Annadale Staten Island Sewer Construction

Annadale Residents To Be Hooked Up To City's Sewer System
October 24, 2007

A few hundred Staten Island homes and businesses are on their way to being a little more connected with the rest of the city – or at least with the part of the city that handles their waste water. Borough Reporter Amanda Farinacci has details on a project that will rid them of one dirty job.

Nearly 40 blocks of homes and businesses in the Annadale neighborhood will say goodbye to antiquated septic systems and connect to the city sewer system for the first time ever, thanks to a $35 million project announced Wednesday.

“New Yorkers whose residences are already connected to sewers do take this convenience for granted, but to anyone who has had to pump out a septic tank, the benefits of a sewer system are immediately clear,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The project, which actually began this summer, will install larger and more reliable water mains, improved catch basins and enhanced sanitary sewers in a triangular 40 block section of this South Shore community.

For 220 homes and 30 businesses it means an end to septic systems, which can pose health and safety dangers, and an improvement to storm drainage to prevent flooding after heavy rains.

It also means lots of construction, something resident Andrea Gulotta, who recently switched from septic to sewer, says is not a lot of fun.

“It’s a big mess. It’s still a big mess in front of my house, because, like I said, I just got it done,” said Gulotta. “It's just, you know, messy. Chopping up the streets, the sidewalks keep getting cracked, and they keep having to come and repair them.”

The Annadale Merchants Association has a plan to quell the fears of residents and local businesses about the impact of the project and plans to educate the neighborhood by using posters about the timeline and continue its involvement with the city by trying to form a business improvement district.

“It’s a two-year project, so does that mean we're gonna lose customers for two years? I don't think so. I think most people are gonna drive by and see what's really going on, and see it's really not that bad, however the scare is there,” said Frank Arlia of the Annadale Merchants Association.

The businesses and homes will have to pay to hook up to the sewer system and they'll have to pay annual sewer charges, but at least they won't have to deal with the messy and sometimes expensive job of clearing out a septic tank.

Rocking The Boat

from August 22, 2003, on ny1.com Adam Green was chosen as the New Yorker of the week
Rocking The Boat Helps Students Learn About Themselves And The Environment

In the concrete jungle, we found an oasis. This week's New Yorker of the Week has found a way to use the environment to pave the way for a better future for teenagers.

Adam Green says he’s not just building boats, he's helping to build kids one piece at a time.

“This is something that can make them stand out in their own minds and make them feel really special,” he says.

Green didn't know when he started a volunteer boat building project in college it would lead to his life's passion. But eight years later, he's still going strong with Rocking the Boat, a non-profit boat building program for teenagers with a far greater goal.

“Knowing that they can solve problems, knowing that things happen and we can deal with them,” says Green. “We can’t deal with everything in our lives, but certainly when you're working with wood on a boat you can talk things out, look at the problems and resolve them. I think that kind of problem solving, as deep as you can imagine, is a really, really powerful part of this.”

More than 20 kids work together in Green’s shop in the Bronx for a semester or for the summer, learning everything from sanding to steam-bending to sawing. They start the course by traveling into the woods for their own lumber, and then begin building the traditional wooden boat from scratch.

Edmanuel Roman has been with the program for three years, and says it was Green who helped him realize his dream of being a carpenter.

“He puts me into harder stuff, he challenges me, and I actually like that about him,” says Roman.

The kids all seem to agree that the process is incredible, but they all say that the greatest reward of all is seeing the boat finished and actually being able to use it.

“Just to see you worked on a project and see a final project, it's a great feeling. It’s undescribable. And it gives us youth something to do. I'm really proud of what I'm doing,” said Meliza Pena.

“When we go from scratch like that, then it’s like you started from the very beginning on my own, and I used my skills and the help of others to make this,” says Elliyaas Carter.

Rocking the Boat doesn't stop there. They've partnered up with five environmental groups to research, get water samples, and physically revitalize and purify the Bronx River. The Parks Department has now even invested in Rocking the Boat, funding them to do some of their research.

So whether they're in the shop or on the water, the students learn their impact on the community is limitless.

“It's using a real medium to teach students,” says Green. “In the shop it's wood and tools in the process of making a real wooden boat that really works, and on the water it’s taking those real boats and really using them.”

“I feel like I can achieve anything,” says Pena. “If you put your mind to it you can.”

So, for giving these kids a chance to build a better future, Adam Green is our New Yorker of the Week.

For more information on Rocking the Boat, or to donate, please call (718) 466-5799, or visit www.rockingtheboat.org.

Bronx River Environmental Group

August 13, 2007
An often overlooked natural resource in the Bronx is the focus of a new environmental art project. NY1 Arts Reporter Stephanie Simon explains in the following report.
A river flows in the Bronx, but not everyone in the borough knows about it.
“I didn't even know we had a river in the Bronx, to be honest with you,” says 17-year-old Stephanie Jaquez. “I don't think a lot of people know that at all.”
Even those who have heard of it, have been on the river. But as part of the Bronx River Art Center's eco-media program, a group of students are spending much of their summer exploring and documenting the Bronx River. They're taking pictures and recording sound for an environmental art project.
Hector Canonge is their teaching artist.
“Basically, what I’m teaching is the integration of technologies,” says Canonge. “We are using sound imaging photography and video and also GPS which to create an environmental map of the river.”
To collect the data, they launch homemade boats from the new Hunts Point Riverside Park, with help from the folks at Rocking The Boat. The kids in that program make the boats and do the actual conservation work along the river, including planting oyster beds.
Tuesdays the kids are out on the water in the boats collecting sound samples and taking photos and getting GPS coordinates. On Thursday they're back at the Bronx River Art Center, uploading the content and translating it into their virtual map of the river.
That virtual map will be part of a new kiosk at the center, showing all the environmental work being done by various organizations on the river. It's the first project of its kind focused on the 24-mile long Bronx River.
“I think that it is important we have more socially-conscience art work, especially right now where we are at a critical point with the environment being over used and mistreated,” says BRAC media coordinator Heidi Boisvert.
And it’s important to keep the information flowing.
“I never knew what was up with the Bronx River. I never knew that there are things that live in the Bronx River. There are other organisms of life and everything,” says 13-year-old Dominque Williams.
The new virtual map kiosk will be unveiled at the Bronx River Art Center on August 17th.

Hunts Point Pollution

Hunts Point Residents Raising A Stink About Sewage In Area
June 09, 2007
A South Bronx community group organized a bus ride Saturday through what its members say are environmental trouble spots in their neighborhood.

Residents and environmentalists took a bus to the Department of Environmental Protection's Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant and the New York Organic Fertilizer Company to rally against the foul smell and pollution they say are caused by the two sites.

“I care very much about environmental justice in New York City as a whole so it’s definitely time for us to do our part to support each other, come out and support other communities that are dealing with the same problems,” said one rally attendee.

“[It’s time to do what’s right, to control odors, to do a real audit as to what’s coming out of that plant, and to install odor controls so that we don’t smell that out of the fence line, in the parks and on the greenway that we fought so hard for,” said another.

Advocates say the stench is especially nasty during the warm summer months and that it is contributing to the high asthma rates in city children.

“It’s a horrible smell,” said Jessie McDonald of Mothers on the Move. “And we’ve been trying to negotiate with them for years to come to some kind of conclusion that would benefit them and the community, but nothing ever worked out.”

“Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg has come out and said that he wants a green New York City,” said another Mothers on the Move member, Cerita Parker. “Okay. So, we want the same things he wants. This community is overburdened with so many city or state or whatever projects that are going on and we feel that we need something more positive.”

The group also toured the construction site of the DEP's new waste processors near Barretto Point Park, and the site of a new jail proposed by the mayor.

Newtown Creek Pollution

January 12, 2005
One of the most polluted waterways in the country forms part of the Brooklyn and Queens border. Newtown Creek is filled with pollutants, but now the owner of one of the companies responsible has been arrested, Constantine Quadrozzi, CEO of Quality Concrete.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes announced the arrest at a news conference Tuesday.

“What we saw really, quite simply, was appalling,” said Hynes. “The direct discharge into the creek by these companies had so polluted the waterway that it was turned into a sewer.”

Quality Concrete is charged with dumping liquid cement into the creek, which is a part of the Hudson River estuary. Quadrozzi was charged with more than 40 felonies and misdemeanors, punishable with fines up to $$50,000 a day and up to four years behind bars.

Hynes was alerted to the problem by the watchdog group Riverkeeper. The group discovered the pollution in 2003 and planned to sue the company. But Quality Concrete said it would clean up its act – it didn't.

That's when the district attorney stepped in with criminal charges.

Now, Riverkeeper wants the focus put back on ExxonMobil, which was responsible for a 17 million gallon oil spill 50 years ago. The oil is still around, seeping into ground water and land.

“People want to use the waterways, but they're limited because of the pollution and impact that is there,” said Ludger Balan of the group Urban Divers.

“The fish that do go up this creek get exposed to the benzene in the creek,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the chief prosecutor for Riverkeeper, “then will go down into New York Harbor or Long Island sound. A fisherman will catch it and feed it to his family, not knowing he's feeding them carcinogenic materials.”

Hynes vowed to crack down on any other companies polluting the creek. Environmentalists say all this sends the right message: If you pollute for profit, you will pay.

- Tanya Valle

Water Tunnel In 2006

August 09, 2006
Hundreds of feet under Manhattan, workers have finished excavation work on the second stage of the city's third water tunnel project.
The third tunnel already services some areas of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, but this $1 billion leg of the project takes its reach citywide, though the water won't start flowing until 2009.
The city says work began in 1970 to ease pressure on the city's older tunnels one and two, which were built during the early 1900's.
The entire project is slated for completion within the next 15 years. Once finished, the third tunnel is expected to almost double the city's 1.2 billion gallon per day water supply capacity.
Since breaking ground for the project 35 years ago, 23 workers have died during construction.

Protecting New York's Watershed

December 19, 2003
The city is buying up more land upstate in the ongoing effort to keep city water clean.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday the city will spend an additional $25 million for land in the Croton watershed. That's enough to keep up to 700 acres free of development and pollution in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess County.
Since 1997, the city has bought more than 50,000 acres under the Land Acquisition Program.
The Croton watershed supplies 10 percent of the city's water.

New York Water Tunnel

from ny1.com,August 09, 2006
Hundreds of feet under Manhattan, workers have finished excavation work on the second stage of the city's third water tunnel project.
The third tunnel already services some areas of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, but this $1 billion leg of the project takes its reach citywide, though the water won't start flowing until 2009.
The city says work began in 1970 to ease pressure on the city's older tunnels one and two, which were built during the early 1900's.
The entire project is slated for completion within the next 15 years. Once finished, the third tunnel is expected to almost double the city's 1.2 billion gallon per day water supply capacity.
Since breaking ground for the project 35 years ago, 23 workers have died during construction.
NY1’s Rebecca Spitz filed this report.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg swapped his muck boots for street shoes after spending Wednesday morning 550 feet under Manhattan.
"It's just amazing. We went over to 59th [Street] and First [Avenue], and here we are on the west side," said the mayor.
The underground journey marked the end of excavation on the Manhattan leg of the city's third water tunnel, a $1 billion project designed to allow for inspection and repair to tunnels one and two, built during the early 1900's.
“God forbid tunnel one or two collapses, at least we'll have a backup and the city would continue,” said Bloomberg. “Without that backup, the city couldn't survive without water."
This tunnel is eight and a half miles long, running from West 30th Street in three directions: South to Lower Manhattan; north to Central Park, where it will connect with stage one of the project, which runs from Yonkers, through the Bronx and into Manhattan before heading into Astoria, Queens; and crosstown before heading north near the Midtown Tunnel.
"It's hard to express the complexity of it, just some of the things that need to take place. It's different from regular construction," said sandhog Dennis McGuire.
Working in the tunnel is both difficult and dangerous. Twenty-three sandhogs have died since construction began in 1970.
It's not hard to imagine how. There's only one way in and out of the tunnel, which is nearly 60 stories underground.
Ed DePinter operates the crane that handles all the equipment going or coming out.
"I started working about 18 years ago on the tunnel, and I have been a part of it for most of my career as an operating engineer,” he said. “It is something to be proud of, and I didn't think I’d ever see the end of it "
He’s not the only one. The tunnel project has spanned six administrations. It's the largest infrastructure project in city history.
“It's one of those things nobody appreciates while you're doing it,” said Bloomberg. “They don't want to spend the money. They say, 'Oh, let the next generation do it.' But if we want to leave our children and grandchildren a better world, we have to invest in these kinds of things."
Once finished, the third tunnel is expected to almost double the city's 1.2 billion gallon per day water supply capacity.
The Manhattan section of the tunnel is expected to be completed 2012.

Gowanus Canal Pollution

from a report ny NY1.com, July 09, 2004
The Gowanus Canal is known to its neighbors in Brooklyn as the "Lavender Lake," after years of pollution made it into a smelly, ugly mess. But there is a movement to clean-up the waterway and make it more accessible to residents. NY1's Roger Clark has the story.

The Gowanus Canal's reputation can maybe best be described similar to the Grinch who stole Christmas - stink, stank, stonk.

“Five years ago it stunk to high heaven,” says Kevin Breslin of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. “Touching the water itself was toxic.”

So why would anyone in their right mind want to navigate these infamous waters by canoe? Just ask the members of the canoe club.

“We're trying to show people that it's doable, it's enjoyable and it's pleasurable,” says club member Paul Bader. “We also want to draw attention to the fact of what needs to be done to make it even more attractive by cleaning it up, getting some type of development here and expanding the public access.”

Club members, which number around 50, get their access at Second Street in Carroll Gardens for a journey through the two-mile long waterway, built in the late 1860's and named for the chief of the Canarsees tribe of Native Americans.

Paddling towards New York Harbor, there are the canal’s many bridges, its mysterious dark tunnels, and a unique view of this neglected piece of the Big Apple.

“It's a different perspective of New York,” says club member Ellie Hanlon. “It's a really nice way to see the city.”

“I've grown up near the water, and I love having access to it by foot, without having to get in the car to get in the water,” says fellow canoe lover Bill Duke.

When New Yorkers hear the word Gowanus, first they think of the canal, and of course, the expressway. Well let me tell you, the traffic is a whole lot better in the canal than it is on the expressway.

But the Gowanus is by no means paradise. A flushing tunnel brings fresh oxygenated water in, yet there are still signs of its polluted past.

In other words, don't drink the water.

“But if you were to splash a little on your hand, it's not as though you'll disintegrate, aside from the legend and lore,” says canoe club member Owen Foote. “You basically wash with a little soap and water, and you can go have a bagel.”

And if it's up to the dredgers, you might be able to someday have that bagel at a waterfront park overlooking the Gowanus Canal.