February 8, 2006
East River Got Poop During Blackout
This is something about the 2003 Blackout that we didn't know about: The city dumped 30 million gallons of "untreated human waste" into the East River because the Department of Environmental Protection's backup generators didn't work! Good work, DEP. A federal judge has put the city agency under probation for three years, and the Times notes that this is the "latest embarrassment" for the DEP, joining the "mercury in drinking water reservoirs" and "employees who ignore laws" incidents in the DEP's recent history.
In yesterday's proceeding in United States District Court in White Plains, department officials admitted that backup power systems in two of the city's 14 sewage treatment plants that should have kicked in immediately after the lights went out in August 2003 did not function properly.Um, Gothamist must check with our civil engineering friends and family to figure out how long it takes for fecal coliform to be safe - and we'll be making sure we don't try to dip our toes into the East River. While other blackout cities also had some sewage-oops (Cleveland dumped 60 millions of raw sewage, Detroit made residents boil water for a week) and weren't reprimanded, NYC's DEP was already under probation. Is there a three strikes rule for city agencies?Without electricity to run the pumps, thousands of gallons of wastewater were dumped into New York waterways, forcing the closing of city beaches and increasing the amount of fecal coliform, or human waste, in the water to unsafe levels.
Officials said employees knew that the diesel-powered generators at the wastewater treatment plant in Red Hook, Brooklyn, had not worked for two years.
Related: A DEP report about water quality claims that the "levels of pathogenic indicators" was consistent with 10-year averages, in spite of the blackout and a man was jailed and fined for dumping raw sewage into the Long Island Sound.
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Stories like that make you glad NYC gets its water from upstate!
i love it when there are heavy rains in the city and they end up releasing waste into the waters. the ensuing message that people should not go swimming in some beaches in the area makes it all worthwhile.
A month ago I watched a pipe around 86th street spew thousands of gallons of what was clearly raw sewage into the east river. How did I know it was raw sewage? Well it was either raw sewage or someone was just getting rid of their lifelong collection of baby ruth bars, gift wrapped in toilet paper.
i was going to ride my bike down to coney island to cool off before i remembered that everything was probably all crapped upon. we went to a mets game instead. cold beer a plenty...