Using $25,000 awarded this month by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance plans to create the Rockaway Youth Marine Conservation Corps to help restore wetlands in Jamaica Bay.

The grant will pay for a year-long, intensive program that will teach children about water pollution and environmental justice, and emphasize their role as stewards of their waterways. Students will design and implement projects that involve their schools and their larger communities in the restoration of Jamaica Bay. "This program will cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards who will carry out wetland restoration, marine debris removal, and oyster gardening along Sommerville Basin and Norton/Conch Basin," said RWA executive director Jeanne DuPont.

As part of the same grant cycle, the EPA also gave $50,000 to Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance partner WE ACT (West Harlem Environmental Action) to detect lead in homes in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx.

On January 10, the Westchester County Supreme Court told the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to revise parts of a statewide general permit that regulates stormwater discharges from municipal sewers. The loopholes, which had been detected by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental watchdogs, allowed polluted stormwater to continue to flow into waterbodies and undercut new green infrastructure practices now being taken up in New York City and around the state.

Let NRDC attorney Larry Levine explain the details: "Specifically," he says, "the court ordered DEC to re-write the MS4 General Permit to correct three fatal flaws:

• Lack of DEC oversight: The permit abdicated DEC's responsibility to review municipalities' stormwater pollution control measures, to ensure they are sufficient to meet Clean Water Act standards. Instead, the permit allowed municipalities to self-certify their own plans, creating unchecked opportunities for "misunderstanding, misrepresenting, or misapplying" the applicable requirements.
• Missing compliance schedules: For cities and towns that send their runoff into water bodies where DEC has established pollution reduction budgets, the permit failed to establish "compliance schedules" to reduce runoff. These compliance schedules must include both interim and final deadlines, to ensure steady progress towards meeting the state's long-term pollution reduction targets.  
• Excluding public participation: The permit denied the general public the right to participate in a DEC hearing, in connection with the agency's review of each municipality's proposed stormwater pollution control measures, at which concerned citizens may object to proposals that fail to meet state and federal standards. Citizen groups often use such Clean Water Act permit hearings to introduce expert testimony -- or even their own data and observations drawn from community-based sampling and knowledge of local conditions -- in support of stronger water quality protections.

"Working with our coalition," Mr. Levine promises, "we'll be following up on this court victory to ensure that DEC promptly corrects the defects in the permit, and sets the state on the right path to reducing stormwater pollution." Organizations in the coalition include Riverkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance, Soundkeeper, Save the Sound, Peconic Baykeeper, NY/NJ Baykeeper and Hackensack Riverkeeper. "We are hopeful that the agency will promptly implement the court's ruling, rather than delay by filing an appeal," Mr. Levine said. "The legal debate has gone on long enough. The time for real progress to protect our waters is now."

Just because it's January doesn't mean you can't have a great time on or in the water. Here are some swimming and boating classes available in warm pools over the next two shivery months. If you know of other courses that we missed, send us an email and we'll print Part 2 in the next WaterWire.

The Coast Guard Auxiliary offers boating classes around the country. Click here for one near you. We found a beginner boating class on Saturday, Feb. 25, 9:30am to 5:30pm at 1 South Street, NYC for $75 and an 11-week course called Boating Skills and Seamanship, Feb. 22 to May 2, at the College Point Yacht Club, 3-04 126th St., College Point, Queens.

The NYC Parks Department offers a variety of free swim instruction at City pools, including Learn To Swim classes, a Youth Swim Team and Adapted Aquatics (for people with disabilities). One nine-week learn-to-swim session begins Feb. 3 at the Far Rockaway High School Pool. Walk-in registration will be held tonight, Friday, Jan. 27 at the school. The City's Youth Swim Team trains young people between the ages of 6 and 18 to compete during the fall, winter/spring and summer seasons. Adapted Aquatics iis exercise therapy that ranges from gentle water walking to aerobic-type exercise which improves range of motion, flexibility, mobility, muscle tone, coordination, focus and strength. For more information and to register for any of the programs above, call 718-760-6969 ext. 0. Finally, many pool programs for adults are offered, from open swim to water aerobics. Check each pool's schedule here.

The New York Community Kayak Program at Riverbank State Park offers four weekly classes on Saturdays and Sundays. Here, for a nominal fee, students of all ages are introduced to kayak equipment and learn basic strokes and safety. The program is run by Lee Reiser and Victor Gonzalez, and relies on volunteers from the NYC kayaking community to act as instructors. In exchange for their services, volunteers are given pool time. Riverbank State Park is on the Hudson River between 138th and 145th Streets. Find out more about the program here. Saturdays, Feb. 4 through Mar. 3 (no class on Feb. 25); Sundays, Feb. 5 through Mar. 4 (no class on Feb. 26).

New York Kayak Polo club members play all winter long in an indoor pool at Saint Peter's College, Jersey City. Regular sessions are held on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. New player sessions are on Saturday mornings. Rolling sessions are scheduled for March 3 and April 14. Click here for a full schedule of winter activity.

Sebago Canoe Club winter courses take place at the Flushing Corona Pool. Advance registration required; contact Walter at kayaker824@gmail.com for the Rescues and Recoveries class (Feb. 4 and 18, 8pm to 9:45pm) or the Eskimo Rolling class (March 3 and 17, 8pm to 9:45pm).

Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club offers kids' kayaking on Sundays in February and March from 3pm to 4pm at the Yonkers YMCA. Kids must be 6 or older and must be able to swim. The free classes will focus on kayaking basics including getting comfortable in a boat, forward stroke, maneuvering strokes and safety. Register by emailing katederoberts@hotmail.com. The club also offers adult kayaking instruction on Wednesday nights at the Yonkers Y, Jan 18- Feb 8 and Feb 22- Mar 14.  Both sessions are full, but people may get on a waiting list by contacting kayakingyonkers@yahoo.com.

The easily remembered names of the Monitor and the Merrimack have ensured that the confrontation of the great ironclads in 1862 (shown in the painting at right, by J.O. Davidson) is one of those events that has stayed in mind since our schooldays, even if the details have faded. For anyone interested in naval or Civil War history, however, those details will be aired and amplified during events on January 28, 29 and 30 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, commemorating the launch there in 1861 of the USS Monitor, the first ironclad warship.  

 

The USS Monitor's opponent was actually the CSS Virginia, the name given by the Confederates to the former Merrimack, a conventional frigate scuttled by the Union navy off Virginia which was raised by the Confederates and converted to an ironclad ram. The Union's more sophisticated Monitor, designed by John Ericsson, boasted a rotating gun turret atop a virtually submerged hull. The battle in March of 1862, in Virginia waters, was inconclusive, and although she revolutionized naval warfare Monitor's career was brief: the following December she foundered in a gale 16 miles off Cape Hatteras and lay at the bottom of the Atlantic until her discovery by divers in 1973.

 

Remember the Monitor at a three-day celebration co-sponsored by the Greenpoint Monitor Museum beginning January 28 with a history fair at the Capital One Bank (formerly the Greenpoint Savings Bank) in Greenpoint. Be sure to visit the MWA table! The next day, events include a memorial serv parade, ceremony and reception. On January 30, events conclude with a wreath-laying ceremony and a USS Monitor Civil War bus tour. 

 

Monitor's resting place is now the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, and she has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Her turret, engine and other remnants may be seen at the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia. A statue of Monitor's designer, Ericsson, a man who not only changed the course of naval warfare but also invented the first successful marine screw propeller, can be seen in Battery Park (left). Visit the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Monitor was outfitted and commissioned after having been built and launched at the no-longer-existing Continental Shipyard in Greenpoint, for a sense of the scene in New York on January 30, 1862. 

- by Brian Rogers

 

 

Vision 2020: The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan has been selected by the American Planning Association to receive the 2012 Daniel Burnham Award for a Comprehensive Plan. This is the second national recognition for Vision 2020, which also received a 2011 Excellence on the Waterfront Award from the Waterfront Center last fall.

Expanding every week, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is more than a coalition; it's a force. We are ferry captains, shipping executives, park directors, scientists, sailors, paddlers, swimmers, teachers, urban planners, architects and more. Together, we advocate for the best possible waterfront in the best possible city, a waterfront that is clean and accessible to all, with a robust maritime workforce and efficient, affordable waterborne transportation. Join us! Contact Louis Kleinman at lkleinman@waterfrontalliance.org.

Meet some Partners of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance:

UES trash barge (finally) comes in
"After years of unsuccessful challenges to the facility from residents, the city requests bids to build a $190 million waste transfer facility on the East River at East 91st Street. Some call it a catastrophe."
Crain's New York Business, January 25, 2012

In a Plan to Close a Customs Post, Seeing Harm for Beer, Bananas and a Port Itself
"...Customs officials intend to shut down their inspection station at the Red Hook terminal; the closing would force companies to unload thousands of containers a year and deliver the cargo by truck to another terminal equipped with a customs inspection station, either in New Jersey or on Staten Island..."
The New York Times, January 24, 2012

Energy Turbines May Be Spinning in New York's East River by 2013
"...The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday awarded closely held Verdant Power Inc. of New York the agency's first license for a tidal-energy project, which will generate power from turbines to be installed on the river's floor..."
Bloomberg, January 23, 2012

 New Boathouse On Tap for Newtown Creek Kayakers
"...The North Brooklyn Boat Club expects to bring about 30 canoes and kayaks to a slice of land by the Pulaski Bridge at Ash Street this coming May..."
DNA Info, January 17, 2012

Charles M. Haar Dies at 91; Used Courts to Clean Boston Harbor
"...Mr. Haar said the courts were indispensable in solving what was known as the tragedy of the commons. Though the harbor belonged in principle to everyone, 'no single entity felt duty-bound to care for it,' he wrote in 'Mastering Boston Harbor: Courts, Dolphins, and Imperiled Waters' (2005). Thus it was being lost to all. 'The energetic judicial response to prior legislative inertia was the most extraordinary and precedent-setting feature of Boston Harbor's journey from a national disgrace to a symbol of national pride.'..."
The New York Times, January 17, 2012
      

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