Thursday, July 1, 2010

That ain't Chanel Number 5!

From the Daily News:

This gives new meaning to eau de toilette.

The city Department of Environmental Protection is using a perfume-like chemical spray to mask a fetid stench likely emanating from a waste treatment plant.

Officials hoped the citrus-scented spray would prevent a fireworks display in Astoria Park from turning into a putrid jubilee.

"I've never smelled it this bad," said city Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), who first noticed the stench two months ago.

Vallone believes the persistent stink is wafting from the Wards Island wastewater treatment plant located just miles away from Astoria Park, where 10,000 people were expected to attend a fireworks display last night.

A DEP spokesman denied that the plant was the source of the funk. Still, the agency started using "odor-counteracting machines" to spray the chemical -- which neutralizes stinky hydrogen sulfide -- across the treatment plant yesterday.

The plant has a malfunctioning blower that normally pumps oxygen into wastewater as it's being treated, said spokesman Farrell Sklerov. The remaining five pumps are still working.


 

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

This absolutely is Wards Island. And the only thing masking the sewage stench tonight was the smell of the fireworks themselves. And that was only in a narrow swath of the park, and only during the fireworks. As Vallone pointed out, this neighborhood has smelled like shit just about every day for a few months now.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and the sewage treatment facility is less than a mile from the park - only a couple thousand feet, really.

Anonymous said...

went to the concert and fireworks and my gosh that park and surrounding neighborhood reeked!

Anonymous said...

On Tuesday, DEP dumped thousands of gallons of green dye into drains in LIC allegedly in search of an outflow which is malfunctioning and discharging untreated sewage into the East River but that's all the detail they provided. It's possible, I think, that the river itself is what stinks, not Wards Island.

Anonymous said...

I think, that the river itself is what stinks, not Wards Island.
___________________________________________________

I was under the impression that either Toby Stavisky or Claire Shulman were in attendance at tonight's fireworks event!

astorians.com NOT said...

http://www.astorians.com/community/index.php?topic=12410.0

I think this thread, and the community's response, says it all.

1. it doesn't exist.

2. it is from somewhere else

3. lets make a joke about it

4. lets insult the person that doesnt say Astoria is wonderful

5. lets not hole the local politican responsible

6. if you don't like it, move

7. lets hold to the belief, that 'what is in Astoria, stays in Astoria'

The Real Deal said...

Everyone knows is not talking, but whispering its from the overdevelopment and illegal conversions.

Remember when the power grid failed a few years ago? Same reason there, too.

The system cannot handle the skyrocketing number of people that are being dumped into the community.

All the effort in systems upgrading is being directed to the places that the Tower People live while Astoria and Sunnyside are sliding into a slum with unkept buildings and absentee landlords.

Remember, the lights never failed at Queens West. No stench in their community. There, millions of Astoria's tax dollors, that should go into their community, are being diverted into bike lanes and new trees so developers can fill their new buildings

- while hospitals close, sewage backs up, traffic chokes the streets and the lights flicker.

And of course, they mindlessly reelect the same people over and over again

(or discuss really important stuff like taco trucks and where the pols stand on the all consuming gay-lesbian issue)

Going to get a lot worse now that Astoria is 'saved' with the new zoning.

NITWITS

Anonymous said...

Hydrogen Sulfide, or "Rotten Egg" gas is a poison. What about health, let alone the stench.

http://www.gasdetection.com/TECH/h2s.html

Under no circumstances should anyone voluntarily expose themselves to this for fireworks or anything else. When you smell this, get inside and shut the windows.

Methane also often accompanies this chemical and is explosive. Will things be blowing up soon?

Anonymous said...

I think, that the river itself is what stinks, not Wards Island.


Does the river stink in Manhatttan or Queens West?

1. if it is the river, why are we planning thousands more people to live there

2. perhaps you mean low tide with plenty of real estate exposed that must have been bathed in sewage a few hours before.

Besides, who cares about Wards Island. We have our own dirty secret called Bowery Bay on Berrian Blvd.

Anonymous said...

http://www.astorians.com/community/index.php?topic=18738.msg198818#new

interesting.

georgetheatheist said...

The source of the odor is Vallone Sr.'s toupee. He hasn't washed it in years.

Anonymous said...

Now Vallone is getting it, its Ward Island cause he is downwind from it.

Go over to the 40s near Bowery Bay and ask those people. Its bad for years, and now getting worse.

Remember that when a two story house morphs into six.

Anonymous said...

I don't live in the neighborhood, but travel over the Triboro Bridge twice a week, and have noticed the sewer plant smell for the past month or two when driving over Wards Island. Prior to that it might have smelled after a heavy rain, but now it seems to smell strong even in dry weather. It is definitely a sewer plant smell, and it has definitely become much more noticeable recently. This definitely can't be healthy to breathe in on a regular basis.

Anonymous said...

Like I said, y'all, this stench is from Wards Island. Yes, Bowery Bay stinks too. That I know from shopping at Best Yet. But when you're in Astoria Park and it smells rain or shine, you know it's Wards Island. And this has nothing to do with over- or under-development in Astoria. Wards Island is processing sewage from western Bronx, and dewatering sewage also from northern Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.
Over 1,000,000 people's worth of shit in this place.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wwsystem.pdf

Anonymous said...

But when you're in Astoria Park and it smells rain or shine, you know it's Wards Island.


yes yes yes and for the 98% of Astoria that doesnt live by Astoria Park, its Bowery Bay and its because of the overdevelopment and its related to Con Ed blackout and its gonna get worse now that Astoria 's 'saved' by the new zoning.

Anonymous said...

At Astorians.com they are still talking about it - tides! runoff from the Bronx! Wards Island! tides!

No you freaking idiots, the infrastructure is being overwhelmed just like the grid 5 years ago.

When you rezoned the community, no one, but no one, had the balls or common sense to talk about infrasturture.

The envirnmental inpact statement was little more than a listing of buildable sites.

Anonymous said...

This is a neighborhood where people committed assault on a PIANO that was placed in a park for the public's enjoyment. You expect them to care that the neighborhood smells like shit?

Anonymous said...

No, its the location of the taco truck and the LGT issue that is all consuming.

Anonymous said...

Wards Island plant said they were not creating the smell ... so its just the low tide .... been that way for years ..... used to be much worse .....

ya sure ... and you are a f*king developer scum.

Anonymous said...

In Astoria, they are so stupid you can rub their noses in shit and they still don't admit the obvious.

No wonder 10,000s that other communities don't want are welcome with open arms there.

Anonymous said...

not surprised.

they take power plants. they take power outages. they take train service cuts. they take the pollution. they dont want trees. they dont want restrictions on illegal conversions.

all they want is development. they will harm themselves and their families for it.

knuckle dragging drooling neanderthals.