Swimming Banned At Four Beaches - Spilled Sewage "Doesn't Have A Very Big Impact" - Mayor

July 20, 2011 - Smoke bellows from North River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Harlem. The Department of Health and the DEP have advised the public not to swim at four beaches - South Beach, Midland Beach and Cedar Grove Beach on Staten Island and Brooklyn's Sea Gate Beach - due to the hundreds of millions gallons of raw sewage that spilled into the Hudson River after Wednesday's fire at the treatment plant. (Photo: phlpp7r/Twitter)

According to the The New York Times the DEP said it had succeeded in ending the flow of sewage into the rivers as of 9:30 p.m last night. No word yet however when the swimming ban will be lifted or when the plant will be operational. On Friday the City extended Parks Department pool hours by 2 hours due to the heat.

"Water quality modeling indicates that these beaches have been potentially impacted by the untreated sewer discharges from the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant," the DEP said in a statement on Friday.

"Though the beaches are not closed, the New York City Department of Health does not recommend swimming and bathing until this advisory is lifted, especially for people with underlying medical conditions, or young or elderly people who may be more likely to get sick if beach water is swallowed," the DEP said in a statement.

The swimming ban comes as the city is experiencing record temperatures across the five boroughs.

During his weekly radio talk show with WOR's John Gambling, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the sewage "doesn't have a very big impact, " according to DNAinfo.

Phillip Musegaas, Hudson River Program Director for Riverkeeper, a watchdog and advocacy group that monitors the waterway, disagreed. He said more city beaches will likely have to close if the city is unable to stem the tide of untreated sewage today.

"The main concern is public health exposure. If you are in the water and have a cut or scrape you are at risk for infection. If you ingest water that has a higher bacteria count, you are at increased risk of getting sick from gastrointestinal problems," he said.

"It's very serious, especially now that you have large numbers of people looking to utilize the rivers and beaches."

Raw sewage can have up to 200 times the recommended limit of bacteria, said Musegaas. Riverkeeper samples taken from the Hudson last week showed that bacteria levels in the river were well below established limits.

The group criticized the DEP for not doing enough to notify swimmers, kayakers and boaters to stay out of the water. While taking samples on Wednesday and Thursday, the group still found kayakers in the water not far from the plant.

Riverkeeper testers also found people swimming in the water near Dyckman Street yesterday afternoon, Musegaas said.

"They need to do more. If it's a real public health risk, every city agency should be coordinating to get people out of the water, not just saying don't go in," Musegaas said. "The better information we can get out to the public, the better off we are." – Geoffrey Croft

Read More:

Amid High Temperatures, Workers Stop Sewage Plant’s Flow Into River

New York Times - July 23, 2011 - By Sam Dolnick and Matt Flegenheimer

Swimming Banned at Some City Beaches After Sewage Spill

DNAinfo - July 22, 2011 - By Jeff Mays

New York Harbor Unfit For Recreational Activities After West Side Sewage Spill

A Walk In The Park - July 21, 2011

Advisories/Press Releases below

Friday, Jul 22, 2011

Advisory

The New York City Health Department has issued beach pollution advisories for the following locations to take effect Friday, July 22, at 10 a.m. through Monday, July 25:

• South Beach in Staten Island
• Midland Beach in Staten Island
• Cedar Grove Beach in Staten Island
• Sea Gate in Brooklyn

Water quality modeling indicates that these beaches have been potentially impacted by the untreated sewer discharges from the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant. Though the beaches are not closed, the New York City Department of Health does not recommend swimming and bathing until this advisory is lifted, especially for people with underlying medical conditions, or young or elderly people who may be more likely to get sick if beach water is swallowed. Signs will be placed at the beach entrances to alert the public of the risk. Alternative beaches, such as Coney Island Beach, Rockaway Beach, Orchard Beach, Manhattan Beach and Wolfe’s Pond Beach, remain open and unaffected based on current water quality modeling.

Additionally, based on recommendations from NYC Health, the Hudson River, the East River from the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to Verrazano Bridge, the Harlem River and the Kill Van Kull to the Goethals Bridge will not be fit for recreational activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing or any other water activity that would entail possible direct contact now through at least Sunday. Also, consuming fish caught from these areas is not recommended for anyone until the pollution advisory is resolved. It is recommended that individuals catch and release fish back into the water.

The New York City Police Department Harbor Unit will be patrolling near the plant to ensure boaters keep a proper distance. The Parks Department is restricting access to the river at the 79th Street Boat Basin and placing signs prohibiting kayaking, canoeing and other recreational activities from all city boat launch sites along the Hudson River and other appropriate sites. The Hudson River Park Trust as well as the Battery Park City Authority are also installing similar signs at sites under their jurisdiction.

DEP and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continue to take samples in the harbor and at permitted beaches that could potentially be impacted. For the most up-to-date information, go to the NYC Health website at www.nyc.gov/health, www.nyc.gov/dep, or call 311.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 22, 2011

No. 267

www.nyc.gov

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES EXTENDED HOURS AT ALL NEW YORK CITYPOOLS

Pools Will Stay Open Until 8 PM Tonight and Will Be Open from 10 AM to 8 PM Tomorrow, and Spray Showers in Playgrounds Will Remain On Until 9 PM

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe today announced that due to the extreme heat, hours at New York City pools will be extended. Pools will close at 8 PM tonight and be open from 10 AM to 8 PM on Saturday. These hours will be in effect at all 54 pools across the City. To find the pool nearest you, call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov. In addition, the 690 spray showers in the City’s parks and playgrounds, which are typically turned off between 6 and 7 PM in moderate temperatures, will remain on until 9 PM tonight and Saturday night.

“The City’s pools are great places to cool off and beat the heat,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “During this heat wave, New Yorkers should take advantage of the free places around the City that offer relief from the heat: pools, spray showers, beaches and cooling centers. Remember to stay out of the sun, drink plenty of water, and check on your friends and family who may be at risk for heat-related illnesses.”

Air-conditioned City cooling centers will be open through Saturday. Cooling centers are public places, such as Department for the Aging senior centers and New York City Housing Authority and Salvation Army community centers, where air conditioning is available. To find the cooling center closest to you, call 311 or visit www.nyc.gov.

Most City beaches, including Coney Island Beach, Rockaway Beach, Orchard Beach, Manhattan Beach and Wolfe’s Pond Beach, are open and unaffected by the fire at a wastewater treatment plant inManhattan, which caused untreated wastewater to be discharged into the Hudson River. However, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recommends that, now through Monday, New Yorkers not swim at the following beaches: South Beach, Midland Beach and Cedar Grove Beach in Staten Island; and Sea Gate in Brooklyn. Also, the Hudson River, the East River from the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to the Verrazano Bridge, the Harlem River and the Kill Van Kull to the Goethals Bridge are not fit for recreational activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing or any other water activity that would entail possible direct contact now through Monday. Fish caught from those waterways should not be eaten.

During this period of extreme heat, New Yorkers should take precautions including staying out of the sun as much as possible. When in the sun, wear sunscreen and a hat to protect your face and head. Remember to check on family and friends as heat can affect people differently. Seniors, young children, and people with chronic medical or mental health conditions and those who take certain medications have a higher risk of heat-related illnesses. If you feel sick from the heat, go to a cool place, rest and drink water. Call your doctor or go to the emergency department right away if you have these symptoms:

· Shortness of breath or trouble breathing

· Headache

· Dizziness or fainting

· Nausea or vomiting

· Weakness

· Confusion, irritability, hallucinations, disorientation

· Hot, dry skin or cold, clammy skin.

The risk for getting sick during a heat wave is increased for people who:

· Are younger than five, or older than 64

· Have chronic medical or mental health conditions

· Take medications, which can disrupt the regulation of body temperature

· Are confined to their beds or unable to leave their homes

· Are overweight

New York Harbor Unfit For Recreational Activities After West Side Sewage Spill

(Photo: Tina Fineberg for The New York Times)

Ian Heywood fished off a pier near West 125th Street in Harlem on Thursday, downstream from the North River Waste Treatment Plant that released thousands of gallons of untreated sewage into the Hudson River on Wednesday after a fire broke out at the plant. Loss of electrical power shut down Riverbank State Park which sits on top of the plant.

Manhattan

The waters of New York Harbor will be unfit for recreational activities at least through Sunday because of a catastrophic fire that shut down one of the city’s largest sewage treatment plants, the city’s health department said Thursday, according to the New York Times.

The declaration, rare in scope, was made as million of gallons of untreated sewage were being discharged into the Hudson River from pipes along the length of Manhattan Island.

As New Yorkers reeled from a heat wave, the authorities said that city beaches were still safe to use, but officials worried that a tide of sewage might force some closings unless at least part of the crippled treatment plant could be brought back on line before Friday night.

The prospects for a quick recovery from the fire this week, which started in the main engine room of the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Harlem, were uncertain.

“It did significant damage, and we don’t know yet when we will get it back,” said Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the treatment plant.

The fire was so severe that a contractor was called in to buttress floors before officials could inspect the damage in the room, which houses five engines. Two of the engines came through the fire in relatively good condition, but they share wiring and fuel lines with the other three.

On Tuesday, just a day before the fire, tests on city waters found them to be in “excellent” condition, with all of them — except the Gowanus Canal — deemed fit for swimming, said John Lipscomb, the manager of water quality sampling programs for Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group that monitors conditions in the Hudson.

By Thursday, public boat launches on the Hudson had been shut down. Swimmers young and old were being turned away at the gates of Riverbank State Park, which sits atop the treatment plant, has three swimming pools and other amenities, and was closed because it had no electrical power. People fishing from piers along the river were advised that the water was unsafe.

The city has nearly 600 miles of coastline, and the warning from the health department covers the waters from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the Hudson, Harlem and East Rivers. In those areas, the city says, people should avoid activities that could involve contact with the water. As of Thursday evening, that warning does not apply to the 14 miles of public beaches in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and on Staten Island. Officials said updates would be posted on the department Web site, www.nyc.gov/health.

New York’s waterways have been transformed over the last four decades, in large part as a result of the city’s 14 sewage treatment plants, which were built or modernized with federal money under the Clean Water Act.

Instead of pouring into rivers and bays, raw sewage is now treated in plants like North River, which is on the Hudson between 137th and 145th Streets and handles waste from the West Side of Manhattan above Bank Street in Greenwich Village. About 120 million gallons a day is treated there, but it can handle up to 340 million gallons when it rains.

The sewage reaches the North River plant from the north and south by gravity flow — running downhill to the plant from the higher elevations of Washington Heights and Inwood, and down an artificial slope from Lower Manhattan. A sewer line about six inches below the street at Bank Street gradually drops to a depth of 50 or 60 feet by the time it reaches the Upper West Side.

At the plant, which is at sea level, the sewage is pumped by engines about five stories up, and as it descends through the plant, the sewage goes through aeration and settling tanks as well as a biological process that digests much of the waste.

It was one of the five pump engines that caught fire on Wednesday, just before noon, officials said. No official cause was declared, but the fire was not considered suspicious. Workers at the plant theorized that a turbocharger on the engine overheated and broke, rupturing a fuel line. That is one of the areas being explored, Mr. Sklerov said.

A warning by the Hudson River near West 90th Street on Thursday. Millions of gallons of untreated waste spilled into the river. (Photo: Monika Graff for The New York Times)

There is no fire suppression system in the engine room, and workers immediately called 911. Four large feeders from Consolidated Edison were shut down.

Firefighters traveled about 400 feet from the entrance to the plant before reaching the machine room, which was belching heavy smoke, said Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the Fire Department. “The fire was fed by fuel, so they had to put foam on it,” he said. “There was intense heat in there.”

Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries, he said. It took about four hours to bring the fire under control, and by then, no sewage was being treated.

Instead of running to the plant, the sewage was being diverted to 56 “outfalls” — basically, pipes leading directly to the water. They are typically used as a relief system after heavy rain because storm water joins into the sewer lines, and at high volumes can overwhelm the treatment plant. Most of the pipes lead to the Hudson, but a few discharge into the Harlem River.

“This is not a matter of one pipe dumping sewage into the river,” said Philip Musegaas, director of Hudson River programs for Riverkeeper. “This is multiple pipes in a large area.”

The improved condition of the water has brought out a vigorous community of people who take to the water in kayaks and canoes and even as swimmers.

Kathleen Macartney was on the water Wednesday evening, training for a race in an outrigger canoe for two people. Only after she got out of the water did she find out about the sewage crisis. “If I would have known this before, I would not have paddled through the most disgusting water on the planet,” she said.

On Thursday evening, two boys were swimming in the river a short distance from one of the outfalls, and Mr. Lipscomb, who was on the river for more sampling, steered his boat toward shore to warn them. He had no doubt that test results would show that the contamination levels in the river were high. “This is giving us a picture of what it was like four decades ago,” Mr. Lipscomb said. “It’s going to show us how important the money we spent on North River has been to quality of life on the river for humans and other critters.”

Lisa W. Foderaro contributed reporting.

Read/View More:

Sewage Spill Renders New York Harbor Unfit

New York Times - July 21, 2011 - By Jim Dwyer

Hudson Sewage Leak Spoils Recreation In City Waterways

NY1 News - July 21, 2011

Harlem Girls Being Shortchanged Over Ice-Time In Riverbank State Park Critics Charge

Girls practice as part of Figure Skating in Harlem. Neighborhood residents say that the girls are being shortchanged as ice time is hogged by prep school hockey teams hailing from other neighborhoods. (Photo: Price for NY Daily News)

Manhattan

Many Harlem residents think their children are being squeezed out of a state park built for the neighborhood to make room for wealthy private-school kids from Manhattan and Riverdale, according to the New York Daily News.

The issue is the ice rink at Riverbank State Park, the 28-acre facility that opened in 1993 atop a city wastewater treatment plant.

Riverbank's rink has become the center of a bitter faceoff over gender and racial equity in our public parks - with some local residents threatening a civil rights suit.

Park officials deny any discrimination. It's just one of those perennial New York battles over park space, they claim. This conflict happens to pit one local figure skating program against an ice hockey program that attracts boys from across the city.

"Ice time is a rare commodity," Rachel Gordon, the regional state parks director, said. "You have to balance the needs of all the people who want to use it."

Parents of kids in the widely acclaimed Figure Skating in Harlem program say all sense of balance has been discarded - and the girls of Harlem are being sacrificed.

"Eighty percent of the rink time is allotted to boys hockey, even though not a lot of children from Harlem play hockey," parent Denise Tutt said. "It's a grave injustice to the girls of this community, and we just want the time spread more evenly."

Sharon Cohen has run the figure skating program for 14 years. She has a huge waiting list but can't accept more than a 130 girls each year because the park won't allot her more than 4-1/2 hours of ice time a week.

Yet hockey teams from three elite schools outside the neighborhood - St. David's on the upper East Side, Columbia Prep on the upper West Side, and Fieldston in Riverdale - all have regular slots at Riverbank, taking up 8-1/2 hours of the highly coveted weekday afternoon period at the rink.

In addition, the park has been expanding its hockey program, with a half-dozen teams consuming 15 more hours during the week and on weekend mornings.

Many of the older children in the park's hockey program also play on the private school teams.

"You can see when those hockey parents pick up their kids that they're not from this neighborhood," one bitter resident said.

Park director Reggie Maywood bristles at any suggestion he favors one group over another.

"I work in a state park," Maywood said. "Anyone who is a resident of this state is in my catchment zone."

Peggy Shepard of West Harlem Environmental Action, says "There doesn't seem to me any memory of why this park is there."

Back in the 1980s, every neighborhood in Manhattan successfully resisted the construction of a wastewater plant.

The state agreed to build a new park on top of the plant to compensate Harlem residents for accepting the plant and for the inevitable foul odors it would bring.

"To now have community children not being being able to use it is a travesty," Shepard said.

And the problem is not just on the ice.

"I've received complaints that Riverbank's swimming pool is increasingly being rented to outside groups as well," she said.

Riverbank is not simply a park. Harlem has lived for nearly 20 years with the odors from that plant. The promises made back then - of a park for the local community - have not been forgotten.

All they want uptown is some equity for their kids.

Read More:

Bitter faceoff at Harlem ice rink as residents complain that prep school teams hog ice time

New York Daily News - February 18, 2011 - By Juan Gonzalez

Riverbank and Roberto Clemente State Park Losing Rangers to Layoffs

"No other rangers at any other New York state parks are being let go."

All four of the rangers at Riverbank State Park will be laid off by Jan. 1, the victim of Gov. David Paterson's state workforce cuts. The 28-acre park sits atop a sewage treatment plant along Riverside Drive between West 137th Street and 145th Street. A ranger at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx is also being let go. Both parks are located in areas populated primarily by people of color. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on Image to enlarge.

Manhattan

Riverbank State Park in Harlem is losing all four of its rangers, just months after its operating hours were cut to help close a state budget gap, according to DNAinfo.

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation sent layoff letters to the rangers earlier this month, telling them their jobs would end Jan. 1.

That means the 28-acre park, which runs along the river from West 137th Street to West 145th Street, will be without any full-time rangers, who patrol the grounds and help people navigate the facilities, union officials said. The rangers are considered by many to be the public face of the park.

The rangers’ union representatives complained that they weren’t given enough notice of the layoffs, and complained about the timing, in which workers were given pink slips just before the holidays.

"We understand the fiscal implications, which we’ve all been dealing with for several budget cycles. But these are human beings," said Chris Hickey, executive vice-president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the rangers.

Read More:

Riverbank State Park Losing Rangers to Layoffs

DNAinfo - December 14, 2010 - By Jon Schuppe

State Park Facilities Ordered Opened Immediately/Programs To Be Restored

A Walk In The Park - May 29, 2010

Hostage No Longer, Deal Reached to Reopen Closed State Parks

A Walk In The Park - May 27, 2010

Park Closings/Service Cuts Not "Serious Issues" - Gov. Paterson

A Walk In The Park - May 19, 2010