Page 6
Summer 2016
NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
dents complained about offensive
odors. In addition, it was quite costly.
Meanwhile, the effluent, the liquid
part of the sewage spends a few
days at the WTCP. This may include
denitrification – breaking down am-
monia into nitrates, nitrites and nitro-
gen gas. Additional filtration and
chlorination also is done. The treated
water is quite clean. It is then re-
leased through outfalls that extend
about 6,000 feet into Lower NY Bay.
At that point there is 5 ppm (parts
per million) or greater of oxygen,
enough to meet Biological Oxygen
Demand (BOD).
The Port Richmond WTCP differs
from Oakwood Beach. It treats a
combination of sanitary and storm
sewage (CSO). During heavy rain-
falls, the flow is diverted to Lower NY
Bay and the Kill van Kill, resulting in
a disgusting, unhealthy elevated lev-
el of fecal coliform. The Port Rich-
mond plant handles up to 60 MGD.
DEP performs constant monitoring at
'sampling stations' throughout the
NY/NJ Harbor Estuary, on a bi-
weekly basis to monitor fecal coli-
form and dissolved oxygen.
Upon questioning, DEP acknowl-
edged that there are some problems,
especially septic systems that are
not maintained. In addition, some
developments have their own sew-
age pumping stations. When these
fail because they are not maintained,
DEP has to clean up the resulting
mess. Issuing violations although
sometimes necessary is not always
a solution.
Parking lots can be a big problem.
The storm water flow from vast non-
permeable surfaces can easily over-
run the piping installed to handle it,
resulting in manhole covers that
spout gushers during heavy rainfall.
Some of DEP’s proposed Long Term
Please join or
renew your
NRPA
membership
TODAY
See page 7
Control Plans (LTCP) to abate and
mitigate CSO are promising. Benefi-
cial re-use of sewage sludge, filter-
ing through bio swales, massive
storage of flow with gradual release,
and disinfection are some of the
remedies that are underway. Also,
the north shore of Staten Island will
be getting a Bluebelt at Snug Harbor
and the Bluebelt will be expanded in
southeast Queens.
Overall, we got the impression that
DEP was aware of most of the prob-
lems and shortcomings. But it looks
like there are no easy answers and
of course, cost has to be considered.
No one wants to see exponential
increases in water/sewer bills.
What is really lacking is a massive
public education campaign. Every-
one in NYC is aware of recycling
and most people try to comply. But
why aren’t people getting the mes-
sage about water quality? We can
help DEP protect water quality by
organic gardening instead of using
pesticides, by recycling, by cleaning
up our trash when we go to the
beach, by not discarding gum wrap-
pers, cigarettes and other items in
the street, by picking up after our
pets and by using a rain barrel to
store water for washing the car and
watering the garden.
For further public participation, in-
cluding the possibility of a tour of a
WTCP, please contact Mr. Frank
Fontana of DEP at 718-595-6023.
CONFERENCE HOUSE PARK AT
PAGE AVENUE BEACH CLEANUP
By Jim Scarcella
Natural Resources Protective Asso-
ciation teamed up with Partnership
for Parks to clean Conference
House Park Beach on May 14. De-
spite some rain on the previous
evening, the sunshine ruled the
morning and enabled the efforts.
The beach had about a half a ton of
driftwood, we left most of it. Includ-
ed in the debris we did clean was
dock panels, huge Styrofoam dock
floats, dock buffer, steel fence posts,
insulation, plastic gallon jugs, Red
Bull and Heineken refreshments,
cigarettes, straws, cigar packaging,
candy wrappers, cigarette packag-
ing, tampons, condoms and more.
The low tide area had some broken
plates, signage fence post and sev-
eral dozen barnacle and wrack cov-
ered rocks. When I lifted one of the
rocks, there were several water fil-
tering soft shell clams and an olive
green, six inch, elver (young eel).
There was also a raccoon carcass
stuffed in a pillowcase for the veteri-
nary medical examiner.
Up towards the NY State property of
Mt. Loretto, there was some artwork
built from driftwood, with signage
stating ' Respect Existence'.
While we were cleaning the beach,
the local Scout Troop was building a
trail from Conference House to Mt
Loretto.
With the total of eight persons the
debris total weight was just about
500 pounds.
Special
thanks to Stephanie
Gutierrez, John Killcullen, Delaney
Nelson and all the NRPA volunteers.
