Cuomo doubles down against Jamaica Bay dredging bill

 

QNS

 Earlier this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo once again vetoed a bill sponsored by state Senator Joseph Addabbo and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato aimed at increasing the standard of dredging materials that are placed into Jamaica Bay’s borrow pits.

The two-part bill would end the sunset clause on the original bill to protect the bay, so it would be permanent law in New York state instead of being voted on every two years. It also seeks to change the criteria for filling the Jamaica Bay borrow pits to comply with federal Ocean Dumping Act criteria.

“Even though the governor vetoed this bill again, I intend on reintroducing it next year and then continue to negotiate with the state agencies,” Addabbo said. “After seeing the incredible improvement of the water quality of Jamaica Bay, with advocates saying the bay is the healthiest it has been in decades, and with the reemergence of marine wildlife to the area, Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato and I believe the sunset clause on this bill should be removed and it should be made permanent.”

Borrow pits, also known as a sandbox, is an area where material such as soil, gravel or sand has been dug up for use at another location. In a veto statement, Cuomo said the legislation would change the criteria for filling Jamaica Bay borrow pits to comply with the federal criteria for the unrestricted ocean dumping of dredged material, which is not applicable to Jamaica Bay.

“The battle is not yet over,” Pheffer Amato said. “While I am disappointed that Governor Cuomo has vetoed this crucial legislation for the protection of Jamaica Bay, I’m looking forward to the restart of the legislative session so we can reintroduce this bill, and work with Senator Addabbo and the governor’s office to finally get this through the finish line. I also want to thank all of the advocates that have tirelessly worked on behalf of Jamaica Bay, and let them know that our work is just beginning.”

 Believe the science and know the facts, but only when it's expedient for Mario's Son

Flushing Bay dredging to commence

From Curbed:

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced the projected $34 million cleanup which is to be completed in phases that will likely carry on for decades. In fact, could take as long as until 2042 to complete if things go according to the DEP’s plan.

The first phase will focus on decommissioning the ten sewage outflows that spill into the bay. Next, the DEP plans to create a three acre marsh and mudflat area to help filter the water. Ultimately, the goal is to build a 2.5 mile tunnel and “dewatering” station that would divert sewage away from the bay and into a pumping system for processing but that could cost as much as $5.7 billion and has not received approval from the state.

Bill signed to curb Jamaica Bay pollution

Forgotten-NY

From the Forum:

The Jamaica Bay Borrow Pit Bill creates a five-year extension to legislation prohibiting the dumping of toxic materials into the borrow pits – areas of deeper water depths in the bay created by projects that excavated, or “borrowed,” seabed sediments for use in other areas – under the bay. This extends through 2022 language in state Environmental Conservation Law requiring permits for filling borrow pits with materials generated by dredging projects in area waterways. Under this restriction, the sediments must also meet the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Class A criteria for chemical contamination, the state’s highest sediment classification.

The law is set to take effect immediately, with an expiration date of June 30, 2022.

Plan to clean up stink of Flushing Bay

From DNA Info:

The Department of Environmental Protection will begin dredging sediment from the bottom of Flushing Bay in 2016, according to a city official, at a cost of $47 million.

Sediment has formed over years due to Combined Sewer Overflow, or CSO, from nearby roads and highways.

It hasn't helped that a runway at nearby LaGuardia Airport partially blocks the water from "flushing," according to DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd, who testified about the funded project at a May city council hearing.

Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who lead the testimony as the Council's finance chair, told Lloyd the smells are compared to rotten eggs and has plagued her district for years.

The project, scheduled to be completed in 2019, will remove most of the gunk at the bottom and make a "significant" difference, Lloyd said.

Sounds just a little insane

From DNA Info:

Brooklyn concrete magnate John Quadrozzi wants to take toxic sludge dredged from the Gowanus Canal Superfund site, ship it by barge to Red Hook and dump it into the Gowanus Bay to expand a shipping terminal he owns.

The proposal, discussed at a Brooklyn Community Board 6 committee meeting Monday night, would allow Quadrozzi's Gowanus Bay Terminal on Columbia Street to accommodate larger ocean-going ships by extending the terminal into deeper waters.

The plan would also create more land above water, adding to the property that Quadrozzi rents to industrial businesses.

Many questions — from who would pay for which parts of the project, to what exactly will be dredged from the canal, to where the sludge will be shipped, how it will be treated, and whether Quadrozzi can even legally expand his terminal — have not been addressed.

Cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, [Quadrozzi's spokesperson] said, would involve dredging only the lowest-level contaminants, which would then be mixed with a "concrete-like…stabilizing material" that could safely be deposited in open water as landfill.

An end to flooding woes?

From the Daily News:

A basement water pump is a necessity for many residents in Springfield Gardens and other deluge-prone areas of southeastern Queens.

That’s because black storm clouds can soon spell flooded roads and soggy cellars in that neighborhood.

“At the sign of dark skies, [residents] start the pumps,” said Springfield Gardens Taxpayer Citizens Association President Patrick Evans.

Now, the city will soon begin a $70 million plan to dredge a nearby lake and improve drainage in the low-lying area. The project, known as Phase D, is part of a long-term, $130 million effort to improve Springfield Gardens infrastructure.

A spokesman for the city Department of Environmental Protection could not say exactly when the project is supposed to start, though he said it will begin this fall. The relief plan will be performed through a partnership among various city agencies, including the DEP, Transportation and Parks departments and the Economic Development Corp.

Residents have long suffered from flooding because the neighborhood is in a low-lying area — which inhibits runoff into Jamaica Bay — and because of a lack of proper infrastructure.

This fall the city will dredge Springfield Lake and build three new storm water wetlands both upstream and downstream of the body of water, according to the DEP and the EDC. It will also install porous asphalt, plant 500 trees and extend Springfield Blvd. to 147th Ave.

Why College Point stinks

Flushing stink expensive to eradicate

From the Daily News:

City officials said it could cost almost $50 million to dredge just a small section of the waterway, well known for its less-than-aromatic scent.

[Asst DEP Commissioner Mark] Lanaghan and other DEP officials briefed Queens Borough President Helen Marshall’s staff, City Council members and community board chairpersons last week on efforts to improve the water quality of Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek.

Dredging is just one piece of the complex Flushing Bay Waterbody/Watershed Facility Plan, designed to reduce the amount of combined sewer overflow that ends up in the waterway that curves around Citi Field and LaGuardia Airport.

Restoration of Jamaica Bay underway

From the Forum:

The efforts to restore Jamaica Bay—an economic staple for the local community—are one step closer to completion after a recent $7.2 million grant to make long-awaited restorations to the bay’s Yellow Bar Hassock Island.

Funding from the grant, legislators and project officials said, will be used as nearly half of a $15.5 million effort to restore roughly 50 acres of salt marsh habitat at Yellow Bar Hassock and place 300,000 cubic yards of dredged material there.

The dredging work at Yellow Bar is being handled by the Illinois-based dredging company,Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company.

Yellow Bar is the third of three key marshes in the area—the other two being Elders Point East and Elders Point West—that were recommended by a 2006 report to be fixed in order to restore three key marsh areas of the 25,000-acre bay that neighbors Howard Beach, Broad Channel and the Rockaways.

The grant is being provided by the US Army Corps of Engineers, whose mission statement is to provide public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen national security, energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters.

Rebuilding Jamaica Bay

From the NY Times:

For more than a decade, workers using giant digging machines have scooped up enormous mounds of rock, clay, sand and silt from the waters around New York to deepen the shipping channels to accommodate giant cargo vessels that will navigate the widened Panama Canal starting in the middle of the decade.

The dredging has produced millions of cubic yards of muck.

“What do you do with all that stuff?” said Col. John R. Boulé II, commander of the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the dredging. “Some of it we’re using to restore the islands in Jamaica Bay.” Recalling the lush “Mannahatta” that Henry Hudson encountered when he sailed into New York Harbor 400 years ago, Colonel Boulé added: “We want to put a little more of 1609 back into 2010.”

The Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service are the primary partners in a collaboration of city, state and federal environmental, parks and port agencies and private partners to revitalize what is known as the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, focusing primarily on Upper and Lower New York Bay. Eventually, oyster beds will be restored to serve as living water filters, and shellfish may someday be harvested commercially again.

Jamaica Bay is part of the park service’s Gateway National Recreation Area, which spans the harbor and will be expanded by hundreds of acres when the city’s former Fountain and Pennsylvania Avenue landfills in Brooklyn, recently forested with 35,000 trees, are incorporated as parkland in a few years.