City to Stop Using Rivers as Giant Toilet

By Matt Chaban
September 29, 2010 | 6:21 p.m

When the tornado hit Brooklyn the other week, it not only knocked over trees and damaged property. It also sent a wave of raw sewage cascading into the Gowanus. (WARNING: This video is kind of gross.):

This happens all over the city every time it rains. The reason is because our sewer system, like our subway, is decades and in some places centuries old. The city still operates a combined-sewer-overflow system. All that wastewater is not only odoriferous but also screws up the marine chemistry. The EPA is none too happy about it.

Fortunately for our noses and the fishes, the Bloomberg administration announced a plan yesterday to address this problem, called NYC Green Infrastructure. It includes the expansion of the city's traditional "grey" water systems of tunnels and cisterns as well as a new emphasis on green roofs, absorbent pavement and a dozen other fixes. The measures are expected to reduce sewage outflows up to 40 percent by 2030 and save the city $2.4 billion in sanitation costs between now and then. It's yet another piece of PlaNYC sustainability coming to fruition.

And yet what goes unsaid in that 40 percent figure is that 60 percent of our waste will still be creeping into the creeks whenever it rains too hard. Granted it would take an astronomical expenditure to completely fix this problem. But like a dainty lady in polite company, it's better not to discuss such things.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo






Tags: Politics | Real Estate | The Daily Transom |



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COMMENTS (4 posted)
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City to Stop Using Rivers as Giant Toilet
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Using the rivers as a giant toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 01:55.
Although no one likes to hear it, this attitude is also noticeable in Westchester County.

In White Plains, I know that there are human sewage lines running very near the water runnoff storm system lines, and that there are damaged pipes along the way. I believe that this adds to the bacteria problems that are documented in Long Island Sound.

Also, the whole city was designed long ago in an archaic manner, where as it was planned, water runoff was always handled by just having storm drains shunt water off into a small river, which now rages uncontrollably when there are large storms. As I said, this was the design thought up years ago, but is still utilized today when developers want to build on wet lots. Well-paid design teams come up with mitigation ideas, such as dry wells, but when there are extreme conditions, the water level swamps the dry wells and they are useless. In addition, the city's DPW simplistically adds storm drains to enable the building on these lots. The Village of Mamaroneck is downstream from us, and I was warning about the wrongness of shunting our excess water toward them even before the devastating floods a few years back.

Another way in which we are misusing our rivers is that there really is no awareness that out eco-themed Gedney Landfill puts a good face forward to visitors on tours about how well it's run and eco-friendly it is, but viewers are blocked from seeing the deplorable way the small river that runs through it is treated. The Gedney Landfill hosts an area of the Mamaroneck River but no attempt is made to be sure that an enormous amount of disgusting garbage does not leave the premises via the waterway when it rains. I believe it is viewed as a convenient, cheap way to rid their property of trash. Rather than remove the floating debris from their property before it goes downstream, it is easier to look the other way and ignore the situation, as with each storm, it will flush out and end up in downstream residents bushes and bridges, until it eventually enters the Long Island Sound in Mamaroneck. It's hard to see this because the river is well-hidden by woods and is not visible on the walking tours.

It's time to stop treating our rivers as a feature that we can use to carry off our trash and storm water. When the economy improves, I hope that the Department of Public Works does not go back to the pre-recession practice of routinely adding stamps of approval to plans for houses on wet lots and just add city storm drains at the taxpayer's expense. It's just more water and more garbage downstream to Mamaroneck and to the Sound.

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River as Toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 02:07.
Your video is fabulous documentation. The audio almost makes it as good as having scratch-and-sniff video. The bystanders in the parking lot holding their noses really helped, too
Thanks for sharing an important video piece. I hope you have alerted the proper governmental agencies to its existence, so maybe something will be done more quickly.
If you monitor you site, how often have you seen this happen?
I have photos posted of the garbage that the City of White Plains allows to sit in the stream portion of the Mamaroneck River. The public can't see the existence of this garbage, but it feels to me that the city uses storm events to flush the property, knowing full well that the litter will clog our bridges, get stuck in waterfront brush, and end up going through Mamaroneck and end up in the Long Island Sound. Much of it consists of dog waste bags.

Thanks for your great video work.

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River as toilet
Submitted by Paula Piekos on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 02:11.
Sorry - I forgot to tell you where you might want to see my photos of how White Plains uses a river as a giant trash disposal at their Gedney Landfill. Go to the Whiteplainsecoissues.com site and look at the Landfill Gallery. The photos are old, but it is always like this, just with different garbage after each rain.

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Permapave
Submitted by morgera on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 11:41.
DPW and cities alike are more and more now starting green infrastructure projects. One reason is because these types of technologies mimic the natural processes in nature. The other is cost. We can reduce flooding and pollution from stormwater runoff with permeable pavement like Permapave but also reduce maintenance spending and prevent CSO's.

By making roadways and highways permeable, these biggest culprits of runoff and pollution can now be part of the solution. Rainwater can percolate through the ground and not be forced to combine with waste water. Thus, a reduction in runoff will be a reduction in treating stormwater at wastewater facilities.

Permapave is one type of pavement that has been replacing pervious asphalt and concrete in city stormwater projects. Its worth to take a look at it if your goal is improving water quality and reducing city spending.