WESTCHESTER CREEK BEHIND 711 BRUSH AVE. This is where Dotti Grew up!
Litterally on this "Jetti of rocks that was the de mapped end of Wenner Place.
Wetlands are the link between land and water -- where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and energy from the sun meet to produce unique ecosystems often called the "nurseries of life."
In the 1600s, there were more than 220 million acres of wetlands in the area that would later become the
Officials and developers need to be educated that wetlands are not wastelands to be drained and converted to other uses. Wetlands replenish and clean water supplies, reduce flood risks and provide recreational opportunities.
------SWANS, IGRETS, DUCKS, GEESE, HAWK, FALCON living near Lehman High School
Large CSO at end of Westchester Creek this is where the methane eminates into the basement of Lehman High School due to the raw sewage that is released during rainstorms and melting snow during frozen non porous ground.
11/19/2007 Dorothea Poggi
Flooded Basements and the Future of our Waterfront Communities.
What Is A Combined Sewer?
The
During normal dry weather conditions, sanitary wastes collected in the combined sewer system are filtered at the Hunts Point Plant. The mixture of water and sewage is routed through the facilities through regulators.
During periods of significant rainfall, the capacity of a combined sewer may be exceeded. When this occurs, regulators are designed to let the excess flow, which is a mixture of storm water and sanitary wastes, to be discharged directly to Waterways. This excess flow is called Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO). Release of this excess flow is necessary to prevent flooding in homes, basements, businesses, and streets.
When do CSOs Occur?
Combined Sewage Overflows should only occur during wet weather. There are signs mounted near the Outlets that tell you to report any water coming out during dry days. This water may be a break in a water main or illegal use of this pipe for something else (call 311 with the location). Whether an overflow occurs and how big it is depends on many factors including amount of rainfall, how fast is the rainfall, whether or not it has rained in previous days, and on how long the rainfall lasted. CSOs typically overflow more in wet years than dry years. More intense rains also make it more likely that CSOs will occur.
Combined Sewer Overflow is discharged in our area to the
This release of the over burdened sewer system has become an issue in our area.
Something dangerous to our Oil Burners, Dryers, and Washing Machines etc. is going on.
The release of the water into our waterways may be causing the rise in our water table or just forcing water back into the path of least resistance which is our basements.
During the August 8th Rain Storm many of our homes experienced flooding to abnormal levels of (2-3 feet) instead of the maximum 3 inches that had happened before. We are worried what the future may bring. If this is already a problem, what will happen with the addition of runoff from the new Pepsi Plant and the new Home Depot? These huge building that should have been forced to have Green Roofs (that would have stopped the water from entering the system) are now adding huge amounts of water to our sewer systems. These large sites (6 acres each) were vacant lots that absorbed the rainfall and held it there until it slowly dispersed. These lots held the runoff from our streets in the past. We have no catch basins in the Residential area and throughout much of West Side of Brush Ave. Our sewer systems will be backing up into our homes at every heavy rainfall. It is also important to find out more about the old drains in our basements and connections to old septic tanks that may still exist in our homes. These old connections may be the pipes that the water is feeding back from. If there is someone reading this that knows more about sewer system back up during overburdening of the sewer system please call me at 718-892-7303. Is there a Dept. of NYC that will do a evaluation of the specific homes that are vulnerable?
Polution & Mitigation
Our waterways are currently polluted due to the overflow location of the Combined Sewer Overflows. The area's sanitary sewer (from residential and industrial sources) is carried throughout the same system as the storm water. Typically, the full volume of that water is drained to the sewage treatment plant located in Hunts Point. However, during heavy rain events, the Hunts Point plant does not have the capacity to treat the full volume of the water, so untreated water is forced to flow out into CSO’s Combined Sewer Outlets located in the
Dorothea Poggi
Cleaner Than You Think? What a Combined Sewer System Really Means for You
By Carter Craft
August 24, 2006
What do your kitchen sink, bathtub and toilet have in common? Among other things, the pipes from each of these amenities connect somewhere beneath your building. Down there beneath the basement and street, they create a nutrient rich mix of waters your nose can live without, commonly called sewage.
Following heavy rains, a massive flow of stormwater coming off of streets, parking lots, rooftops, and other hard surfaces of the city meets and merges with this underground reservoir of untreated sewage. And if their combined volume risks overwhelming sewage treatment plants, system management practice calls for releasing this unhealthy stew of rainwater, runoff and sewage into New York's harbor and estuary -- a combined sewer overflow (or "wet weather event", as it is called in some circles). The impact on water quality can be felt for as little as a few hours to as long as a number of days.
Combined sewer systems are present in more than 600 U.S. cities, including New York City, where they can poison surface water quality and negatively impact people's use and enjoyment of the waterways. And because all of our rivers, creeks, bays and streams are connected, this is truly a huge issue that requires a national solution.
The Clean Water Act requires that 85 percent of such CSO events be addressed before they become an water quality issue. In New York City, the burden of complying with Clean Water Act regulations has generally fallen to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP builds and maintains the systems which collect and treat New York's sewage and stormwater -- or at least as much stormwater as the system can handle. (New York City currently achieves about 72 percent of the 85 percent goal).
But the CSO problem doesn't rest simply in the capacity of the water treatment system, and it isn't just a question of how to dispose of the wet weather flows. The problem stems from the fact that the paved and impervious surfaces in a heavily urbanized area like New York City -- from parking lots to building rooftops -- don't soak up storm water. Instead they channel a huge amount of flow into the sewer system. And the majority of these areas are regulated and controlled by agencies other than the DEP, such as the Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and many others.
The DEP is in the process of creating a Long Term Control Plan for Combined Sewer Overflow ; the MWA serves as co-chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the East River/Open Waters area of the project. The Clean Water Act itself requires public participation in "development, revision, and enforcement" of any regulation, going so far as to requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the states (which are responsible for enforcing the Clean Water Act) to "provide for, encourage and assist" these efforts. In developing strategies addressing the CSO problem, EPA's adopted guidance policy for CSO encourages agencies "to define more explicitly their recreational and aquatic life uses, and then, if appropriate, modify the criteria accordingly to protect the designated uses.”
The MWA believes that to meaningfully address the colossal problem of CSO, it is critical that the Long Term Control Plan process consider and advance:
1. an aggressive number and range of best practices, and
2. engage other agency stakeholders whose actions and purview have a significant impact on the problem of CSO, particularly those that regulate or influence the design of streets, buildings, and parking lots where CSO events originate.
The Citizens Advisory Committee on the East River/Open Waters is organizing a planning meeting to discuss which agencies ought to be engaged in this process, and determine the best practices in controlling CSO that are already in use, as well as those that could and should be tested to gauge their efficacy in addressing the CSO problem.
More than 30 years after the Clean Water Act was enacted, water quality in the New York-New Jersey Harbor-Estuary is the best it has been in generations. A tremendous amount has already been accomplished, and the agencies that work to maintain and improve water quality do deserve a lot of credit. Still, as we embark on the city's third attempt in just over a decade to develop a CSO control plan that will bring New York City into compliance with the law, it is critical that we take every step needed to ensure that this effort brings with it every possibility for success. To do anything less is just an exercise in plan development for the sake of legal compliance, rather than planning for environmental stewardship -- which better embodies the spirit of the Clean Water Act.
Looking around, there are areas beyond New York City we can learn from. Seattle's Sea Streets program has shown how reducing impervious surfaces in a street right of way as little as 11 percent can reduce stormwater flows by as much as 90 percent in certain areas. Portland, Oregon has created a 17-minute educational video to help Portlanders better understand the problem.
Back in the Big Apple, a special screening of Water Underground will be held August 26, at Solar 1, a burgeoning community environmental center on the East River at 22nd Street. The evening of entertainment and information will also include the film Contested Streets. Both films portray how our rivers, creeks, bays and streams suffer from the heavy paving of the region. And it's not just bodies of water: 18 million people who live in close promixity to these natural resources also lose when the water quality is diminished by these dated sewer systems, and the unwieldy, fragmented bureaucracies which have thus far addressed the CSO problem ineffectively.
If you would like to be informed about upcoming programs on CSO, please email Annie Chen, achen *AT* waterwire *DOT* net.
Map image courtesy HydroQual.
By Carter Craft
August 24, 2006
Photos from the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance Ferry Trip to identify problems
to include in the Waterfront Agenda to be considered in the Mayors 2030 PLANYC.
This view is from a boat looking North from Queens at our Hilltop Memorial Grove area.
This hill is on the Public Park West. To the right from this view is the East Side of Whitestone Bridge.
The East side is where the Landfill for the Future Golf Course is located.
photo missing check tomorrow
view of future Golf course and cresent shaped waterfront park.
Homes along side of Future Golf Course (Emerson Ave.)
I guess this is the edge of Silver Beach area?
This should be Locust Point?
south of Bruckner & Unionport Bridge. This is actually where Dotti grew up, on this jetty
Westchester Creek facing North / Bruckner Cloverleaf / Sanitation on Zerega
WESTCHESTER CREEK NORTH END:
(E. Tremont Ave. / Lehman High School /Blimpie on the Hutch. Parks Dept.Consession)
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WHITESTONE BRIDGE QUEENS SIDE:
Photo Credit Ted Kaplan
Whitestone Bridge from Queens Side to Ferry Point ...note lights, benches, pavement...like a real Park.
MAINTENANCE
Bronx side no benches, lights or pavement
Soccer Fields after rain....Whats left of the large bathroom that once stood at the top of the hill.