Results tagged “wastewatertreatment”

Apparently New Yorkers make so much waste that the city's Department of Environmental Protection has to ship NYC sludge to the Garden State. According to the Daily News, "Sludge production at the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant - the last of the city's 14 plants to upgrade its systems - has shot up 28% in five years." City Councilman David Yassky is concerned that the Newtown Creek upgrade will end up costing $5 billion, over twice its initial estimate, and said, "There is just something very wrong with DEP's management of its construction projects." At any rate, the DEP thinks the deal with NJ was necessary (and it also means that less waste will go into the East River); deputy commissioner of wastewater treatment Doug Greeley joked, "[Otherwise] It would be constipating New York City."

In Mark Kurlansky's 2005 book about New York City and oysters, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, the author suggested that given the improved environmental conditions of New York Bay, perhaps the time is ripe to start replanting the oyster fields that used to carpet the underwater surface. The City and environmentalists are now undertaking a project to replant oyster beds in the bay, not for harvesting, but as natural, or soft, anti-pollution filters.