New Food & Recreation Concessions Could Be Coming To Jamaica Bay

The city Parks Department and the National Park Service are putting the finishing touches on a request for proposals to place concessions at several locations around Jamaica Bay in Queens and Brooklyn. They posted a map of the area that showed several locations where concessions could be created.  (Image: via Queens Crap)

Queens/Brooklyn

Jamaica Bay, a hidden jewel in New York City for nature lovers, could become a destination complete with food stands and rental stands for kayaks and bikes.

The Parks Department and the National Park Service are putting the finishing touches on a request for proposals to place concessions at several locations around the bay in Queens and Brooklyn, according the New York Daily News.  

The new concessions are part of a larger plan between the two agencies to cooperatively manage the 10,000-acre site, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. 

“We’re excited about the future plans for Jamaica Bay,” said Dan Mundy Jr. of Jamaica Bay Eco-Watchers. “People will have greater access to the bay and we will also be able to keep up with restoration programs.” 

Parks officials unveiled the plan at the Community Board 14 Parks Committee meeting last Thursday. They posted a map of the area that showed several locations where concessions could be created. But the agency declined to discuss the proposal until the RFP is released next week. 

Dan Hendrick, who is making a film about Jamaica Bay, said the area has been a “Rorschach test” of sorts for each generation. 

“In the 1930s, they talked about making it the world’s largest port,” he said.

“People are still trying to figure out what the bay should be.” 

Hendrick said he thinks the concessions should include amenities that would both lure in visitors and serve local residents. The large area surrounding Jamaica Bay includes Rockaway and Broad Channel as well as Bergen Beach, Canarsie and the massive Floyd Bennett Field. 

Birdlovers have long appreciated the varied wildlife that lives and travels through the different portions of the bay. 

But Hendrick said many area residents have a “disconnect” with the bay because they consider it polluted. He hopes by opening it up to different kinds of recreation — such as camping in areas such as Floyd Bennett Field — they will develop a connection. Mundy said the plan, accompanied with the existing or additional ferry service, could also help bring more people to Rockaway. 

Food concessions and surfing beaches sparked a resurgence in Rockaway in recent years. But the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy has left many people wondering what this summer will bring.

“People could take a ferry down, rent a kayak or surfboard and stay for dinner,” Mundy said. 

“Maybe these are baby steps.”  

Read More:

New food and recreation concessions on tap for Jamaica Bay

Kayak and bike rentals could be part of a new plan to create a destination spot

New York Daily News - February 26, 2013 -  By Lisa L. Colangelo    

City Suspends Burning of Hurricane Sandy Debris In Floyd Bennett Field After Pollution Levels Exceeded Air Quality Standards

Locations of the eight monitors in Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn surrounding the air curtain burn device.  The media were denied access to the operation.  Since monitoring began on December 28,  EPA air monitors showed  the 24 hour standard had been violated on four days -  January 9, 28, 29 and February 5.  Air curtain incineration was shut down on February 14th.   

Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

After repeated problems with smoke and high levels of air pollution, New York City has suspended the burning of downed trees and vegetative debris remaining from Hurricane Sandy," a coalition of environmental and health groups said in a statement today.

A federal contractor had been burning the debris in open air burners at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.  

Despite objections raised by environmental and public health advocates, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) granted a variance from its own air pollution regulations last December to allow the burning to take place in so-called "air curtain burners." 

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) also issued a letter saying that for this operation it would not enforce the state's ban on open burning.  Under the conditions of the city's variance, the burning could have continued through mid-April. 

The group had called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for overseeing debris management from Hurricane Sandy, to aggressively pursue non-incineration options for the wood waste, which can be chipped and used for mulch and other purposes without emitting harmful pollutants.


On February 1, 2013,  the coalition sent NYC Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland  a letter informing him of the group's "strong opposition to the use of Air Curtain Burners (ACBs) at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. 

"As you must be aware, to date there have been two exceedances of the 35 μ/m3 health-based 24-hour NAAQS for fine particle (PM2.5) recorded by the monitors EPA has set up to monitor the impact of the air curtain incinerators in use at Floyd Bennett Field," the letter stated. 

"DEP’s stated justification for granting a Variance in this matter was that the stockpiling of vegetative waste debris at Floyd Bennett Field and elsewhere was creating public safety risks. It is therefore unreasonable for DEP to substitute one set of public safety risks for another by only ordering the shut-down of one ACB during inversions, when the emissions from even one ACB unit may add enough additional exceedances to cause a violation of the 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. According to the conditions of the Variance, DEP may suspend or revoke the variance at any time for non-compliance. Therefore, DEP had the full authority to stop or suspend the process and failed to do so. "

The letter was signed by the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, NY Public Interest Research Group, American Lung Association and the Sierra Club – Atlantic Chapter.

"There were some exceedances," an EPA spokesperson confirmed to A Walk In The Park today and explained that the EPA had been conducting PM 2.5 air monitoring at the Floyd Bennett Field site. 

According to the EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the request of New York City, were using two air curtain incinerators at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY to burn vegetative debris, largely from downed trees, gathered in the cleanup from Hurricane Sandy.

An air curtain incinerator is a self-contained system that reduces wood debris to ash. It is equipped with air blowers that circulate the air to improve combustion and minimize emissions of fine particles.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has eight fine particle monitors operating around the perimeter of Floyd Bennett Field to monitor for potential impacts of the air curtain devices. 

The major concern raised by advocates was that smoke and fine particulate matter from the debris burning would worsen air quality in an area that is already suffering from poor environmental conditions in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

These concerns proved to be well-founded.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which set up air monitors around the perimeter of the site, air pollution levels in the vicinity of the burners exceeded health-based national ambient air quality standards for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) on five separate days between December 28th and February 7th.

In a letter to the DEP dated February 1st, the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project (NYELJP), together with the American Lung Association of the Northeast, the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), and the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, strongly objected to the continued use of the air curtain burners given their demonstrated public health risks.  The groups urged an immediate cessation of burning in favor of an alternative method of waste disposal such as chipping the remaining wood for reuse.

In a separate petition to the DEC, the NYELJP challenged whether the air curtain burners should have been regulated as incinerators, rather than just open fires.  DEC's open fire regulations include a prohibition on the burning of waste products, but the regulations were intended to target "burn barrels" and backyard trash burning, not large-scale debris burning operations like those underway at Floyd Bennett Field.

"The Army Corps, DEC, and DEP all acted in the interest of expedience, without due consideration for public health and safety," said Joel Kupferman, Esq., NYELJP's executive director. 

"Despite the fact that environmental and public health advocates, community members, EPA Region 2 officials and City Council members all raised numerous health concerns about the use of air curtain burners beforehand, these concerns were ignored or overlooked by all other agencies involved until it was too late, and the burning had already caused numerous exceedances of health-based air pollution standards.  We need a proper, public discussion of why the Army Corps, DEC, and DEP all relied on the fact that a "public health emergency"  was declared after Hurricane Sandy to use "emergency" exceptions to air pollution regulations that are designed to protect public health."

"It was obvious from the start that burning massive quantities of wood 24/7 with virtually no pollution control was a bad idea," said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate.  

"These air curtain burners are little more than dumpsters with fans.  The city officials wanted to believe they would work, despite evidence to the contrary, and the Army Corps didn't want to change its practices.  We hope that a lesson has been learned here."

"The combustion of this debris led to high levels of particulate matter, a major lung irritant linked to asthma attacks, heart attacks and even premature death," said Jeff Seyler, CEO of the American Lung Association of the Northeast.  

"We are glad that the city has given up on this misguided plan and that residents downwind can now continue rebuilding from Sandy without this additional air quality concern."

"Burning woody debris has never been an effective or safe way to facilitate storm clean up in NYC," said Roger Downs, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. "We are encouraged that all parties now agree proper processing and reuse of tree limbs and vegetation, in the form of wood chips and mulch, is the best pathway forward to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The groups had high praise for the EPA for conducting air monitoring on the site and for posting the data on its webpage.  A description and timeline of the burning can be found at:  <http://www.epa.gov/sandy/response.html>

http://www.epa.gov/sandy/response.html.  "EPA's efforts to keep the public informed about the burning operations at Floyd Bennett Field, monitor their impact on air quality, and make all data public stands in stark contrast to the DEP," Kupferman said.  "We've had to send multiple Freedom of Information Act requests to access DEP's monitoring data, and still have not received most of it."

The groups also praised New York City Councilmember James Gennaro, chair of the City Council Environmental Protection Committee, for exercising his oversight responsibility.

Other groups that opposed the burning included Citizens' Environmental Coalition, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline (CARP), New York Climate Action Group, and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).

Read/View More:

City Burns Debris From Sandy In Brooklyn, Some Residents Voice Concern
CBS - November 28, 2012 - By John Slattery 

Massive tree and limb burn after Sandy
WABC News - November 28, 2012 - By Stacy Sager

Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline Through Federal Rockaway and Jamaica Bay Public Parks Draws Criticism

The route of the proposed Rockaway natural gas pipeline. The project would run from the Atlantic Ocean under the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay including Floyd Bennett Field into southeast Brooklyn. The proposel has drawn strong opposition from environmentalists and community groups.

This Sunday, September 2nd, the Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline (CARP) are holding a rally on the beach at Jacob Riis Park between 11am-3pm. (Image Courtesy of: Williams Companies via NY Times)

Brooklyn

“Having a pipeline and metering station going through a national park is absurd,” said Karen Mascolo. "If you let industry come in, you’re opening up the door to allow industry into any national park.”(Photo: Sheepsheadbites)

Updated, 5:01 p.m. | New York City needs cleaner, cheaper energy. That’s the only thing everyone following a proposed natural gas pipeline in the Rockaways agrees upon. But the project — running pipeline from the Atlantic Ocean under the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay into southeast Brooklyn — has drawn concern and outright opposition since it became public earlier this year, according to the New York Times.

Natural gas saves customers money, eases dependence on foreign oil and is cleaner than other fossil fuels (though extracting it by hydraulic fracturing raises other issues). But in light of recent pipeline leaks and explosions, environmental advocates and Brooklynites worry that the pipeline could damage fragile ecosystems, create safety hazards and compromise Brooklyn’s biggest piece of national parkland, Floyd Bennett Field. And the planning process itself has drawn criticism from community groups who say it has not been open enough to public review.

National Grid, the utility that delivers gas to Brooklyn, says that as the need for natural gas grows, the system must be expanded. “Brooklyn hasn’t seen a new delivery point in 50 years,” said John Stavarakas, National Grid’s director of long-term planning and project development. “We are at capacity.”

Until environmental impact studies are done, though — especially on the ocean, where the pipeline calls for more invasive digging than on the bay side — many environmentalists are withholding support.

“If we don’t reduce greenhouse gases, then the Jamaica Bay marshes will end up under water anyway,” said Glenn Phillips, executive director of New York City Audubon. “But the temporary disturbances could be very damaging to this place, which is critically important for birds, horseshoe crabs and fish.”

On Sunday, opponents of the pipeline, led by a group called Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline, plan to hold a rally on the beach at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways.

The $265 million pipeline project, which would take about a year to complete, consists of three pieces:

• a three-mile connector, built by the Williams Companies, from its existing Transco pipeline in the Atlantic Ocean to the Rockaways;
• a one-and-a-half-mile line from the Rockaways under Jamaica Bay and Gateway National Recreation Area land to Floyd Bennett Field, the decommissioned airport that is part of Gateway;
• and a metering station built in an unused hangar at Floyd Bennett Field.

Supporters say that the construction would generate 300 jobs and that the finished station would bring the city $8 million annually in property taxes.

Part of the pipeline proposal requires its developer, the Williams Companies, to restore abandoned aircraft hangars at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, like this one. (Photo:

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)

The plan was endorsed by the Bloomberg administration, which calls forexpanding the use of natural gas in its PlaNYC 2030 initiative. The city encouraged Representatives Gregory W. Meeks of Queens and Michael Grimm of Staten Island to co-sponsor the federal bill, passed in February, that authorizes the use of national parkland for the project.

The Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit group that studies and comments on local development issues, supports the pipeline. “The city needs natural gas to replace oil for heating, an important environmental goal,” said Robert Pirani, the association’s vice president for environmental programs.

But the Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline and other critics point toWilliams’s safety record and worry about an explosion in a national park or in a densely packed neighborhood. Since 2008, the company’s pipelines have had accidents — including leaks, ruptures and explosions – in at least seven states. The company and its subsidiaries have faced “corrective action orders” from the government in two cases, including a pipeline explosion in Alabama last year, and fines in two others. A company spokesman said that all the issues raised in the incidents have been addressed.

Brian O’Higgins, director of engineering for Williams, said much of the pipeline would be laid using a relatively noninvasive method involving a horizontal directional drill, which drills a small hole, bores underground, then gradually widens the hole. This would avoid digging up Rockaway beaches or Jamaica Bay. But 2.23 miles of pipeline in the ocean will be laid by traditional methods, requiring extensive digging, the company said. A Williams spokesman, Chris Stockton, said the planned route avoided “sensitive habitat.”

Two environmental advocates — Don Riepe, the American Littoral Society’s Jamaica Bay Guardian, and Dan Mundy Jr., co-founder of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers – said they were concerned about the ocean connector.

“It’s digging a huge hole in an extremely critical area,” Mr. Mundy said. “There’s a lot of life out there — fluke, flounder, lobster.”

Community Boards 14 in Queens and 18 in Brooklyn have also raised objections to the project. For the Brooklyn board, the deal-breaker was the proposal to build the meter and regulator station at Floyd Bennett Field.

At a meeting on Aug. 15 organized by the Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline, several speakers said that turning public park land over to private industry set a worrisome precedent.

Some environmental advocates want any revenue raised by the pipeline, which would run beneath Jamaica Bay, to go toward restoring marshland in the bay. (Photo:

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

The planning process itself has been a sticking point, too. In February, after Congress authorized the National Park Service to pursue the project, outrage and conspiracy theories ricocheted around local blogs, listservs and newspapers.

Mr. Stockton of Williams said that using national parkland required Congressional and presidential backing simply to start the process.

“This is an early, early, early step,” Mr. O’Higgins added, with many steps still required, including environmental impact studies, and approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Activists and environmentalists complained that the plan seemed a fait accompli and that the park service had been secretive, never mentioning the proposal during public meetings discussing Floyd Bennett Field’s future. The revelation that Mr. Grimm received a total of $3,000 from National Grid and Williams for his re-election campaign after co-sponsoring the bill also fed the controversy. Mr. Grimm said there was no quid pro quo.

If the project goes forward, another fight looms, over money; everyone involved seemingly has a different idea about how much revenue may be generated and where it would go. Local advocates say that if they have to live with the pipeline, the money should go to Jamaica Bay, not disappear into the National Park Service’s general budget.

“This should at least provide some good money to the park,” Mr. Riepe said, adding that money was badly needed for marsh restoration. “That’s the lifeblood of Jamaica Bay.”

Read More:

Proposed Gas Pipeline, Endorsed by the City, Draws Criticism

New York Times - August 29, 2012 - By Stuart Miller

Activists: Jamaica Bay Pipeline Could Open Up Other National Parks To Industrial Use

Sheepshead Bites - August 7, 2012 - by Ned Berke

A Surfers’ Turf War (Hang 10, and Hold the Gas)

New York Times - June 19, 2009 - By Jim Rutenberg

Anti-Semitic Graffiti Found At Floyd Bennett Field Gardens

A swastika was found painted on a tree at the Floyd Bennett Field community garden in Brooklyn Saturday morning. The National Park Service Police said they were stepping up patrols. (Photos: Pat Cotillo, Jr)

Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

A swastika spray-painted on a tree and Polish anti-police graffiti were found scrawled in a beloved community garden at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn on Saturday morning NYC Park Advocates has learned.

Polish flag colors were also painted on a picnic bench and tree.

The disturbing images were discovered by gardener in an area the non-profit community group that manages the area set up to attract wild life.

According to Adriann Musson president of the Floyd Bennett Field Gardens Association the incident occurred sometime between 4:30 pm on Friday and 8:00 am Saturday morning.

"I assume it was done on Friday night," said Ms. Musson who has been gardening there since 1992.

"We found a six-pack of Polish beer bottles in the picnic area and right across from our habitat area was the vandalism.

There was a swastika painted on a tree, one of our benches was turned in a Polish flag. I assume it was the Polish flag it was red and white. And rocks that we use in our planting area had the letters HWDP."

HWDP is the abbreviation for a derogatory anti-police phrase in Poland which means F*** The Police. The graffiti can be found on walls and buildings in Poland and is part of the hip-hop vocabulary according to published reports.

"I am hoping it was just a group of really stupid young people who decided to just do it," she said. "We have a very large community garden. We have over four-hundred and fifty members. We have every race, religion, ethnicity that you can imagine. Everyone gardens together and gets along.

"We've never had anything like this happen before. It came out of nowhere."

The letters HWDP were spray painted on rocks that border a flower bed planting area beside the swastika tree. HWDP is an abbreviation for a derogatory Polish anti-police slogan.

The garden president said she was so upset she took brown spray paint and covered up the offending swastika on the tree just to get rid of it.

"I'm upset, it bothers me. I could not leave it there and have people going around seeing it thinking we are ok with it. But we have to get the spray paint off the tree."

She said she was waiting for the National Park Service to send down someone to figure out how to get rid of the paint.

"Hate doesn't do any good," she added.

"What they are doing is generating more bad feelings. They need to work together and get along with one another. We garden, it doesn't matter where you come from or what you believe in. It's a sad commentary on the world today. It just makes no sense to me. Hate breeds hate."

National Park Service Police Sgt. Peter Culver said an active investigation is being conducted but admitted they did not have much evidence to help catch the perpetrators.

"Quite honestly there's really not much to go on. There are no witnesses to this incident.

We are doing what we can. We are stepping up patrols. It's a very remote area. There's not a heck of a lot to go on. We are going to keep our eyes out for it."

Sgt. Culver said the park is normally very quiet and cars speeding on the abandoned air strips were the main law enforcement issues in Floyd Bennett Field which is managed by the US Department Of The Interior's National Park Service.

"We really don't have a lot of issues out here, no we don't."

Pat Cotillo, Jr. was out taking photos of the nearby abandoned historic buildings when he said he was approached by a gardener who asked if he would document the vandalism.

"Its disturbing to see that there are so many people who still have so much hate," he said.

Since 1997 the Floyd Bennett Field Gardens Association has maintained and administerd the 7 acre garden under an agreement with the US Department Of The Interior, National Park Service, Gateway National Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Unit.

Mrs. Musson said people come from all over the city to garden including residents from at least four of the five boroughs. Besides the over four-hundred and fifty current garden members, a hundred and fifty people are on a waiting list to join.

Each year the garden donates over 500 pounds of vegetables to City Harvest.

Squash, peanuts, artichokes, peppers and 36 different tomatoes are among the many items grown in the garden's 10x20' plots. The garden was created in 1977 as part of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension program. She said the biggest problem was during the Summer when people steal vegetables.

"Its great to find a place in the middle of Brooklyn where you feel like you are in the country. It really is a very peaceful place."

The incident was first reported by Queens Crap.

Two National Park Service employees, and Jill Weingarten from the Floyd Bennett Field Gardens Association at the site on Saturday.

The normally peaceful gardens were the scene of disturbing vandalism over the weekend.

Polish flag colors spray-painted on a bench and tree found on Saturday. (Photos: Pat Cotillo, Jr)

Read More:

Signs of anti-Semitism at Floyd Bennett Field

Queens Crap - January 16, 2012

Abor-rent behavior! Vandals deface community garden with swastikas

Brooklyn Daily - By Thomas Tracy

After an arrest - Midwood still reeling over rash of swastika graffitti,

Man arrested in other AntiJewish hate spray

New York Daily News - January 16 2012 - By Simone Weichselbaum

Swastika reported in Brooklyn park

Metro New York - January 18, 2012 - By Emily Anne Epstein

Danger In Floyd Bennett Field - Fire Hydrants Don't Work

Brooklyn

Call Smokey the Bear! More than half of the 100 or so hydrants at Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field either don't work or lack sufficient water pressure to adequately put out fires, FDNY sources told The New York Post.

But that didn't stop the feds earlier this month from announcing a $10 million plan to develop the nation's largest urban campground at the 1,358-acre, underused Mill Basin park.

Ida Sanoff, a Southern Brooklyn environmentalist, called the plan "insane."

"If the wildfires in Arizona and Florida have shown us anything, it’s how quickly these things can explode to epic proportions," said Sanoff, who ripped the plan for lacking public input.

"All you need is one out-of-control campfire or some boob camper flinging a lit cigarette." Floyd Bennett Field, a former Navy airfield that is now part of National Parks Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area system, currently has five campsites. The feds expect to expand to 90 campsites at the park within two years and eventually reach 600 sites.

By the July 4th weekend, 42 of the new sites will have opened, officials said. Raina Williams, a National Parks Service spokeswoman, said the hydrants’ condition “may be questionable” but claimed firefighters could draft water out of adjacent Jamaica Bay in the event of a blaze.

An FDNY source, however, said relying on “drafting” the bay – sucking the water through a hose and suction pump – to put out fires is “very impractical and too time-consuming.” "This is something you can’t nickel and dime," a source added. "They need to fix the hydrants because more campers mean more campfires and a greater risk of brush fires."

Williams said NPS anticipates expanding the park’s utilities and fire-protection features but later didn’t respond to questions about whether money is budgeted for such upgrades. Floyd Bennett Field is Brooklyn’s biggest open space, yet is still one of the nation’s lowest ranked federal parks despite the addition of the Aviator Sports complex in 2006.

The nearest firehouse is a mile away and across the Marine Parkway Bridge in the Rockaways, Queens.

Read More:

Bad hydrants dampen B'klyn camp plan

New York Post - June 27, 2011 - By Rich Calder

$2.4 million for Floyd Bennett Field Jet Fuel Clean-Up

BROOKLYN

The present is catching up with Floyd Bennett Field’s past, officials announced this week, according to YourNabe.

The former airport and naval station will be the recipient of $2.4 million to clean up a 40-year-old, two-acre jet fuel spill on the southeast corner of the 1358-acre site, which is part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

Rep. Anthony Weiner allocated the money, which comes from a Department of Defense appropriations bill.

The United States Army Corps of Engineer will be performing the cleanup. A time frame was not available at press time. Once the fuel is cleaned, it is expected that the site could be used for some sort of recreational use. As this paper went to press, a Weiner aide could not provide additional details about the project, which was announced Jan. 12.

Read More:

 $2.4 million for Floyd Bennett Field clean-up

Your Nabe - January 12 - By Gary Buiso