Howard Beach will smell better

From the Queens Chronicle:

Say goodbye to those noxious odors that had been coming from Shellbank Basin and wafting through the Howard Beach community during the summer months.

Within the next few weeks, the city Department of Environmental Protection is expected to wrap up construction of a $3.5 million destratification facility on the edge of the basin to eliminate the odors and oxygenate the area’s waters, keeping the crab and fish populations healthy.

For years, residents have complained about the stench wafting from the basin. The odors occur when a sudden drop in temperature allows the basin’s deep water to rise to the surface. Without natural mixing, the water separates into layers, with the sun-heated water at the top and the coolest at the bottom — the phenomenon known as stratification.

The DEP has for the past 10 years been testing a technique called destratification to reverse this process.

Destratification has been used effectively in lakes and reservoirs to vertically mix the water and prevent undesirable conditions from occurring.

The DEP has acquired part of Starbuck’s parking lot at 157-41 Crossbay Blvd., on the west shoreline of Shellbank Basin, upon which it has built the permanent destratification facility. The temporary facility was located at Captain Mike’s Marina parking lot, at 158-35 Crossbay Blvd.

The permanent Shellbank Basin Destratification Facility consists of two electric-powered air compressors, one in operation and one on standby, in a sound-insulated 380-square-foot, 15-foot high building. There are two 1-inch diffuser lines that together extend approximately 2,000 feet longitudinally on the basin floor.