Friday, January 31, 2014

Little Neck Bay kind of crappy

From the Daily News:

Little Neck Bay is still awash in stormy sewage.

Even though the city has pumped a whopping $142 million into blocking crud from the bay, pollution continues to taint the water, residents said Monday.

Scummy storm runoff from nearby streets and front yards continues to plague the area where people fish and swim.

“Storm water is still running off the land and storm water carries everything with it into the water,” said William Nieter, a professor of environmental studies at St. John’s University and a board member at the nearby Alley Pond Environmental Center.

Nieter noted the area has seen significant improvement since auto salvage shops and dumping grounds dotted the landscape. Meanwhile, cleaning facilities and tidal marshes the city Department of Environmental Protection completed in 2011 have reduced the flow of contaminated water by 261 million gallons per year, according to the agency.

But the beach at Douglas Manor next to the Nassau County border still had to close due to heightened bacteria readings for 47 days in 2012, the highest number in the city, according to the National Resources Defense Council.

Fishermen who have the city’s blessing to cast lines in the bay might think twice if they want to eat what they catch.

4 comments:

Erik Baard said...

Another factor that's often left out of public policy is that bacterial load testing is generally done in deeper water, while human contact and habitat density is greatest in the intertidal zone. Logically, that's where sewer overflows and runoffs are most concentrated.

Anonymous said...


Douglas Manor has septic tanks.

Since there are no sewers, where does contaminated storm water go?

This might be a major reason for the problem.



Anonymous said...

That guy in the foreground looks like an actor.

Joe said...

The city keeps blaming Douglas Manor meanwhile 2 failing grandfathered sewage plants on the Bronx river can dump as they please.
Millions of gallons of raw sewage is dumped whenever rains or the old junkers are beyond capacity.
All the shit ends up trapped in Little Neck & Great Neck bays.

Douglas Manor has septic tanks that feed into leaching rings, yes some are failing however the pollution creating these huge numbers is coming from the Bronx river. The old failing treatment plants and street pipes dump straight into it, the currents off Hart island then direct it south(most the time).
With a boat you can shut off your motor and the current brings you into Little Neck Bay during this 6 hour out tide window.