Filed Under: Environmental Issues | New York City | Water | Water

New York HarborWATER QUALITY-NEW YORK HARBOR ESTUARY & AREA WATERS The environmental quality of New York City's harbor and surrounding rivers, bays, estuaries (where salty tides meet fresh water currents) and tributaries has improved significantly in the last few decades, thanks in part to the City's increased regulation of industry, technological advances and upgraded sewage treatment plants funded mostly by the 1972 Clean Water Act. Although progress has been made in cleaning up surface water contamination and preventing further pollution in New York City's area waters, major challenges remain. Decades of pollution have left a dangerous legacy. After years of industrial discharge into New York Harbor and the Hudson River, polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs) can be found deep down in the sediments of the riverbed and in many of the animals that live in the surrounding area. PCB levels in some Hudson River fish are so high that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) advises that fish should not be consumed by humans. Mercury is a similar hazard. Mercury comes from household products that end up in the waste stream and from power plant emissions that eventually settle onto waterways hundreds of miles from their point of origin. The mercury accumulates in the bodies of fish, making them dangerous to eat. The most significant single source of pollution in New York waters is the overflow of discharge from combined sewer overflows and runoff (or non-point pollution) from New York City, New Jersey and Westchester. In some urban areas, the sewers “combine” household and industrial waste with rainwater and street runoff. During periods of significant rainfall or when there are power outages, these combined sewers can overflow and introduce raw or partially treated sewage into area waters, causing levels of fecal coliform, dissolved oxygen, and "floatables" to rise. Approximately 65% of the City’s sewers are “combined”. Also, when we change the oil in our cars or wash them with detergents, use salt to de-ice sidewalks and roadways, employ fertilizers and pesticides, or fail to clean up pet waste, these pollutants run into storm drains and waterways. The problem is compounded when open spaces are developed and waterways lose valuable buffers that protect them from the runoff. In sum total, New York waters are affected not only by the waste streams generated locally, but also by remote sources from northern and western New York and northern New Jersey. Today, the City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) operates 14 wastewater treatment facilities in New York City. The DEP's regular maintenance and upgrades to the sewer system and decreased storm water overflow have helped to bring New York's waters into compliance with state and federal standards. Of the 14 plants that DEP owns and operates within the City, all but one, the Newtown Creek Plant in Brooklyn, have been upgraded or built to provide full secondary treatment of sewage. An upgrade to achieve full secondary treatment for Newtown Creek will conclude in 2013.