Happy Tuesday Everyone! My name is Elijah and I am a new intern for ioby. Today I would like to talk a little bit about Newtown Creek and some of my thoughts on the subject. Before I get into any further details I would like to give you a quick overview of the history of Newtown Creek.
There is more than 400 years of rich history, both good and bad, on Newtown Creek. The Dutch and English used the creek for agriculture and fledgling industrial commerce, making it the oldest continuous industrial area in the nation. By the end of the 19th century, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil had over 100 refineries on both sides of Newtown Creek, and each refinery’s average discharge per week was 30,000 gallons, most spewing into the creek. By the 1920s and 1930s, the Creek was a major shipping hub and was widened and deepened to accommodate bigger barges. Which pretty much is the beginning of Newtown Creek’s unfortunate problems.
Hey enough with these disturbing facts, despite all this negativity there is in fact a silver lining. These problems are not going untreated, most recently Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant underwent a major expansion and upgrade to increase its capacity by 50% and extend secondary treatment to its inflow. This change has not come cheap; construction which isexpected to be completed in 2013 at an estimated cost of severalbillion dollars. Most excitingly life is returning to the creek blue crabs, fish, and waterfowl can be found. Even my fellow youth are giving aid to the restoration of the creek by taking part in activities such as growing oysters, which serve as natural water filters. The Newtown Creek Alliance is actively fighting to help life return to the creek by decreasing pollution and increasing the wetlands along the creek. Another project that is focused on reducing water pollution is called DontFlushMe. This project focuses on the combined sewer overflows. The project is headed by Leif Percifield, was created to allow NYC residents to help reduce the amount of pollution in the harbor. Leif plans to do this by having custom sensors created and placed in key CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) locations throughout the city. The hopes of this project are that people in the city will become aware of the nature of the wastewater infrastructure and make informed changes in their water use behaviors. Leif’s great idea cannot be accomplished without financial support, though a total of $3240 is needed to carry out this idea. Leif has teamed up with ioby in an attempt to raise the money needed.
Check out http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/for more information about the Federal Superfund Program to clean Newtown Creek, an in depth view of the Newtown Creek’s long history, dates of the next Newtown Creek Tours, recent blog post, and so much more.
Also if you or someone you know is interested in partnering with the Newtown Creek Alliance to develop a green infrastructure project in the Newtown Creek watershed please contact Newtown Creek Alliance at info@newtowncreekalliance.org
THE FUTURE FOR THE NEWTOWN CREEK SEEMS BRIGHT!