“Newtown Creek today.

Raining. We see several sites with very turbid discharges – assume storm water. No sheens. No SPDES signs. Also, at Pratt oil seep on Queens side the absorbent boom is hung up on rip rap. It needs better rigging to be effective.

Boom at Pratt seep, Queens side.”

“Discharge just east of Queens side Waste Management – very close/west of Pratt seep.”

“Strong, turbid discharge at Waste Management on Brooklyn side under Kosciusko. We’ve seen this before. It’s only visible in rain and at low tide.”

“Discharge at Empire Transit Mix. This is a storm drain, I think. It is right next to the pipe where we saw cement waste discharged years ago which led to EPA enforcement.”

“Turbid stormwater discharge next to  Exxon groundwater well discharge at Meeker Av (right hand of two).”

Thanks to John for being our eyes on the creek! So what are we seeing? Read on for an explanation of what happens on the creek on days like today.

When wet weather exceeds treatment capacity at the Bowery Bay and Newtown Creek sewage treatment plants, untreated sewage and stormwater is discharged to Newtown Creek through 23 Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) outfalls. It is estimated that CSO events can happen over 70 times a year but vary in location and severity throughout the creek. The upper tributaries are the most heavily affected, with over 93% of the estimated 1.6 billion gallons of annual CSO overflows on the creek coming from just five outfalls at the “headwaters” of the tributaries. In addition to the pathogens associated with untreated sewage, CSO overflow may contain a wide variety of toxic chemicals and litter from roadways and rooftops.

Direct drainage areas and separate storm sewers serve the remaining 1,249-acres (17 percent) of the watershed, including all of the industrial shoreline properties on the Creek. Of the over 200 non-CSO outfalls on the creek, only five are permitted under the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The remaining storm drains, highway drains, and direct discharges from private lots endure as a vestige of the ad hoc industrial development that operated “out of sight, out of mind” for two centuries. It is this runoff that may prove to be the most problematic to resolve, as with industrial sites, stormwater may come into contact with a wide variety of pollutants.

What do concrete factory conveyor belts, barbed wire fences and cemetery obelisks all have in common?  They serve as excellent perches for birds.  This morning four intrigued members and affiliates of the NCA prepared for Brooklyn’s industrial wild west by gearing to the teeth with binoculars, telephoto lenses and notebooks (no multi-pocketed vests or safari hats present, yet).  The goal was to observe and record nature’s avian persistence in the shadow of water pollution, noise, feral cats, and crippled habitat.

The mission was a success, with 11 different species recorded cumulatively at five locations along the creek.  Black-crowned night herons perched on floatable booms, a gray catbird calling from a tree of heaven, and barn swallows darting out from under bridges and sewer outfalls were some of the morning’s highlights.

Urban birders, join us on our next birding trip (exact date TBD) for a more refined version of our Newtown Creek bird tour and witness nature-human interactions like you’ve never seen before.

A message from NCA Board Member Laura Hoffman:

For me, this is one of the most important meetings I will ever attend.The New York State Department of Health is coming to Greenpoint and Long Island City to present their public health assessment related to the Newtown Creek Superfund process.

Their documents can be found at this link  http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/investigations/newtown/index.htm And folks can still submit comments until May 4th.

You’ll see that the agency is assessing the state of our community health (past and present ) in terms of direct contact with the creek, and in terms of the current way of assessing the effects of chemical exposure on our community. That’s not acceptable! Community residents have long complained about our poor environment and the effects it has had on our community. We all know that the chemicals pouring into the Newtown Creek, started on shore in our community. A sewage treatment facility, oil plumes, chemical plumes,  multiple waste transfer stations, a municipal incinerator, pvc manufacturers and other facilities lined the Newtown Creek. Most are still there.  Community members have become ill as a result.

My mother, father, and their dog all died of brain disease. A human case of CNS lymphoma, a human case of progressive supra nuclear palsy, and a canine case of encephalopathy, were not looked at in terms of a possible chemical exposure. There’s something wrong with that.Now is your opportunity to speak up and demand environmental justice.  Please attend this important meeting.  Demand a real health study and changes in how the agency looks at chemical exposure in our community.I’m asking family, friends, and community to come out  and speak up.

The meetings will be held on:

Monday, May 14, 2012
7:00 to 9:00 pm
LaGuardia Community College
31-10 Thomson Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101
Conference Room E-242

Thursday, May 24, 2012
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Polish National Home/Warsaw
261 Driggs Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222

For questions about the meetings, please contact Bettsy Prohonic, New York State Department of Health, at 518-402-7530 or at ejp04@health.state.ny.us

RAIN UPDATE: Our love for the Newtown Creek Nature Walk surpasses any threat of “soaking rains”. While we will be postponing most of what we had planned for today, you are invited to come out to plant and weed as much as we can before the rains come. We start at noon at the Nature Walk. Please dress accordingly! We will reschedule the picnic, photo and mycoboom float for May 6.  If you stay in today, please celebrate Earth Day virtually by joining NCA on Twitter and Facebook!

Come join in for this casual celebration of the victory that is the Newtown Creek Nature Walk. Bring your own brown bag lunch and join the Newtown Creek champions who worked hard for years to win this unique waterfront park.  The day will feature:

+ Volunteer planting and park cleanup withGreenpoint Business Alliance in collaboration with the Open Space Alliance with funding from Hudson River Foundation.
+ Greenpoint Business Alliance will be providing refreshments, t-shirts, and a small gift for volunteers.
+ Inaugural launch of the Fairy Rings, pollution-eating mushrooms homegrown by the Bioremediation Workgroup, with maritime support services by North Brooklyn Boat Club
+ Afterparty at the “Broadway Stages Boatyard”, summer home to the NBBC.

Show the Nature Walk some love and celebrate Earth Day with your friends on Newtown Creek!

Sunday, April 22^th
12pm – 2pm
Newtown Creek Nature Walk

The concept that results envisions vegetated planters in the scaffolding that use the stormwater coming off the expressway.

Doodles from this day are being developed into full scale proposals! Do you have a GI project somewhere in the watershed? Join this workgroup by dropping a line to kzidar@newtowncreekalliance.org.

“It’s a very narrow solution to a very big problem that’s just addressing current standards for dissolved oxygen,” said Phil Musegaas, lead investigator of Riverkeeper, an environmental watchdog group that wrote a scathing letter to the city earlier this month. “It’s not improving ecology of the creek at all.”

Read the full article here!

When: Monday, April 9th, 10 am

Where: NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), 110 William Street (between Fulton and John Streets)

Who: NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods, NY Lawyers for the Public Interest, UPROSE, The Point CDC, Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice, El Puente, Nos Quedamos, NYPIRG, OUTRAGE, elected officials, and other community leaders.

Why: The Bloomberg Administration will meet with companies seeking contracts to build “thermal waste-to-energy” facilities at 10 am Monday. Thermal “waste-to-energy” (WTE) facilities rely on incineration-based technologies, are regulated as incinerators by the U.S.E.P.A. and are likely to be sited in environmentally overburdened communities of color or historically overburdened communities like Staten Island’s Fresh Kills.

Protestors will denounce this risky, unnecessary and polluting experimental attempt to site thermal WTE facilities in the nation’s densest urban center. (There are currently no commercial scale thermal WTE facilities operating in the U.S.) Following Monday morning’s bidder’s conference, City and industry officials will tour several potential sites, such as Fresh Kills, where they will be met by protestors, including elected officials.

Want to take more action?

Call Speaker Quinn (212-788-7210) right away and tell her that:

• We THANK her for her leadership and support in passing the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan – however, two communities in Brooklyn still handle an unfair share of the City’s garbage!

• The Council must FINISH THE JOB – Support legislation to reduce the waste capacity of land-based waste transfer stations handled in overburdened communities. Make sure that each borough handles its own garbage.

• The Council must SAY NO TO INCINERATORS – the “thermal Waste-to-Energy” Industry offers the same toxic incinerator pollution under a different name to our already overburdened communities.

April 26, 2012 at 6pm
Ridgewood Democratic Club
6070 Putnam Avenue
Ridgewood, NY 11385

In addition to important updates from our members – in particular the Bioremedition and Green Infrastructure Workgroups have been very busy! – we will be hosting a special presentation on the “Historical Ecology of Newtown Creek” by Dr. Eric Sanderson, senior conservation ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and author of “Mannahatta:  A Natural History of New York City” (Abrams, 2009). Dr. Sanderson will describe recent studies of the historical ecology of Newtown Creek, describing the original wetlands, creek channels, topography and vegetation of the area.  He will show a series of 18th and 19th century maps of the watershed of the creek and discuss the process of synthesizing them into an integrated ecological picture that can be used to inform and inspire natural restoration and cultural appreciation of the Newtown Creek watershed.  This work is part of the Welikia Project (welikia.org), an investigation into the historical ecology of the five boroughs of New York City and surrounding waters, supported by the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund.

We passed a fine brisk day down by the creek pasteurizing and then inoculating hay with oyster mushroom spawn to create the floating “mycobooms” that will eventually find a home on Newtown Creek.  After a period of rest, the inoculated hay will be stuffed into burlap sleeves constructed to resemble concentric circles. Our special design includes a sprinkling of wine corks from Brooklyn Oenology in the stuffing to keep it afloat.  The whole shebang will be tethered in the water or towed around by kayak, and the water quality in the center circle will be examined for improved quality. Enjoy the photos!

Sewing the burlap rings.

The gang setting up the hay zone and pasteurization station.

Damion Lawyer patiently monitors the temp.

Jens from NBBC makes fresh chips to keep us going.

Finally it is hot enough to begin pasteurization.  This is Damion and Ross.

After the hay and corks are clean, they are mixed with the “grain spawn” to propagate the fungi.

Many thanks go to Paul Pullo of Metro Fuel Oil, our neighbor on the creek who provided funding to NCA for this exciting science project. Access to the site is graciously provided by Tony Argento of Broadway Stages.

Past activities of the Bioremediation Workgroup have included joining the New York Mycology Society for a mushroom walk lead by mycologist expert Gary Lincoff in Forest Park, Queens and the consumption of an entire loaf of fresh baked bread from Ross Diamond.  If you are interested in joining this Workgroup, drop an email to kzidar@newtowncreekalliance.org.

“There’s a huge gap between the way the sewer system chronically malfunctions and the public’s perception of that problem — and their place in that process,” says Zidar, who believes “users of infrastructure can be conscripted to help that infrastructure function better if they only knew what their connection was.”

Read the while article here.