359.

For more information, go to www.rpa.org/floydbennett.

Public Meeting in Brooklyn and Queens About Floyd Bennett Field Improvements

Brooklyn Meeting

Date: September 21st

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: Aviator Sports - Hangar 5 - Floyd Bennett Field

Queens Meeting

Date: September 27th 

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center

Jamaica Bay BioBlitz Identifies 516 species...and Counting (U.S. National Park Service) - Gateway National Recreation Area

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Professor Robert Dickie of Brooklyn College and assistant Nicole Wharf gather silversides at Plumb Beach during Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. NPS PHOTO

On June 11-12, nature enthusiasts conducted a 24-hour “wildlife census” for Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. About 100 volunteers documented over 500 animal and plant species at Gateway National Recreation Area’s Floyd Bennett Field. Scientists, college students, hobbyists and families crawled through underbrush and waded in saltwater to observe spiders, water birds, algae, horseshoe crabs, fish, frogs, mollusks, plants and fungi, among other species. Results are still coming in and will be updated as scientists receive lab test results.

Brooklyn College partnered with Gateway NRA to organize BioBlitz 2010. Rebecca Boger, professor of Earth and Environmental Studies at Brooklyn College, worked closely with National Park Service Biologist Jessica Browning to recruit researchers and volunteers. Shuttle buses brought volunteers and visitors to programs and field sites throughout Floyd Bennett Field. Many researchers were professors from local colleges, especially Brooklyn College, while many volunteers were college students in a particular field of study.

Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan, Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould and Dr. Gary Machlis, Science Adviser to the NPS Director, blew whistles of red-tailed hawk calls to kick off the 24-hour event. Dr. Machlis then waded into Return-a-Gift Pond with researcher volunteers to collect tadpoles and other acquatic life. He noted the benefits and challenges of preserving nature at Floyd Bennett Field, once a municipal airport for New York City. “This is an extraordinary example of how the Organic Act needs to be acted out,” Dr. Machlis observed. “Preserve this unimpaired for future generations.” He added, “If it was easy, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

For a BioBlitz, the means of gathering data is just as important as the final species count. College students try out their research skills under the guidance of professors. Nature enthusiasts have the opportunity to expand their interests. Volunteer Anne Yen enjoys birding, but volunteered to help collect saltwater organisms because “I like it all.”

Gateway scheduled several interpretation events, such as “Seining at Sunset” and “Junior BioBlitz,” to attract people of all ages. Researchers, too, brought their children. At the closing ceremony, Allison Mass took the stage with one of her children to report her findings on fiddler crabs.

This was the 16^th BioBlitz for volunteer Suzi Zetkus. “I feel lucky to be part of it,” Zetkus reflected, “because I see how it changes people. If kids aren’t getting outside and having the hands-on experience of a horseshoe crab, letting it move in your hand, they aren’t going to love it. They’re not going to save it.”

David M. Quintana, a writer for the blog Lost in the Ozone, volunteered the entire 24 hours of the event. He took over 70 photographs of the event. “I got my merit badge at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge [another section of Gateway NRA],” he recalled. “I would ride my bike down there. I would tell kids that I saw a snowy owl or thousands of snow geese .They thought I was making up stories. You get kids there and half the battle is won.”

Some volunteers were interested in Floyd Bennett Field’s “wild” nightlife. Elliotte “Rusty” Harold signed up for his first BioBlitz because he liked to photograph “cool, interesting insects. This is an unusual opportunity to find nocturnal insects at the park in the hours when it’s normally closed to the public.” Harold brought his own camera and ring flash, for photographing images directly in front of the lens.

At the closing ceremony, several researchers reported their findings, including Paul Sadowski of the New York Mycological Society. He was surprised to find an earthstar fungus, but “the best species to find [at the BioBlitz] is homo sapiens, to raise their awareness about our planet.”

Photos from 2010 BioBlitz at Gateway National Park's Floyd Bennett Field and Environs...

The 2010 BioBlitz was held at Gateway National Park's Floyd Bennett Field, Plum Beach and Dead Horse Bay units in around Jamaica Bay...It was seamlessly coordinated by Assistant Professor Rebecca Boger (Brooklyn College) and Park Ranger Jessica Browning (National Parks Service)...

Click here to view these pictures larger

The 24 hour event began at 3pm Friday June 11th and ended at 3pm June 11th, 2010...It was a fun event which served as a learning experience for the scientists, amateur naturalists and children who participated...There was a total of over 500 species located and identified during the 24 hour period...

Even though BioBlitz 2010, is history, the counting is still going on. Final results should be ready in a few weeks as lab tests come back to us. Below is a *preliminary* count as of the close of BioBlitz 2010:

Species Count as of 2:30 PM, 6/12/2010
Aquatic Plant	60
Bird	47
Bryophyte	10
Fish	15
Herp	6
Mammal	10
Marine Invertebrate	55
Terrestrial Inverebrate	164
Terrestrial Plant	149
*Preliminary Total*	516*

2010 BioBlitz at Gateway National Park More News Coverage...

BioBlitz Takes Over Gateway National Park -The Rockaway Wave

Hundreds of scientists, amateur naturalists, birders, students, families and volunteers will make eco-history as they gather at Gateway National Recreation Area’s Floyd Bennett Field from 3 p.m. on Friday, June 11 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 for BioBlitz 2010 – an intensive 24-hour biological “treasure hunt” to identify and record all species of living organisms in Jamaica Bay and the adjacent areas including Plumb Beach and Dead Horse Bay.

“BioBlitz provides a wonderful opportunity to take a snapshot of the park’s ecosystems and the information we gather can provide a complete picture of the health and longevity of these areas,” noted Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan. “By taking a partnership approach to this event, the organizations and colleges involved can all learn more about the richness and biological diversity found at Gateway National Recreation Area.”

The Jamaica Bay BioBlitz, sponsored by The National Park Service in partnership with Brooklyn College, also offers an exiting array of educational and recreational events for young and old alike over the course of the 24-hour event. The Floyd Bennett Field Aviator Center (3159 Flatbush Avenue) will be “Base Camp” and the starting point for all events. The complex will be transformed into a temporary on-site research laboratory where scientists and volunteers will huddle over microscopes working to identify specimens brought in from the field. During the fall 2007 BioBlitz, scientists and volunteers identified 650 different species of birds, bryophytes, fish, mammals, plants and terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates at Jamaica Bay.

Wildlife in NYC? Sure, Lots, Count Shows...The Times Union, Albany, NY

New York City is more known for steel towers and asphalt valleys than its abundant wildlife, but a group of academics, naturalists and rangers have found a surprising variety of nature in one Brooklyn park.

A 24-hour census of wild things at Floyd Bennett Field on the edge of Jamaica Bay found at least 516 species of living organism.

The count included 209 different types of land and water plants, 164 varieties of bugs and moths, 47 types of bird and dozens of fish and animals.

The survey began Friday afternoon and ended on Saturday.

Researchers at Brooklyn College coordinated the count.

Gateway National Recreation Area Superintendent Barry Sullivan says the findings show how diverse life is, even in an urban environment.

Volunteers Take Annual Tally Of Brooklyn's Biodiversity by: Jeanine Ramirez - NY1.com

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Dozens began scouring the grasslands, beaches and marshlands of Jamaica Bay on Friday to help increase understanding of some of Brooklyn's natural resources. Borough reporter Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

Families and students, scientists and park rangers walked Plumb Beach on a treasure hunt Friday, to look for natural treasures of wildlife. It was the beginning of a 24-hour "BioBlitz" at Brooklyn's Gateway National Recreation Area, where different species in and around Jamaica Bay were found and identified.

The National Park Service joined with Brooklyn College to record all the species of living organisms, from sea life and insects to reptiles and grasses.

Park rangers say the biodiversity here is greater than most New Yorkers may realize. There are 331 species of birds alone recorded in Jamaica Bay.

"That 331 is more bird species than you would find in some our great national parks -- Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon. If you combine the bird species in those parks, it wouldn't equal 331," said Barry Sullivan of the National Park Service. "So right here in New York City, we have that kind of biodiversity."

It was the second BioBlitz at Gateway over the last two years. Organizers said documenting what lives there helps experts learn if there are any new species or endangered ones.

Residents said getting involved helped them become more engaged in their national parks and their environment.

"I'm here to learn. I'm not an authority on anything on the biodiversity here," said one volunteer.

"Just to know what's around me, what's in Brooklyn, what's here," said another.

"To take stock of all the biodiversity that exists right here in Brooklyn, right in our backyard," said a third.

The BioBlitz kicked off Friday afternoon and was scheduled to run nonstop through Saturday. Experts said the overnight hours are necessary to get a more comprehensive look.

"Some animals are more active at night than daytime. Some of the insects for instance, moths. Bats, you document them at night. Mammals are more active at night," said Brooklyn College professor Rebecca Boger.

The National Parks Service said once it records all of its findings, it will post the data on its website.

BioBlitz Competitors to Examine Jamaica Bay by Ivan Pereira - YourNabe.com

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It will be all fun and games this weekend as scientists and environmentally active volunteers descend into Jamaica Bay for an exploration of its diverse ecosystem.

Brooklyn College will be hosting a BioBlitz competition in the 39-acre greenspace from Friday afternoon into Saturday.

The competition, which has 35 volunteers from the college, other schools such as Queens College and agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will enable visitors to view and classify the fauna and flora in the bay hands-on, according to the event’s co-coordinator, Rebecca Boger.

“It gives a snapshot of what is living in the park,” said the Brooklyn College associate professor, who holds a doctorate in marine science.

“It’s part scientific endeavor and an outreach endeavor for people to learn about science and the park.”

The teams will meet at the aviator center at Floyd Bennett Field at 3 p.m., where a base camp will be set up for the competitors. There the teams will be led by professional experts like Boger and will collect and classify the some 200 different fish, birds and other wildlife they discover over the next 24 hours.

“They’ll get whatever they can find,” she said of the species thriving in the bay. “Insects, you’re going to get a lot.”

Boger said the participants have told her they are excited about the event, which was last held in the fall of 2007, because they have never been to a wildlife ecosystem before. She noted Jamaica Bay is a wonderful spot for an environmental scientist who is studying in the five boroughs.

“It is such a unique park in the sense that it is close to the New York City metro area and  it can be accessed by public transportation,” she said.

The bay has been under the microscope for the last couple of years because of an ongoing ecological problem affecting its saltwater marshlands. Due to an excessive amount of nitrogen in the water, the marshes have been deteriorating at a exponential rate over the last half century.

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Federal, state and city environmental agencies have been trying to combat the deterioration, which imperils the wildlife that lives in the bay, through various projects including a restoration of the wetland.

In February, the city Department of Environmental Protection announced it would spend more than $100 million over the next decade to upgrade its wastewater treatment plants located around the bay so the facilities would discharge less nitrogen.

Although the BioBlitz will not focus on the marshland situation, Boger said the participants will gain some knowledge about the bay and it might bring them back to explore it in more depth.

“By indirectly gaining an appreciation for the resources and seeing the importance of these resources, I think that will have a powerful impact,” she said.

For more information on the BioBlitz, send an e-mail to jbbioblitz@yahoo.com.

New York Harbor Muck Used to Restore Jamaica Bay by Sam Roberts - NYTimes.com

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Shewen Bian, of the Army Corps of Engineers, at the restoration project site at Elders Point West, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, in Jamaica Bay. Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

For generations, the islands of Jamaica Bay, the 26-square-mile natural sanctuary off the Brooklyn and Queens shoreline that is home to hundreds of species of migratory birds and marine life, have been disappearing, victims of environmental neglect.

A Bay’s Rebirth

A combination of factors, including development encroaching into the bay and erosion caused by the dumping of contaminants, led to the shrinking of the bay’s salt marsh islands to 800 acres, from more than 16,000 acres a century ago. At the rate they are being lost, about 33 acres annually, they could vanish entirely in two decades.

But now the bay’s fortunes are rebounding, thanks to the leftovers from a giant project taking place in New York Harbor that most people never see and probably know nothing about.

For more than a decade, workers using giant digging machines have scooped up enormous mounds of rock, clay, sand and silt from the waters around New York to deepen the shipping channels to accommodate giant cargo vessels that will navigate the widened Panama Canal starting in the middle of the decade.

Mr. Bian near a ship that is dredging New York Harbor to deepen the shipping channels. Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

The dredging has produced millions of cubic yards of muck.

“What do you do with all that stuff?” said Col. John R. Boulé II, commander of the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the dredging. “Some of it we’re using to restore the islands in Jamaica Bay.” Recalling the lush “Mannahatta” that Henry Hudson encountered when he sailed into New York Harbor 400 years ago, Colonel Boulé added: “We want to put a little more of 1609 back into 2010.”

The Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service are the primary partners in a collaboration of city, state and federal environmental, parks and port agencies and private partners to revitalize what is known as the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, focusing primarily on Upper and Lower New York Bay. Eventually, oyster beds will be restored to serve as living water filters, and shellfish may someday be harvested commercially again.

Jamaica Bay is part of the park service’s Gateway National Recreation Area, which spans the harbor and will be expanded by hundreds of acres when the city’s former Fountain and Pennsylvania Avenue landfills in Brooklyn, recently forested with 35,000 trees, are incorporated as parkland in a few years.

Jamaica Bay, a wildlife refuge in the national park system, boasts a 9,000-acre expanse filled with birds, horseshoe crabs, diamondback turtles and many other fauna. “Jamaica Bay is in many ways the lungs of the estuary,” said Maria Burks, commissioner of the National Parks of New York Harbor.

For about a century or so, those lungs were periodically clogged with one contaminant or another, from the carcasses of dray animals (hence the bay came to be known as Dead Horse Bay), garbage and occasional victims of murder and drowning.

The bay was destined more than once to become a major seaport, from the late 19th century through the 1940s. In 1910, with the state deepening the barge canal linking upstate to the Great Lakes and with New York City still the nation’s leading manufacturing center, financing was approved to transform Jamaica Bay into what was described as “the world’s chief harbor.” It would be fringed by 1,000-foot-long docks, terminals and railroads and protected by the natural barrier of Rockaway Beach.

The Army Corps was enlisted to deepen channels, using the dredged material to fill in the shallows and enlarge the bay’s islands for maritime development.

Delays spared the bay from becoming a major seaport, but the subsequent development of Floyd Bennett Field (which itself required 14 million cubic feet of fill), John F. Kennedy International Airport, Cross Bay Boulevard and several residential developments gobbled up wetlands and salt marshes.

Nitrogen from waste treatment plants, leaching contaminants from surrounding landfills, runoff from the Belt Parkway and airplane fuel threatened the remaining natural resources — including the 330 bird and 80 fish species that Barry Sullivan, general superintendent of Gateway for the National Park Service, said have been logged in the area.

“Since the middle of the last century, we lost more than half of the salt marsh, which is critical for development of all of those species,” he said. “The wetlands are the nurseries of the ocean.”

Conservation efforts were begun in earnest by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in the late 1930s and accelerated when Congress created Gateway National Park in 1972 after lobbying by the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay.

But Emily Lloyd, a former environmental protection commissioner for the city, said that while public agencies and some private volunteers were committed to improving conditions, “the bay lacked a real constituency.” She enlisted the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy to help advocate for Jamaica Bay’s health. (The conservancy’s chairwoman, Marian S. Heiskell, was instrumental in establishing Gateway.)

As a result, instead of filling in the bay to build docks and warehouses, the Army Corps is using sand to restore an almost pristine grassy natural habitat with a bucolic vista framed by the Manhattan skyline less than 10 miles to the northwest.

The dredged material is used to restore the wetlands at Elders Point West. Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Elders Point, an island south of the Brooklyn-Queens border, is among the most ambitious restoration projects under way. About 42 acres of wetlands have already been restored on Elders Point East. About 200,000 cubic yards of dredge material has been used to restore 34 acres of salt marsh on Elders Point West, which is expected to be completed later this year.

Another 250,000 cubic yards will be transformed into 50 acres of marsh at Yellow Bar Hassock. By the time the dredging project is finished in 2014 about 42 million cubic yards of material from the Ambrose Channel, Kill Van Kull and the Bay Ridge Channel will have been blasted, excavated and removed by barge to deepen shipping channels to 50 feet. Most of the muck has been dumped in the ocean, while some is being used for other projects in the New York area. Jamaica Bay has become an early beneficiary of the dredging project.

“We’ve been working on this for the last decade,” said Daniel T. Falt, the manager of the Jamaica Bay restoration project for the Army Corps. “We’re excited to finally see something in the ground.”

Rep Weiner Secures $2.4 Million To Remove Toxic Waste At Floyd Bennett Field 2 Acres Of Contaminated Land To Be Cleaned

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn and Queens) and Barry Sullivan, Superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area, discuss plans to clean 2 acres of contaminated land at Floyd Bennett Field.

Standing near an overgrown, polluted section of Floyd Bennett Field that is marked with a “Danger” sign to warn passersby, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn and Queens) along with Gateway National Recreation Area Supervisor Barry Sullivan and representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, announced $2.4 million in funding to help clean 2 acres of land in Gateway National Park that is contaminated with fuel from over 40 years ago. The funding will help begin the process of transforming the area so that it will be safe for recreational use.

Floyd Bennett Field, which is a part of Gateway National Recreation area, is one of New York City’s hidden treasures. Located on the southeastern edge of Brooklyn, it is home to campgrounds, walking paths, fire pits, softball fields and even an archery pit for New Yorkers looking for a break from the bustle of the Big Apple. Floyd Bennett Field also serves as a training facility for the NYPD and, and it was previously used as a naval airfield and as New York City’s first commercial airport.

An examination conducted by the National Parks Service shows that the fuel contamination, which accumulated due to decades of use by planes and helicopters, has left unhealthy amounts of benzene, naphthalene and other harmful poisons and carcinogens in the soil. The funding pays for a cleanup of the soil in order to make the land safe for public use, as well as an investigation to determine the extent of the contamination. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the cleanup.

"We are very pleased that this issue is moving forward and we thank Congressman Weiner for his efforts in making significant progress towards containment and any necessary remediation in the area,” said Barry Sullivan, Superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area.

“This important cleanup is long overdue,” Congressman Weiner said. “This will be good for the park, good for the community and good for the environment. This is another chapter in our efforts to make this park better”

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