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EVENTS
Cold weather is (almost) here, and it's not the most appropriate time to host gatherings at and on the water. Still, there must be some waterfront-related events that you'd like us to help you publicize! Send us your information and we'll be glad to list it in WaterWire and on the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance website.
Click here to send information about events to Louis Kleinman.
Saturday, Dec. 5
New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World Exhibition Tour
Free with admission
1pm-2:30pm
South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street.
212-748-8786
The
centerpiece of this exhibition is the letter mentioning the 1626
purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders. Rare maps, plans and views of
the early Dutch settlement shed new light on the origins of our city.
www.southstreet
seaportmuseum.org
Friday, Dec. 18
Holiday Lights
Free.
5pm-8pm
South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street
212-748-8786
Celebrate
the season with an annual tradition at the South Street Seaport Museum,
the holiday lighting of the ships Ambrose and Peking, along with a
holiday craft activity for the family.
www.southstreet seaportmuseum.org
Saturday, Dec. 19
New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World Exhibition Tour
Free with admission
1pm-2:30pm
South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street
212-748-8786
The
centerpiece of this exhibition is the letter mentioning the 1626
purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders. Rare maps, plans and views of
the early Dutch settlement shed new light on the origins of our city.
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 What's Up, Dock?
 After Hearing Fervent
Testimony, the City Council
Joins the Clamor for More Recreational Boating Access
As the waterfront opens up to greater use, government officials realize they must accommodate increased demand with new boat launches
City Council member Michael Nelson, representing Brooklyn's waterfront neighborhoods, must have had an inkling of the kind of response he'd get when, as Chair of the Council's Waterfronts Committee, he scheduled a hearing on "Improving Public Recreational Boating Access in the New York City Waterfront."
Boating advocates crowded into the hearing room. Dorothy Lewandowski, Parks Dept. Commissioner for the borough of Queens and an avid kayaker herself, began the proceedings by describing the NYC Water Trail, a series of landings that connects 160 square miles of rivers,
bays, creeks, inlets and ocean in the five boroughs.
Click on the map and be whisked to the interactive version at the Dept. of
Parks & Recreation web site. This map and guide was created in partnership
with Going Coastal, a nonprofit educational and publishing organization.
"The Water Trail Map and Guide identifies 38 locations for small watercraft launches and landings throughout the city," she told the packed room, and listed some of the Parks Department's partners in the effort: the Bronx River Alliance, which has put more than 1,000 paddlers on the water; Rocking the Boat, which provides boat-building education; the Long Island City Community Boathouse, which offers free kayaking; Row New York, which trains girls in rowing and life skills; the Downtown Boathouse, which has expanded to eight locations and served more than 28,000 paddlers last season; the 75-year-old Sebago Canoe Club; and Kayak Staten Island, which had more than 1,500 paddlers in the 2009 season.
Assistant Commissioner for Operations Keith Kerman took over to describe tremendous growth at the three marinas operated by the City: 79th Street Boat Basin, Sheepshead Bay and World's Fair Marina.
Working with the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the Parks Dept. is piloting "Eco Docks" (see illustration below, courtesy of Guardia Architects), large, environmentally friendly docks that are inexpensive to build and easy to maintain. The first Eco Dock is expected to be in use at the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge next summer. "Parks is looking at other locations for these docks, including Dyckman Marina in upper Manhattan," Mr. Kerman said.
 Roland Lewis, president of the MWA, lauded the good work of the Parks Dept. in expanding waterfront access but said there were still "shockingly few places to dock a boat in our harbor, especially for recreational or educational purposes."
The MWA is working with government and nonprofit partners to "knit together a network of docking and access sites" that will include locations on the NYC Water Trail and at private and city-owned marinas in NY and NJ. Mr. Lewis went on to mention other recent efforts that address waterfront access, including the Comprehensive Ferry Study by the NYC Economic Development Corp. and Dept. of Transportation, a similar ferry study by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Maritime Support Services Location Study from the EDC. "All of these waterfront efforts should coordinate closely with the burgeoning movement to reclaim our waterfront for recreational and educational purposes. A perfect opportunity to create this holistic plan of waterfront and maritime uses for our region is the update of New York City's Comprehensive Waterfront Plan," he concluded.
Nancy Brous of the NYC Water Trail Association told the Waterfront Committee that the Parks Dept. had set "a bold precedent" in creating the Trail. "Parks is the first government agency to not only permit but to encourage New Yorkers to use the harbor recreationally," she said. Agreeing with Ms. Brous, Margaret Flanagan commented in written testimony, "However, there are other agencies whose actions result in restricted waterfront access, and who could learn from Parks."
Jim Chambers, who runs a small business called Osprey Maritime Services and whose New York maritime connections
go way back, commented,
"The waterfront is our prize asset, but I fear that our heritage is
being forgotten. This past summer tall ships on their way to Boston
from Charleston bypassed New York. New York City children do
not see tall ships or historic vessels. Please consider the fact that
historic ships would like to have a place to secure when building
docks."
Betsy Frawley Haggerty, president of the North River Historic Ship Society (NRHSS), testified. "Many government-sponsored plans for New York's waterfront do not include enough ship-supporting infrastructure, which can easily be added to current plans," she said. With her at the microphone was Captain John Doswell, who discussed NRHSS guidelines for pier construction, including shape, strength, depth, fendering, bollards, vehicle access and more. "Piers have to be straight and not go up in the air," he said, referring to a recently opened pier on the Hudson River whose western end is elevated. He laughed. "You have to mention the obvious sometimes. Piers are getting built where this is not being taken into consideration."
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More of Staten Island is Added to the Bluebelt
Innovative
water management system mixes the natural with the manmade to lead the
way in wetlands preservation and flood control
Another parcel of land purchased by the City in October is added to the system
Aerial view of Staten
Island showing the Bluebelt integration into the urban environment. Photo courtesy of the DEP
Concentrated on the South Shore, the system is managed by the City Department of Environmental Protection, which acquires, preserves, restores and sometimes constructs wetlands, ponds and streams that naturally filter water. According to the DEP, the Bluebelt
program saves tens of millions of dollars that it would otherwise cost to install conventional storm sewers for the area. While Staten Island is the only borough that currently has a Bluebelt, Mayor Bloomberg has begun to expand the program to other boroughs, starting with parkland in Queens.
Click on the map above to go to an interactive version showing how the Bluebelt works.
A
component of the Mayor's PlaNYC, the Bluebelt program was
launched in the late 1980s. The City regularly picks up pieces of land to add to the system, most recently acquiring a 1.3 acre parcel of land in
Richmondtown.
"Staten Island gains two important benefits: protection of natural
wetland areas and mitigation of flooding in the neighborhoods near
these wetlands," said Borough President Molinaro at the announcement of the latest addition to the Bluebelt on
October 24. Currently, the Bluebelt provides drainage for no fewer than 16 watersheds.
An additional 312 acres of Bluebelt territory in the new Mid-Island
neighborhoods of New Creek, South Beach and Oakwood Beach -- areas plagued by flooding during rainstorms -- are at
various stages of the acquisition process.
Click here for an interesting video about the Staten Island Bluebelt.
This manmade extended detention basin is part of the DEP's Bluebelt system in Staten Island.
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Cas Holloway is Named Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection
On November 30, Mayor Bloomberg appointed Caswell F. Holloway as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Steve Lawitts has served as Acting Commissioner for the past year.
Since 2006, Mr. Holloway has been Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. Among other major projects in that position, Mr. Holloway's environment-related efforts included the development of the Bloomberg Administration's clean-up program for the Gowanus Canal and the City's new waste management plan.
While the DEP is responsible for the quality of the City's air and water, Commissioner Holloway will undoubtedly focus more of his time on water-related issues. "New
York City has the best drinking water in the nation, and the waterways
that surround us have always been a key to the City's prosperity," he said at the press conference. "Mayor Bloomberg has led the way in making the
investments necessary to prepare our water and sewer infrastructure for
the next century."
Waterfront advocates know that Mr. Holloway will face numerous issues as he spearheads improvement of the City's waterways. Larry Levine, staff attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council, commented, "Mr. Holloway is a talented public servant and a quick study who
knows his way around City Hall and has the Mayor's ear - all of which are
critical attributes. He's taking the reins of an agency that has historically
faced more than its fair share of problems and will have a tough job ahead of
him. We especially welcome his commitment, at the press conference announcing
his appointment, to make reducing sewer overflows through 'green infrastructure'
a signature issue for the agency, and also hope that DEP will play a strong
role in updating and implementing many other aspects of PlaNYC."
This diagram of the typical process at a NYC water pollution control plant can be found on the NYC DEP web site. Click here for an in-depth explanation of the City's wastewater treatment system. |
 Here's Your Chance to Ask Colonel John R. Boule II About an Army Corps of Engineers Project in the NY Area
Col. John R. Boulé II, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers New York District, is responding to readers' questions this week on The New York Times City Room blog. Already, some interesting questions have been posted -- What can be done to save Rockaway's beaches? What is the best option for fixing the Bayonne Bridge problem? -- with equally interesting responses from Col. Boulé.
Click here to post your question. |
IBM: Immersed in Smart Water Management
Corporate giant funds Hudson River data-gathering sensors
and other water monitoring efforts around the world
Information technology is not necessarily an intuitive match with environmental concerns, but recent breakthroughs by corporate giant IBM are affecting water management in positive ways around the world. The goal, said Sharon Nunes, Vice President of IBM's Big Green Innovations, which deals with advanced water management, is to provide agencies, utilities and
private industry with precise data. A fast, accurate, local weather prediction, for example, can help clients -- water management-related or otherwise -- prepare for sudden storms. "Information like this helps to minimize business costs and work flow is more efficient," Ms. Nunes said.
Last year, IBM established a Centre of Excellence for Water Management in Amsterdam where the focus is on flood management
and levee systems, and in Dublin where a project called SmartBay monitors data about tidal flow, wave heights, temperature and phyloplankton via sensors placed throughout Galway Bay. Locally, IBM joined with New York's Beacon Institute in 2007 to launch a monitoring network in the
Hudson River that records information about oxygen content, temperature and wind speed, and assesses how these  affect aquatic life. IBM sends scientists to Beacon, to mentor local college students and to teach the teachers. "Eventually the plan is to place sensors along entire length of the Hudson, down to the Harbor and up to Troy," said Ms. Nunes. (A Hudson River sensor is pictured in the photo at right.)
"The Hudson River is the pilot river system for this groundbreaking
initiative, and the 12 million people who live within its watershed
will be the first beneficiaries of our work," said John Cronin, Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Beacon Institute when the project was announced in 2007. "This new way of observing, understanding and predicting how large
river and estuary ecosystems work ultimately will allow us to translate
that knowledge into better policy, management and education for the
Hudson River and for rivers and estuaries worldwide."
Click here for real-time data from the Beacon Institute's Hudson River sensors.
WaterWire asked Ms. Nunes a couple other questions:
- In your opinion, what is the primary water management challenge for the New York region? "Contaminants on top of asphalt running off into the waterways," she said. "There are new technologies that IBM is working on to address this, such as permeable pavement."
- Can IBM's information technology address the problem of combined sewer overflows, a particular bane of New York City? "We're talking to business partners about potentially getting involved," Ms. Nunes said. "It's a great opportunity for measuring and monitoring water. If you think about traffic management, your GPS knows all the roads. It can do a rerouting for you. There's a lot of commonality on how you could manage water flow through underground pipes. If you have real-time traffic monitoring and management of water flow you would have a much better chance at minimizing combined sewer overflow."
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 MWA Moves to the Belgian Blocks of Lower Manhattan
Around the corner from historic Peck Slip, two blocks from the tall ships of the South Street Seaport Museum and in the shadow of the Wall Street skyscrapers, MWA settles into its new home at 241 Water St. This week, the
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance moved closer to the water, to the
original Port of New York to be exact. While South Street Seaport is our new home, we do have the same phone number (212-935-9831) and same email addresses. We now, however, share a front door with the Seamen's Church Institute, owner of the building at 241 Water Street. We thank the Municipal Art Society for providing us with office space for the last couple of years.
"The
Seamen's Church Institute has a longstanding commitment to supporting
the people of the working waterfront, as does the MWA," said MWA
President Roland Lewis. "We're eager to get settled in Lower Manhattan
and we thank the SCI for its welcome."
Said the Rev. David M. Rider, Seamen's
Church Institute Executive Director, "Our soon-to-be-shared street
address says it all, with two centuries of connection to the water that
so deeply shapes our great city and region. SCI looks forward to daily
interaction as both organizations pursue exciting missions." |
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Recent Waterfront News
Newtown Creek awaits Superfund aid
The Queens Courier, Dec. 2, 2009
Answers From an Army Colonel
The New York Times, Dec. 2, 2009
Corps may revisit flooding study
NorthJersey.com, Dec. 1, 2009
Young deer swims 2,000 yards in Hudson River from New Jersey to get to New York
As Sewers Fill, Waste Poisons Waterways
The New York Times, November 22, 2009
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