New York City has been found liable for polluting the Long Island Sound, from the weekend boating near the Throgs Neck Bridge (top), to the Bayside Marina area were locals boat and fish (above) to the water racing by the shores of Astoria (below).

The heavy rain that Queens residents are praying for could mean a flow of raw sewage and street garbage for the waters we boat, fish and swim in around the borough.

Mark Tedesco, director of the non-profit Long Island Sound Keepers organization that monitors the health of the body of water, explained that the Sound has two concerns. The first is the problem of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) and the second is a contamination problem called hypoxia which limits oxygen in the water and strangles marine life.

Tedesco explained that although the Sound is much healthier today than it was 25 years ago – leading to so much more recreational water activity in Queens – that doesn’t mean it is safe to make a steady diet out of fish caught in the waters or clams dug up from the sandy beaches.

New York City’s sewers and road run-off drainage flow together into its sewage treatment plants. Those plants then treat what was once dumped into the ocean as sludge, shipping the solid by-products out for use as fertilizer and releasing the liquid by-products into New York waterways. As for the sound, that equals over 500 million gallons per day.

However, Tedesco explained and the Department of Enviromental Protection that runs the plants confirmed, when the City has a heavy rain, the
combined sewers send more to the treatments plants than can be handled and the overflow must be released directly into the sound.

DEP Spokesperson Christina Manos added that the department currently has a program underway to build CSO tanks that will catch the overflow for treatment at a later date. One such tank should be completed in late 2001 in Flushing, she added. However, none of the planned tanks in the $1.5 billion project to stop the overflow are in place and operating at this time.

Hypoxia & Algae
Tedesco went on to explain that the city’s discharge of nitrogen into the Sound is causing the suffocating problem called hypoxia.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew J. Gershon, currently involved in the lawsuit that claims the city has been dumping too much nitrogen and breaking their permits, said hypoxia means that the water’s oxygen level has dropped.

The nitrogen – which is a fertilizer – is in the discharge from the treatment plants and has caused an abnormal increase in algae growth and the algae is using up oxygen in the bottom-most, cooler layers of the Sound’s water. Though the top layers are churned and oxygenated by waves, the bottom layer is continuing to lose oxygen creating what he called a "dead zone," where "fish are driven out and other marine life leaves or is injured and killed" due to lack of oxygen.

Suing New York City
While the State’s lawsuit against the City of New York for polluting the Long Island Sound and Jamaica Bay has already led to a judgement against the city, the Sound Keepers have a federal suit in progress which they hope will have the same results.

A State Supreme Court judge ruled in early July that the city was liable for over 200 violations of their permits to discharge sewage plant waste into the sound, explained Gershon. The violations involved eight City sewage treatment plants. Four plants – the Bowery Bay and Tallman Island plants in Queens, Hunt’s Point plant in the Bronx, and the Wards Island plant in Manhattan – discharge into the upper East River and the Long Island Sound. The other four – the Coney Island and 26th Ward plants in Brooklyn and the Jamaica Bay and Rockaway plants in Queens – discharge into Jamaica Bay.

This judgement of liability was a summary one, Gershon explained to the Tribune this week following his latest court appearance on the suit. He said that the deadline for discovery on the current charges is now set for late summer or fall and a trial will be held in the winter. Gershon added that the State’s Attorney General’s office believes the city is still currently sending discharges into Jamaica Bay against their permits. The city had continued to do the same in the Long Island Sound after the lawsuit was filed in March 1988, Gershon charged, however they are now in compliance.

The Sound Keeper’s suit has not yet been heard in court, Tedesco said, but they are hoping the judge will also make a summary ruling of the city’s liability. The goal, Gershon and Tedesco agreed, is to stop the city from breaking their permits and force them to find funding for upgrading treatment facilities.

New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Joel A. Miele, Sr. issued the following statement as the official response to the liable judgement against the city:

"We take our State permits very seriously. They set our limits and conditions which are intended to protect our harbors and waterways, something that is very important to us and is central to the DEP’s mission as an agency. We have reviewed the Supreme Court decision and believe it is in error. We have met the requirements of our permits, and have consisently kept the State up to date on our progress in reducing water pollution. Indeed, the City is spending unprecendented sums, beyond what is required by law, to control not only nitrogen, but a whole range of pollutants that are associated with sewage treatment. Our waterways have never been cleaner. The city is truly a national leader in this regard, and its actions should be praised, rather than being attacked in a lawsuit. We believe our conduct in this matter has always been proper, and we intend to vigorously appeal."

Gershon said that the city faces fines of $25,000 per day per violation if they are found guilty in the State’s case.

The Latest On Flushing Bay
The House of Representatives approved $925,000 last week for the clean-up of Flushing Bay. The funding will allow the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a study and develop ideas for improving the water quality, including dredging alternatives, complete or partial removal of a dyke, bank stabilization and the creation of tidal wetlands, according to Congressman Joseph Crowley.

Crowley had fought to have the appropriation in the House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill and President Bill Clinton’s budget for fiscal year 2000.

Crowley maintained that the "House passage of this funding enables the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the study of Flushing Bay, an important first step in developing a strategic plan to improve the water quality of Flushing Bay. A cleaner Flushing Bay translates into a more livable city. The entire ecosystem of the New York City region also benefits from these improvements."

To Eat Or Not To Eat
Tedesco said that the current conditions in the Long Island Sound do not pose a threat to swimmers or boaters and praised the work that has been done to clean the Sound so far. However, he added that the various contaminents dumped into the Sound over the city’s history and the current conditions in the Sound mean that eating a regular diet of fish caught off Queens shores or eating raw clams from Queens beaches can make people ill. He advised fishermen to check with the City Health Department for regular fishing advisories and for the latest on the Sound, visit the Sound Keeper’s website at www. soundkeeper.org.