| Low Tide 2:53am | High Tide 8:33am | Low Tide 3:14pm | High Tide 9:02pm* |
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For a map of vessels navigating the NY/NJ waterways at this moment, check marinetraffic.com.
Tide times above are for the waters off Port Ivory, Howland Hook, on March 9, 2012. For your waterfront's daily tides,
go to saltwatertides.com.
For information about environmental conditions (currents, water temperature, salinity, wave height, etc.) of the New York Harbor area, check the Urban Ocean Observatory at Stevens Institute's Center for Maritime Systems
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Events on the Waterfront
Click on the links for more
information about these events.
A detailed calendar of events
may be found at www.waterfrontalliance.org/calendar |
March 15
Lecture: Commissioning Your Boat for Spring
6p, Soldiers', Sailors', Marines', Coast Guard and Airmen's Club, 283 Lexington Ave. @ 37th St.
Fundraiser: Comedy Night Benefiting Hackensack Riverkeeper
7p, Redd's Restaurant and Bar, 317 Washington Ave., Carlstadt, NJ
March 16
NYC Council Committee on Waterfronts
1p, 250 Broadway, 14th floor
March 20
Fundraiser: Oyster Hour to Benefit NY/NJ Baykeeper in partnershp with the Waterkeeper Alliance
6:30p, 92Y, 200 Hudson St.
March 22
S.W.I.M. Coalition Meeting
3p, Hudson River Foundation, 17 Battery Place
March 23-25
Paddlesport 2012
12p, Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset, New Jersey
March 25
Seashells and Mermaid's Purses
2p, Great Kills Park, Staten Island
March 26
Meeting: City of Water Day Kick-Off
6p, South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street
March 31
NYC Audubon Early Spring Bird Walk
10a, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center
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Join Our List
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CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
| Have a boat to sell? A maritime job opening to post? Place your free water-related classified ad in WaterWire. Contact asimko@waterfrontalliance.org
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| CONTENTS: March 9, 2012 | Don't Flush Me
A new invention shows great promise
Last Chance to Comment on the City/State Plan for Newtown Creek
Send comments by end of the day today, Friday, March 9
Newark Releases Passaic Riverfront Plan
Public information session on March 13
Find out at this special seminar on March 14
EPA Expands Citizen Science Program
Apply for $125,000 in grants now!
Scrubbed, polished, repaired -- and almost ready for visitors
Shipshooter Gets Iconic Shot of a Maiden Arrival
Disney Fantasy visits
Meet Some MWA Partners!
Newslinks
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DON'T FLUSH ME
| | Simple Water Quality Technology Gets Attention
Imagine this: you walk into the bathroom and turn on the light -- and one bulb is glowing red. You know this means that your section of the city's sewer system is being overloaded at that moment. You also know that if you choose to cut your shower short or delay flushing your toilet, you will personally reduce not only the amount of wastewater flowing into the sewer system but also the chance of a combined sewer overflow (CSO) into the city's waterway.
This is how Leif Percifield's DontFlushMe works, with simple technology that transmits information about water levels during a storm from sensors at CSO locations directly to people's homes. "In my research, it's one to one," Mr. Percifield says. "Every gallon of water you don't put down the drain won't get flushed into the harbor. It's your water; you can make the choice not to take a long shower."
Mr. Percifield, a graduate student at Parsons, started working on DontFlushMe about a year about. He is in discussions with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection about installing sensors at CSO locations. He has raised money for sensor parts on the fundraising site ioby, and is working with waterfront and boating groups such as the NYC Water Trail Association and the S.W.I.M. Coalition.
 Last year, Rob Buchanan of the Water Trail Association rowed Mr. Percifield down Brooklyn's Wallabout Channel to survey CSO sites. "At close to low tide we were able to inspect the CSOs as well as a good number of unmarked pipes and tunnels that empty into the channel," Mr. Percifield wrote on the DontFlushMe site. 
"Our little boat was too tall to enter the NCB-014 CSO but we successfully rowed into NCB-013 to the north. The tide gate was clearly accessible as were some side tunnels."
Mr. Percifield keeps web site visitors well informed of his research, fundraising and tinkering. Here's one post: "The larger Pelican 1200 series case... will make room for all the batteries that I'll be using, 12 D cells. I modified the case to attach the new ultrasonic rangefinder that I received from Sparkfun. The new sensor has a 25 foot range with 1cm accuracy! It's also IP67 certified, means it's tougher than s***. Also I added a plug to attach a door sensor for the flood gate. This should alert me when the flood gates actually open to allow for calibration of the range finder."
"I've been a water user my whole life," Mr. Percifield told WaterWire, recalling how boating as a child on Atlanta waterways influenced his adult work. "As a kid, I recognized water quality problems. The City of Atlanta was disharging wastewater into was being used as drinking water by the downstream community and I watched as it became a big priority for the city to clean it up."
 Mr. Percifield has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for funding to make more sensors (right). Get the latest details on DontFlushMe when he discusses the project at the monthly S.W.I.M. Coalition meeting on March 22, 3pm to 5pm, at the Hudson River Foundation (17 Battery Place, 9th floor). At the same meeting, Kate Zidar of the Newtown Creek Alliance will be presenting Weather in the Watershed, a project to install weather stations at public sites to monitor rainfall and predict CSO activity.
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NEWTOWN CREEK PLAN: LAST CHANCE TO COMMENT
| | Local Residents Question DEP/DEC Aeration Idea
Today, Friday, March 9, is the last day the public may comment on a proposal to improve the water quality of Newtown Creek. The plan is from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. At a February 22 public meeting, representatives from the DEP and DEC presented the Newtown Creek Waterbody/Watershed (WB/WS) Facility Plan, the final step before a Long Term Control Plan is completed. 
Newtown Creek, bordered by Brooklyn on one side and Queens on the other, is polluted from years of industrial use and sewage discharges. "Combined sewer overflow (CSO) contributes an estimated 1.5 billion gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater to Newtown Creek annually, conveyed from a vast upland watershed through 23 permitted CSO outfalls throughout the creek," notes Kate Zidar on the Newtown Creek Alliance (NCA) blog. "The vast majority of CSO -- over 90% -- is discharged from just five of these outfalls."
Its goal to reduce CSO incidents, the DEC/DEP plan focuses on infrastructure such as "bending weirs" that increase the height of the sewer to prolong the time before sewage is discharged, nets to catch garbage, and an aeration system that would add oxygen to the stagnant waterway and improve the environment for fish, much like a bubbler in a fish tank. Local residents and environmental advocates are concerned, however. Critics say the plan aims for the lowest water quality standard possible in a waterway used already by some intrepid citizens for fishing, canoeing and kayaking. More sewage is allowed to be discharged into the creek since the last plan was released in 2005. The largest expense of the project, $115 million, is for the aeration system to reduce dissolved oxygen levels.  In an effort to bring these and larger issues of NYC water quality to the public's attention, Riverkeeper and NCA hosted an event at Brooklyn Brewery on March 5. More than 60 residents came out to hear presentations about Riverkeeper's thorough data collection in and around the Hudson and NCA's critique of the Newtown Creek WS/WS Plan.
Many of these concerned residents will be commenting on the plan. If you would like to comment, send an email to Gary Kline, of the DEC, by end of the day tomorrow. Additional coverage may be found here: http://www.greenpointnews.com/news/4274/decdep-plan-has-residents-asking-for-more http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2012/03/06/theres-something-in-the-water-shit-say-local-environmental-groups
By Will Elkins
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| NEWARK'S RIVER ACCESS AND REDEVELOPMENT PLAN PRESENTED | | Public Session on March 13; Comments Due March 26
The City of Newark has just released revised riverfront zoning regulations for building along the Passaic Riverfront. The new rules replace 50-year-old laws primarily planned for industrial uses with a legal framework that allows new mixed uses, consolidates design standards to create valuable urban places, and provides for public access. Click here to download the draft plan.
A public information session is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13, 6pm at City Hall (920 Broad Street). Written public comments are requested by March 26. Send comments to Damon Rich, Chief Urban Designer, at richda@ci.newark.nj.us or at 920 Broad Street, Room 407, Newark, NJ 07102.
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SPECIAL SEMINAR ON A CRITICAL ISSUE FACING NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY HARBOR
| |  Find Out the Results of General Electric's PCB Remedial Dredging Upriver, and the Relevance to New York Harbor
The Hudson River Foundation will host a seminar on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green on the first year of the Phase 2 remedial dredging of the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site. The Superfund site stretches much of the length of the Hudson River -- almost 200 miles from Hudson Falls to the Battery -- and touches 14 New York counties and two counties in New Jersey.
Walter Mugdan, Director of the Emergency and Remedial Response Division at the Region 2 office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will present a summary of the first year of the Phase 2 dredging operation, completed by the General Electric Company in November 2011, and the EPA's findings to date. Phase 2 is expected to take 5 to 7 years.
In addition, Kevin Farrar, the Hudson River Project Manager for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), will discuss the impacts of last year's floods on the Superfund site.
According to the Hudson River Foundation, "the upriver PCB issue is critically linked to past, present, and future conditions of the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary. The Contamination Assessment and Reduction Project (CARP) found the Superfund site to be the dominant external source of PCBs to the Harbor Estuary and, through modeling, concluded that if loadings were to continue at current levels, sediments in most of the Harbor Estuary would continue to remain contaminated by dredged material ocean disposal standards for the next three decades. This seminar will provide important information about progress and decisions being made now that will affect future conditions in the Harbor Estuary."
The March 14 seminar, 3pm to 5pm, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. Please RSVP in advance (212-483-7667 or info@hudsonriver.org).
"It's important for the waterfront community to get an update on PCBs," said Dennis Suszkowski of the Hudson River Foundation. "This is one of the most critical issues affecting the Hudson River and New York Harbor." |
EPA EXPANDS CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAM
| | Agency Offers Grants to Individuals and Community Groups
Via its Citizen Science program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will award $125,000 for five to 10 New York City projects that tackle air or water pollution problems.
The local Citizen Science program has become so successful, with community groups providing important environmental data to the EPA through the years, that one of the agency's priorities is to expand the program and provide tools, education and training to further empower communities.
"Community residents and organizations can provide invaluable insight into pollution problems in their communities and the best ways to reduce air and water pollution," said Judith Enck, EPA regional administrator. "By providing citizen scientists with the funding needed to advance their knowledge about local air and water pollution, the EPA is expanding its own scientific base and building collaborations with communities that will lead to effective and innovative solutions."
Send applications for a Citizen Science grant to www.grants.gov by 5pm on April 20; the EPA also requests an informal notice of intent to apply by March 30 to Paula Zevin.
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AMBROSE COMES HOME
| | Historic LIghtship will Reopen to the Public Later this Spring
If this historic lightship, built in 1907, looks much younger in her coat of glossy red paint, it's because Ambrose just returned to the South Street Seaport Museum after a two-month make-over at Staten Island's Caddell Dry Dock and Repair.
Ambrose also received repairs to her steel hull plating and an application of high-build epoxy to her underbody.
For more than 20 years, until 1932, Ambrose was stationed in the Ambrose Channel, a Coast Guard beacon guiding vessels in the dense shipping channel as they approached New York Harbor. She is one in a series of lightships named Ambrose; the first was established near Sandy Hook in 1823.
South Street Seaport Museum acquired this Ambrose in 1968, and in 1989 she was declared a National Historic Landmark. Back in her familiar berth at Pier 16, she will reopen to the public later this spring.
By Caroline Press. Photo by Robert Simko
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DISNEY FANTASY
| | | When You Wish Upon a Star...
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| WATERFRONT NEWSLINKS |
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As river health improves, recreation opportunities increase for South Bergen"With the mild winter in the past and spring approaching, local groups, organizations and agencies are gearing up for another season of recreation opportunities along the two rivers to the east and west of South Bergen communities..."South Berganite, March 8, 2012 Group Seeks Community's Input on Plan to Build 9-Mile Bronx Greenway"...In recent years, the city has started to transform a few derelict stretches of Bronx shoreline into parks and trails..."DNA Info, March 8, 2012 Jean-George's Lobster Shack Dreams Sinking With Old Staten Island Ferry"For anyone who was excited by the prospect of a Jean-Georges Vongerichten lobster shack aboard the old Staten Island ferry, it looks like that ship has sailed (or sunk, rather)..."The Huffington Post, March 8, 2012 Restoration Project in Jamaica Bay Moves Ahead"...Approximately 375,000 cubic yards of clean sand from the Ambrose Channel deepening project is beneficially being used to restore 42 acres of marsh at the Yellow Bar Hassock marsh island. The Marsh Islands Complex is an integral part of Jamaica Bay, targeted for restoration by the Army Corps, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, National Park Service (Gateway), New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State National Resources Conservation Service, the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program and many other stakeholders..."Dredging Today, March 5, 2012 Down by the river: Which developers are jumping on government deals to remake the waterfront?"In real estate, waterfront views are gold. But for decades, much of New York City's waterfront has been home to industrial sites that have been inaccessible to the general public - and to real estate developers. That's changed a lot under the Bloomberg administration, which has put waterfront development at the top of its agenda..."The Real Deal, March 1, 2012 Seals Downstream from NYC"...On remote beaches and exposed sandbars located downstream from one of the busiest and bustling harbors in the United States, harbor seals and others like grey, harp or hooded seals can be seen in Sandy Hook Bay..."The Atlantic Herald, January 28, 2012
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