DEP Rain Barrel Giveaway Program

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DEP Rain Barrel Giveaway Program

When: April 30, 2011

Time: 9am - 2 pm

Where: Cunningham Park - 169th Street and Union Turnpike

DEP Declogs Sewers, Helps Jamaica Bay by Ivan Pereira - YourNabe.com

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The city Department of Environmental Protection started its spring cleaning a little early and said it will not only result in less flooding in Springfield Gardens but also improve the Jamaica Bay ecosystem.

The agency announced Monday that it completed its work on the 12.2 miles of sewers under Linden and Springfield boulevards, where there have been several reports of flooding due to clogged storm drains.

For its initiative, DEP crews used Vactor trucks that suck the debris and garbage out of the sewers and transport the rubbish to a waste treatment plant in Manhattan before being shipped to a landfill. DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway said southeast Queens was chosen as the first location for the removal not only because of the complaints from homeowners who had to deal with the flooded streets, but also because of the area’s proximity to Jamaica Bay, where wastewater is discharged.

“We started this effort in Jamaica because we know that localized flooding is a problem for some residents and to protect Jamaica Bay — one of the ecological gems of New York City,” he said in a statement.

The trucks removed more than 1,500 tons of debris from the sewers that were clogging 20 percent of its pipe volume, according to the city agency. Some of the trash included tires, construction materials, large rocks and a 15-foot ladder, the agency said.

In 2001, the DEP installed an 8-foot-by-17-foot storm sewer in Springfield Gardens to deal with heavy floods in the area, but on several occasions, most recently in August, the neighborhood still experienced flooding during severe rain storms due to clogged drains.

Special sonar technology and closed-circuit cameras were used to pinpoint the exact locations of the debris in southeast Queens, the agency said.

The two $450,000 trucks contain a 30-foot hose that is inserted into the sewer through a manhole cover and sucks in the debris after the pipes are flushed by a separate water jet, according to the DEP.

The agency estimates that the cleanup reduced combined sewer overflow, which contains both wastewater and storm water, that goes into Jamaica Bay by 25 percent and will help improve the water quality in the ecosystem.

The bay has lost huge portions of its saltwater marshland due to a high concentration of nitrogen in the water. Four DEP wastewater facilities have been discharging the nitrogen into the bay and the agency has been working to fix the problem through several multimillion-dollar initiatives.


The DEP commissioner said the truck would be cleaning sewers in other parts of the city in the near future.

“Optimizing our existing sewer network is a key part of the NYC Green Infrastructure Plan, which will save New Yorkers more than $2 billion when fully implemented, and will dramatically reduce CSOs,” Holloway said.

'Green' Median Project Undertaken Between North and South Conduit Aves. to Take Strain Off Sewers by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Daily News

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Construction worker labors North and South Conduit Aves. project, which would reduce rainfall flowing into city sewers.

The grassy median between North and South Conduit Aves. in Ozone Park has become a test area for one of the city's largest green infrastructure projects.

The 13,000-square-foot site will be transformed into a natural water filter in an effort to keep stormwater and rainwater from overwhelming the sewer system, according to officials from the city Department of Environmental Protection.

"It's an innovative, ecological, green way to treat stormwater," said John McLaughlin, director of the DEP's Office of Ecological Services. Instead of treating stormwater as waste "it should be viewed as a resource."

As part of the $730,000 project, the grass will be enhanced with trees, wildflowers and shrubs. But the major work will take place below the surface where a bio-retention zone will be created with vegetation, sand and soil.

It is designed to divert about 200,000 gallons of stormwater from existing sewer lines. That's about 90% of the water from a moderate storm.

The project is part of a larger citywide push to find more environmentally-friendly and cheaper ways to cleans stormwater, officials said.

Mayor Bloomberg announced in September the $2.4 billion NYC Green Infrastructure Plan. The goal is to cut the amount of sewer overflows by 40%.

In many parts of the city, stormwater and wastewater are carried through one sewer system. When that system is overwhelmed - often by a influx of stormwater - a mix of the two is discharged into New York Harbor.

The city has been looking for ways to divert some of that stormwater through so-called green roofs and other places where water can be naturally absorbed and cleaned.

The alternative is additional sewer infrastructure, which could cost billions, officials said.

The challenge is finding and creating patches of green, large and small, around the city.

Green spaces have disappeared in Queens and other parts of the city, partly because of overdevelopment. Lawns have been paved over and open tracts of green land have been replaced with commercial and residential buildings.

"One system alone may not make a dent in the combined sewer overflow problem," said DEP Deputy Commissioner Angela Licata. "The idea is to have several of these strategies in an area."

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

8 Arrested for Dumping Raw Sewage Into Sheepshead Bay by Jonathan Eiseman - msnbc.com

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Eight people have been arrested for dumping raw sewage and restaurant grease into Shell Bank Creek in Sheepshead Bay, the Kings County District Attorney's office announced Wednesday.

Three corporations, including Regal Cinemas multiplex and TGI Friday's, also face charges in connection with the illegal dumps, District Attorney Charles Hynes said.

“There is no excuse for the disgraceful pollution of our waterways and beaches,” said Hynes. “In 2008 I set up an Environmental Crimes Unit within the Rackets Division, to investigate and prosecute polluters and clean up our rivers and beaches. Thanks to the continued cooperation of the DEC and DEP on this and other cases, we have had great success.”

The defendants ignored orders to have their sewer lines repaired, Hynes said.

An investigation began with complaints from residents in 2009. The investigation revealed that, in spite of these notices, noxious odors, fecal matter and toilet paper from the movie theater’s septic system were present in the creek as recently as this year.

Craig Novoa; Knapp Street Bagels and its manager, Simon Shin; and Deauville Marina and its manager, David Matalon, all face charges related to dumping untreated human waste into Shell Bank Creek. Knapp Street Bagels, Shin, and TGI Friday’s and its landlord, Alex Spivak, are also charged with dumping untreated waste grease and oil into the creek.

Jamaica Bay's Revival Begins with Mollusks by Gary Buiso - YourNabe.com

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Oysters, plants cleaning the plumbing like Ty-D-Bowl

Troubled Jamaica Bay is going from stinky to stunning!

Pilot projects using natural water cleansers such as oysters, and improvements to the sewer system are yielding tangible results, according to a report released by the city on Monday and — more important — those who live and play along the 39-square-mile bay.

“In the past, we would observe a plume of discolored water atop Paerdegat Basin [one of the bay’s inlets], and people would be driven from their patios because of the horrendous smell,” said John Wright, a board member of the Sebago Canoe Club. “We are very pleased to see the progress.”

The bay, part of the National Park Service, borders Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County, and includes approximately 142 square miles of meadowland, marshes, dunes and forests and open water — habitats that support 91 species of fish and 325 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals.

Humans, such as Wright, and his 220-member club will also be the beneficiaries of a cleaner bay, but there is still a long way to go before it’s as clean as it could be.

To that end, the Department of Environmental Protection has tweaked its Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection plan, focusing on upgrades to the wastewater treatment plants that dump approximately 300 million gallons of treated wastewater in the bay every day.

That water has a high concentration of nitrogen, which results in poor water quality that allows harmful algae to thrive. The algae diminish the bay’s oxygen, killing wildlife.

The city — compelled by law by the state to do so — announced that it would invest $115 million to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay, the bulk of the money going to the installation of new nitrogen control technologies at the four wastewater treatment plants located on the bay. The money, along with $95 million taxpayers previously committed, will reduce nitrogen in the bay by nearly 50 percent by 2020.

Agency commissioner Cas Holloway said the mayor has made the restoration of the bay “a special priority” in the effort to improve harbor water quality throughout the region.

“We are on track to achieve the goals outlined in the [plan] that will substantially improve the overall quality of the bay’s ecology,” he said.

The report notes that the city has already planted 1,000 eelgrass marine plants as part of a $350,000 pilot program to evaluate the potential for establishing small beds, which are seen as beneficial to fish and mollusks; and restored 10,000 oysters to help filter excess nutrients from the water.

Decimated by Years of Pollution, Oysters Once Again Find Home in Jamaica Bay by Adam Lisberg - NY Daily News

Gregg Rivera pours oysters into Jamaica Bay near JFK Airport, part of $350,000 project to restore mollusks that have been absent for years.

Oysters left Jamaica Bay slowly, declining for decades from overharvesting and pollution, until they were just a memory.

Oysters came back Tuesday - by the bagful.

Under a gray sky, ecologists emptied the first of what will be thousands of oyster shells into the gentle waves of the bay - the beginning of a plan to rehab the reefs that once filled these waters.

"At one time, oysters were a navigation hazard. Ships were sinking just from coming into New York Harbor and hitting the reefs," said John McLaughlin, director of ecological services for the city Department of Environmental Protection.

He was standing on a boat slowly chugging to an underwater platform of old clam and mussel shells, where crews today will nestle up to 10,000 shells seeded with oyster larvae.

If years of planning and decades of cleaning up the bay work as hoped, the young oysters will survive and thrive - and encourage new life.

"They're a keystone species," McLaughlin said. "The water quality in the bay is the best it's been in a very long time."

DEP has poured $624 million since 2002 into improving the four sewage plants that dump into Jamaica Bay. Another $244 million worth of work is planned by 2014.

The tab for the oyster bed project is $350,000, and it has taken years of coordination with agencies and advocacy groups.

They used computer models of water currents to find the best home for the oysters - a long-neglected site surrounded by rotting wood pilings in the shadow of Kennedy Airport.

The marshes around the bay have been eroding over time - and the DEP hopes the oysters can help with regrowth.

If the oysters can reestablish a foothold, they'll help filter the water, improve its clarity and enable it hold more oxygen.

"A single mature oyster can filter 30 to 35 gallons of water a day. If you multiply that by a lot of oysters, that's a lot of water," McLaughlin said. "Restoring oysters, restoring the wetlands, restoring the eelgrass. These are all parts of the puzzle that over time should begin to have an effect."

New Hope for a Restored Jamaica Bay by Arielle Concilio - Queens Chronicle

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Threatened with a lawsuit from several environmental organizations, the city and state have agreed in principal to upgrade sewage treatment plants on Jamaica Bay in the hope of improving water quality.

Sprawling across southern Queens and Brooklyn is Jamaica Bay, a wildlife refuge smack in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities. With its breathtaking views of green marshland and glimmering water set against the backdrop of New York’s urban landscape, it is the seeming image of peaceful coexistence between man and nature.

But years of abuse from overdevelopment and neglect have left the bay’s days numbered. However, thanks to a new joint initiative from the city and state, prodded by a host of environmental organizations, Jamaica Bay may have another shot at survival.

“Jamaica Bay is an amazing resource for New Yorkers,” said Larry Levine, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “It’s a wildlife refuge near the subway. We need to start treating the bay in the way that it deserves.”

The bay, which is marked off by Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, and connects with Lower New York Bay through Rockaway Inlet, is made up of 25,000 acres of marshland, coastal lagoons, islands and open waters. It is accessible by car and public transit, lies next to Kennedy International Airport, and is surrounded by urban residential, commercial and industrial development.

The bay is also home to 60 species of butterflies, 80 species of fish, and a number of amphibians, small mammals and reptiles including the endangered diamondback terrapins, which lay their eggs on the beach each spring, and peregrine falcons. In addition, the bay boasts horseshoe crabs that come to mate and dig nests on the shore, and more than 300 species of birds — about 20 percent of North America’s total bird species — that visit the area each year.

But unfortunately, those animals will fast disappear if the health of the bay continues to decline.

Since the beginning of the city’s history, the bay has been plagued by the ill effects of development. Among the projects that damaged its ecology was the construction in 1931 of historic Floyd Bennett Field, the city’s first municipal airport, which required 14 million cubic feet of fill. JFK Airport, mostly constructed in the 1940s, also destroyed 4,500 acres of wetlands as a result of dredging and filling that is believed to have disrupted the natural flow of sediment across the marshes. Industrial expansion and the contruction of the Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue landfills in the l950s and 1960s by the city Sanitation Department saw the filling of another 12,000 acres of marshland. Today, only 800 acres of marshland remain.

But overdevelopment has not been the only cause of the disappearing marshlands. Erosion caused by sea level rise believed to be caused by global warming, and the dumping of contaminants including garbage from the Pennsylvania and Fountain Avenue landfills, also led to the shrinking of the salt marshes. In fact, the garbage that was dumped for over a century from those landfills eroded so much of the southernmost shoreline that it came to be called “Dead Horse Bay.”

According to the Jamaica Bay Task Force, a group of private citizens, scientists and federal, state, regional and local agency representatives who work together to understand and propose solutions to the issues surrounding the bay, “tremendous amounts of toxins have possibly run into the bay” as the shoreline has been eroded and the landfill has “become exposed” over the years. They are working to reverse that, and just this past spring the Brooklyn landfills were reforested with 35,000 trees that will be incorporated as parkland in several years.

But despite the progress, sewage remains the largest problem threatening the bay.

In the early 20th century, discharge pipes in Brooklyn and Queens created mass pollution that led to bans on swimming, and extinguished the bay as the thriving shell-fishing community it once was.

Today four of the city’s 14 sewage treatment plants discharge more than 45,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay each day. Those discharges promote the growth of algae blooms which decrease the dissolved oxygen that marine life relies on. With greater levels of nitrogen, more and more portions of the bay become inhospitable to aquatic animals. In addition, the high nitrogen levels have also contributed to the rapid loss of the marshlands, which both provide a habitat for wildlife and act as a protective flood barrier to the communities that surround the bay.

According to a monthly journal published by the NRDC, the bay’s marshlands are disappearing at a rate of 33 acres per year and are expected to completely disappear within 15 years if action is not taken to control the nitrogen levels.

That is why the NRDC and three other environmental organizations — the American Littoral Society, the Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers and the NY/NJ Baykeeper — along with the city Department of Environmental Protection and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, came up with an agreement last February to help improve the health of the bay through upgrades to sewage treatment plants and investments in marsh restoration.

The agreement came about after the four environmental groups threatened the governments with a lawsuit last August that finally got the city and state to sit down and negotiate. Talks went on for a number of months before a final agreement was reached.

“We alleged there were violations” regarding the discharge of pollutants, said Levine, who has been negotiating the contract. “They may disagree, but there is no question that it is violating state standards.”

The agreement entails a 10-year plan that aims to improve water quality by devoting $100 million to upgrading the four sewage treatment plants, which are expected to cut nitrogen levels in half by the year 2020, along with improved water quality monitoring. Fifteen million dollars will also be spent on marsh restoration, which is expected to leverage an additional $30 million in federal funds from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has begun the rehabilitation project.

According to Don Riepe, founder of the northeast chapter of the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group that promotes the study and preservation of marine life and habitat, work on the bay’s Elders Point West Island, south of the Brooklyn-Queens border, has already begun, and next summer, the engineers will start working on Yellow Bar Hassock Island, which will see 50 acres of marsh restored.

To restore the marshland, the Army Corps of Engineers is using muck dredged up to deepen the channels, or clean fill taken from New York City waters, to enlarge the bay’s islands for maritime development, instead of building docks and warehouses. The dredged material will become 35 new acres of marsh by the end of the year. The project is expected to be completed by 2014 with the restoration of 42 million cubic yards of material from various channels.

But despite those advancements, as of now, the plan is still largely an agreement in principle. In fact, the NRDC, along with the other groups involved, has been working with the city for over six years to get the plan approved, and still it remains to be finalized.

According to DEP spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla, the contract could be signed “in the very near future,” however, a definitive date was not given. “We are finishing some details,” Padilla said.

A spokeswoman for the DEC also confirmed that “we are in the process of putting some last minute finalizations together,” but, “we don’t have an estimated date.”

Dan Mundy, president of Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers and founder of the Jamaica Bay Task Force, is “concerned” about the delay. “We are still waiting on the city and state and still pressuring them,” Levine said. “We had anticipated completion much sooner. ... We’ve done our part and have been letting them know we’re frustrated with the length of time it’s taken them.”

State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach), whose father, the late Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo, helped form a special task force of government officials, community leaders and environmental experts to address the bay’s environment, said that “implementation takes a long time.”

However, Addabbo added that, “if we don’t pay attention now, we will have problems that can’t be reversed. The DEP and DEC serve as watchdogs ... We need to keep up on these issues, and encourage agencies to continue examining them.”

And though officials only came to the table after being threatened with a lawsuit, Debbie Mans, executive director of the NY/NJ Baykeeper group, confirmed that the city is “now talking about the restoration in very positive ways,” explaining, “They didn’t talk about it in a way that they were being forced, which I thought was interesting. They said, ‘No this is a good thing.’ They are taking real ownership of it, including the millions of dollars they’re putting in it.”

Though the contract has yet to be signed, the city has agreed to abide by its deadlines on testing equipment used for lowering nitrogen levels and performing more water monitoring than had previously been done.

But while everyone agrees that the plan is a good one, past efforts to restore the bay have seen little success. The DEP’s Watershed Protection Plan, signed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg back in 2005, had similar goals to help improve the water quality of the bay.

Under the legislation, the agency was required to create a plan to restore and maintain the water quality of the bay by assessing threats to its ecology and overseeing protection efforts. The DEP was also mandated to create an advisory committee to provide advice to the commissioner regarding the final watershed plan.

However, Brad Sewell, an attorney for NDRC who has been working on the Watershed Protection Plan with the DEP for several years, said the plan was never finalized.
“It hasn’t been ongoing,” he said, adding in regard to its status, “I just have no idea.”

Riepe agreed: “It was a good plan to look at all the areas of the bay to capture runoff. But I haven’t heard much since.”

Although the environmental organizations are supposed to receive annual reports with updates on the water quality, they said they only received one incomplete report back in October of 2008. Although the next one is due in the fall, Sewell said, “we have no idea what we’re going to get,” because there was “never really a quantitative plan.”

Sewell said he believes part of the problem is that “the DEP didn’t want to do it. They didn’t want to be tied to doing certain things. They never really set out any quantitative methods to assess water quality.”

According to Sewell, the Watershed Protection Plan “talks about the nitrogen oxide problem and says it intends to fix it, but didn’t provide a specific solution.”

The new agreement in principle, however, calls for a specific solution with the plant upgrades and the marsh restorations.

“We will remain optimistic and move forward with the upgrades. Jamaica Bay suffers from being downstream in the country’s largest city, and suffered historically from lack of political attention,” he added.

“We are very pleased with it,” Levine said of the pending contract.

Mans agreed: “I feel good about what we accomplished. It’s going to take several years to lower the nitrogen, but we weren’t looking to punish the city.”

And while working on restoration efforts with the city have often been frustrating, Sewell was also quick to note that there has been a “sincere effort by the DEP and DEC to implement a solution.”

“If the plan is finalized, it will be a significant victory for the bay,” he said.

Advocates hope the past will not serve as an indicator of the future and the new agreement will be finalized, so the bay’s image as a unique gem where man and nature coexist will no longer be a mere mirage.

NYC DEP Begins Dredging at Hendrix Creek in Jamaica Bay...

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Completed Wetland Restoration Improves Water Quality of Jamaica Bay Tributary

Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway today announced the start of dredging at Hendrix Creek, a 7,000-foot tributary at the northern boundary of Jamaica Bay. The $13.1 million project will remove accumulated combined sewer overflow (CSO) sediment from the upper portion of the creek to reduce odors in the surrounding community. In addition to the dredging work, DEP recently completed a $1.3 million wetland restoration project, adding 30,000 salt marsh plantings and 23,000 square feet of coastal grassland and shrubland to improve the overall water quality and ecology of the creek and Jamaica Bay.

"The dredging and wetland restoration of Hendrix Creek are two more steps forward in our comprehensive plan to improve one of New York City's greatest natural resources, Jamaica Bay," said Commissioner Holloway. "Back in February, Mayor Bloomberg announced $115 million of investments to further reduce nitrogen levels and restore marsh islands in the bay. And in June, we expanded the number of water quality testing sites in the bay by 50%. Now, we are restoring the natural habitat in one of the bay's largest tributaries and dredging it to reduce odors in the community. Step by step, we are making the bay cleaner and healthier so that New Yorkers will be able to enjoy this ecological marvel for generations to come."
Dredging will remove 20,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediment at the uppermost 1,400 feet of the creek to eliminate a potential source of odors. The 
sediment is composed of material from combined sewer overflows which occur when stormwater and wastewater is discharged into surrounding waterways during heavy storms to prevent local wastewater treatment plants from being overwhelmed by increased stormwater flows. The hydraulic dredging method uses a cutter head which loosens the below-water sediment, and pumps, which vacuum the sediment through a flexible pipe onto barges. The pumped material is then dewatered by equipment on barges at the 26th Ward Wastewater Treatment Plant pier. Once dewatered, the material is then transported by barge for off-site processing and disposal. Hydraulic dredging reduces the overall project duration, results in less turbidity within the creek, and has less impact on the local habitat. The creek bottom will then be restored by placing an 18-inch layer of clean sand atop the dredged surface to cap the remaining sediment within the dredged area of the creek. It is anticipated that the project will be completed in late summer 2011.

The Hendrix Creek Wetland Restoration Project restored 30,000 square feet of salt marsh habitat and 23,000 square feet of a coastal grassland and shrubland habitat. The restoration removed highly invasive plants, including phragmites, Japanese knotweed and mugwort and debris from the shoreline. The improved habitat allows for greater plant diversity and the return of native plants that had been previously displaced by the invasive ones. Restoring additional tidal salt marsh and adjacent plant communities in a tributary of Jamaica Bay helps provide key ecological functions, including: additional nursery, forage and refuge habitat for the 91 species of fish in the bay; use by migratory and resident birds; and water filtering.

Jamaica Bay is a 39-square-mile water body with a broader watershed of approximately 142 square miles that includes portions of Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County. The bay is a diverse ecological resource that supports multiple habitats, including open water, salt marshes, grasslands, coastal woodlands, maritime shrublands and brackish and freshwater wetlands. These habitats support fish, birds and many reptile, amphibian and small mammal species. The bay is a critical stop for birds along the Eastern Flyway migration route and has become an internationally renowned birding destination. Portions of the bay, most notably the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, have been designated as Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats by the federal and state governments.

The City announced in February that it would make $115 million in new investments to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay. The investments include $100 million to install new nitrogen control technologies at wastewater treatment plants located on Jamaica Bay. The investments, made in concert with $95 million the City already has committed for nitrogen control upgrades, will reduce the nitrogen loads discharged into Jamaica Bay by nearly 50 percent over the next ten years. The City also will invest $15 million for marshland restoration projects around the bay beyond the investments made in these Hendrix Creek projects.

Since 2002, the City has invested $37.4 million to reclaim more than 440 acres of environmentally sensitive land adjoining Jamaica Bay and plans to remediate nearly 100 additional acres. The City will leverage its new $15 million investment in the bay's marshlands by applying for Federal matching funds, which could net an additional $30 million in funding for Jamaica Bay marshland preservation projects.

DEP manages the City's water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to more than 9 million residents, including 8 million in New York City, and residents of Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties. New York City's water is delivered from a watershed that extends more than 125 miles from the city, and comprises 19 reservoirs, and three controlled lakes. Approximately 7,000 miles of water mains, tunnels and aqueducts bring water to homes and businesses throughout the five boroughs, and waste7,400 miles of sewer lines take wastewater to 14 in-city treatment plants.

Plan Starts Up For Jamaica Bay Clean Up by Elise Finch - wcbs-tv

Jamaica Bay is a popular boating and fishing area, but it's been plagued by pollution in recent years...Take a tour of Jamaica Bay with NYC Department of Environmental Protection and CBS2's Elise Finch...

Jamaica Bay Landfill to Become Nature Park - Channel 12

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The Jamaica Bay landfill is slowly being turned into a nature preserve with many family activities.

The park will feature fishing, a sail boating school, bicycle paths, an amphitheater area and ample parking for visitors.

The project is costing approximately $200 million. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has transformed the landfills over the past 10 years in to a lush habitat covered with more than 30,000 shrubs and trees.

Pennsylvania Avenue/Fountain Avenue Restoration Annual Tour – July 20, 2010

This year's tour was entitled “Rolling Hills Tour 2010” and it provided sweeping vistas and panoramic views of Jamaica Bay from the soon to be parks which have been remediated from the former landfill sites.

In my estimation when completed these parks will provide the communities and people of New York City with beautiful new natural areas for relaxation and outdoor activities.

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The tour participants met at the Brooklyn Sports Club and attended a pre-tour power-point presentations of the history and present state of the cleanup and restoration by the Citizens Advisory Committee and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

After the presentation, the participants broke up into groups and boarded vans for the trip to the facilities at the parks on Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue.

Penn Park is scheduled to open for public use by 2012 and Fountain Park will follow in 2014.

The parks are the highest spots on Jamaica Bay within New York City, with the Penn Park elevation at 87 feet above sea level and Fountain Park reaching a height of 128 feet above sea level. The parks encompass a total area of 440 acres.

There have been over 40,000 plants, shrubs and grasses planted at the site by DEP, including eight varieties of trees which had been extinct to the area by the mid 19th century. The plant species have been specially selected to be indigenous to the area's climate and seasonal conditions.

During the restoration process DEP has trucked in over 4 million cubic yards of gravel, grading material, sub-soil and top soil. The top-soil is a special mixture of sandy loam produced in the site to complete pre-planting. There are over 25 miles of roadways and trails throughout the sites.

The parks will have many public amenities including an amphitheater at the Fountain Park site for community events such as concerts, a bay fishing pier, a boat launch for non-motorized boating (kayaks, canoes, etc.), sail boating classes, rest areas for open air observatories, gazebos for shade and bicycles paths extended into the parks from the present bike paths along the Belt Parkway .

There will be areas set aside for overnight camping for nature study.

Parking lots will be able to accommodate between 350-500 vehicles. There will be refreshment courts and ample restrooms throughout the parks. Both parks will be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Media attending the tour included Agnes Green of the Spring Creek Sun, WNYC Radio reporter Matthew Schuerman,  Channel 12 News and a photographer from the Wall Street Journal.

The major contributors to the tour were the Brooklyn Sports Club and Tacfield Associates, LLC.

Addabbo Pushes Bill to Halt Watershed Drilling by Anna Gustafson - YourNabe.com

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State Sen. Joseph Adabbo said he was inspired to sponsor a bill that would place a moratorium on drilling near the city's water supply after speaking with the director of "Gasland."

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo’s (D-Howard Beach) bill calling for a moratorium on natural gas drilling near the upstate water supply may come up for a vote in the Senate this week, and Queens and city politicians said the legislation’s passage is crucial for the health and safety of 9 million city and Westchester County residents.

The bill would stop any drilling in the watershed, which provides drinking water for the city, until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completes its study of the effects of natural gas drilling on water and public health. The study began in March and is expected to end within two years.

The legislation would rule out the possibility that companies could use hydraulic fracturing, a process of extracting natural gas that entails injecting up to 5 million gallons of water laced with chemicals into the ground at high pressure to break the rock.

“Let me be clear: I am not against drilling, but I am totally against a process that certainly has questionable ingredients that should not be in our water,” Addabbo said. “Imagine not being able to use your water for fear of drinking carcinogens, plastics and toxins. The danger of hydraulic fracturing so close to the New York City watershed is easy to imagine. Toxic byproduct can seep into our drinking water and turn our once pristine water into a severe health risk.”

According to a report prepared by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, seven states in the country have experienced serious incidents of water contamination and explosions near hydraulic fracturing sites.

The method has been criticized by city government officials and environmentalists who often cite a 2008 report from the U.S. Land Management Bureau that said groundwater in Sublette County, Wyo., which has one of the country’s largest natural gas fields and where hydraulic fracturing was commonly employed, was contaminated with benzene, a substance that has been linked to cancer and nervous system disorders.

Addabbo said his concern over natural gas drilling upstate became more urgent after he met with Josh Fox, the writer and director of the movie “Gasland,” an environmental documentary chronicling the natural gas boom. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and landed a Special Documentary prize.

City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) is interviewed in the film. Gennaro, a longtime advocate against hydraulic fracturing near the watershed, has thrown his support behind Addabbo’s legislation.

Hydraulic fracturing “is completely unregulated by the federal government and poses unacceptable risks to drinking water supplies throughout the country,” said Gennaro, chairman of the Council Environmental Protection Committee.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) is also backing Addabbo’s legislation. A version of Addabbo’s bill is being sponsored by state Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-East Setauket).

City Starts Project to Preserve Jamaica Bay Marshes by Ivan Pereira - YourNabe.com

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The city has begun a massive overhaul of its water treatment centers near Jamaica Bay in an attempt to save the ecosystem’s dying saltwater marshes.

Last Thursday, the city Department of Environmental Protection announced that it had installed a new, biological nitrogen reduction system at its 26th Ward Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn. The excess nitrogen discharged by the plant and three others located near the bay have led to an excessive deterioration of the saltwater marshlands that make up the 31-square-mile environment.

“This is another measure in the steady drumbeat of great news for the health of Jamaica Bay,” DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway said in a statement.

Up until now, the plant was not able to remove nitrogen from treated wastewater and, combined with the other plants, would pump approximately 40,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay every day, according to the DEP. The new equipment installed in the facility will use a chemical reaction to take the chemical element out of the water via a sludge process.

The process will reduce nitrogen discharge by 4,000 pounds a day, the DEP said.

The agency is also expanding its quality-testing program to determine the amount of bacteria in the water, the temperature of the water and other factors including the level of nitrogen.

“The new sampling we are doing will give us the most complete picture yet of water quality in the bay,” Halloway said.

For years, activists have been calling on the city to help curb the damage done to the bay, which has lost more than 70 percent of its marshland over the last 50 years. It contains 91 fish species and 325 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and other organisms.

In February, the city announced it would be making $155 million in investments over the next 10 years to upgrade its facilities to reduce nitrogen and introduce new programs to save the marshland. Last month, it began planting eelgrass in the ecosystems to oxidize the water.

“Although a number of investments will take several years to complete, we’re already making good on Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg’s commitment to improve water quality in Jamaica Bay by taking immediate interim steps to substantially reduce nitrogen discharges while permanent facilities are under construction,” the commissioner said.

DEP Launches Jamaica Bay Treatment Measures - Wave of Long Island

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Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway has announced the launch of the first phase of enhanced treatment measures to reduce the amount of nitrogen being discharged into Jamaica Bay at 26th Ward Wastewater Treatment Plant, a plan that will eventually impact the bay’s water quality at Rockaway as well.

The installation of biological nitrogen removal technology at the plant will reduce nitrogen discharges by more than 4,000 pounds per day, or 10% of the total nitrogen discharges from treatment plants into the bay, until additional investments are completed by 2014. DEP also began an enhanced water quality testing program in Jamaica Bay, increasing the number of sampling sites there by 50% — from 13 to 20 locations. Bay and harbor monitoring gives DEP vital information needed to ensure that the City’s 14 wastewater treatment plants meet or exceed State and Federal treatment standards. The nitrogen removal and sampling are part of the historic agreement announced by Mayor Bloomberg in February between DEP, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other environmental stakeholders to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay through $115 million of investments over the next decade. These investments, along with $95 million of capital projects will cut nitrogen discharges into Jamaica Bay in half.

“This is another measure in the steady drumbeat of great news for the health of Jamaica Bay,” said Commissioner Holloway. “Although a number of investments will take several years to complete, we’re already making good on Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to improve water quality in Jamaica Bay by taking immediate interim steps to substantially reduce nitrogen discharges while permanent facilities are under construction. And the new sampling we are doing will give us the most complete picture yet of water quality in the bay. This is further evidence of what can be achieved when the City and our regulatory and environmental partners work together to reach a common goal.”

Although it is not a pathogen and poses no risk to human beings, high levels of nitrogen can degrade the overall ecology of a waterway. High levels of nitrogen can lead to reduced levels of dissolved oxygen in waterways and excessive algae growth, especially in warm weather months. Currently, the 240 million gallons of daily waste-water handled by the four waste-water treatment plants on Jamaica Bay result in the discharge of approximately 40,000 pounds of nitrogen each day. The Rockaway Peninsula closes off Jamaica Bay and prevents the circulation of oxygenated water, which exacerbates nitrogen impacts in the bay, as compared to surrounding waterways.

DEP’s waste-water treatment plants were not originally designed to remove nitrogen, a naturally-occurring component of all waste-water. The project at 26th Ward includes upgrades that will address this issue by retrofitting existing equipment to increase the treatment capacity of the existing infrastructure, which facilitates the underlying chemical reactions that remove nitrogen from waste-water via the activated sludge process. It is expected that these new processes will reduce discharges of nitrogen to the bay by more than 4,000 pounds per day, or 10% of the total nitrogen discharges into the bay. An innovative technology, called the Ammonia Recovery Process, is now being designed, which will further reduce nitrogen discharges from the 26th Ward by 3,000 pounds per day by 2014.

DEP’s Harbor Survey Program tests the New York Harbor waters and sediments at 56 locations. Sampling takes place year-round. Most sites are sampled weekly from May through September and monthly from October through April. Typical tests measure bacteria, turbidity, temperature and the level of dissolved oxygen in the water. The results are used to assess the effectiveness of all of the City’s water quality programs and to monitor water quality trends.

The City is investing $100 million to install new nitrogen control technologies at waste-water treatment plants located on Jamaica Bay. The other waste-water treatment plants that will be upgraded are the Coney Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn and the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant in Queens. The first upgrade will be operational in 2015, and all improvements will be completed by 2020. These investments, made in concert with $95 million the City already has committed for nitrogen control upgrades, will reduce the nitrogen loads discharged into Jamaica Bay by nearly 50% over the next ten years. The City also will invest $15 million for marshland restoration projects around the bay.

Jamaica Bay has experienced marshland loss due to many factors, including sea level rise, a loss of sediment and fresh water flows and reduced tidal activity from the extension of the Rockaway peninsula. The City’s $15 million investment will be spent on saltwater marsh restoration projects in the interior of Jamaica Bay. Since 2002, the City has invested $37.4 million to reclaim more than 440 acres of environmentally sensitive land adjoining Jamaica Bay and plans to remediate nearly 100 additional acres. The City will leverage its new $15 million investment in the bay’s marshlands by applying for Federal matching funds, which could net an additional $30 million in funding for Jamaica Bay marshland preservation projects.

Last month, DEP launched the second phase of the Eelgrass Restoration Project to help improve Jamaica Bay’s local ecosystem. The project will consist of 1,000 individual plantings and is part of the City’s efforts to improve the overall water quality and ecology of Jamaica Bay. The project is being done in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension and the National Park Service.

Jamaica Bay is a 31-square-mile water body with a broader watershed of approximately 142 square miles, which includes portions of Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County. The bay is a diverse ecological resource that supports multiple habitats, including open water, salt marshes, grasslands, coastal woodlands, maritime shrub lands, and brackish and freshwater wetlands. These habitats support 91 fish species, 325 species of birds, and many reptile, amphibian, and small mammal species.

Relief at Hand for Troubled Jamaica Bay by John Collins Rudolf- Green Blog - NYTimes.com

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Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Jamaica Bay, the 31-square-mile water body encircled by the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, is an expanse of nature lying wholly within the confines of New York City. The bay’s salt marshes, islands and shallow waterways provide a home to hundreds of species of birds and marine life, from peregrine falcons to sea turtles.

But the bay’s highly urbanized location – its immediate neighbor to the east is Kennedy International Airport – and years of pollution and neglect have left it in far from pristine condition. And while the bay is no longer the dumping ground it once was, problems remain, chief among them an accelerating rate of loss of salt marshes in the bay.

Environmentalists assign much of the blame for the disappearing marshlands on high flows of nitrogen flowing into the waters of the bay from the city’s sewage treatment plants. The dissolved nitrogen is also responsible for low dissolved oxygen levels in the bay, harming marine life.

To reduce the city’s nitrogen discharges, the Bloomberg administration announced in March that it would spend about $115 million over the next decade on nitrogen-control technologies at sewage plants on the bay. That investment began paying off this week, as work started on the installation of a state-of-the-art ammonia recovery system at the 26th Ward wastewater treatment plant on Jamaica Bay.

The system will prevent approximately 2.4 million pounds of ammonia, a nitrogen-rich compound, from entering the bay every year. It will be installed by the ThermoEnergy Corporation under a $27.1 million contract with the city.

New York City’s overall goal is to reduce nitrogen discharges into Jamaica Bay by 50 percent, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, Cas Holloway, said in a statement.

“Preserving Jamaica Bay is a top priority for the Bloomberg administration,” Mr. Holloway said.