Gotham Gazette

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In the News: A Ban on Jet Skis?


They're fast, furious, they're loud, they're dirty -- a threat to the environment, a menace to wildlife, and, increasingly, a danger to human beings.

That is how more and more people are seeing personal watercraft.

"Call them Jet Skis, Waverunners, Sea Doos, Waterbikes or Water Scooters, they're all personal watercraft," according to the website of the Personal Watercraft Industry Association.

Kawasaki introduced the Jet Ski, the first commercially successful personal watercraft (or PWC) in 1974. There are now more than a million in the United States, manufactured mostly by five companies. And they are increasingly under attack.

Responding to the complaints, many federal, state and local authorities are taking action. The National Park Service banned them from most of its parks this spring, And now, right before Labor Day, Governor George E. Pataki signed a law that will allow local governments to decide whether or not to ban personal watercraft on New York's waterways.

It might be difficult for the landlocked to understand how so much outrage, condemnation and government regulation could be directed at something that's supposed to be fun.

But the statistics provide the answer: In 1993, there were 26 deaths throughout the nation connected to these watercraft according to a 1998 report from the National Transportation Safety Board. By 1997, the number of annual deaths had increased to 83. Unlike other pleasure craft, these deaths were not caused primarily by drowning, but by "blunt force trauma" - collisions, accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of injuries connected to personal watercraft was 8.5 times higher than the rate of injuries from motorboats

In New York State, while these craft comprise less than ten percent of the state's registered boats, they are involved in nearly 30 percent of all accidents, according to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Prserveation.

"Controlling jet-skiers is one of our biggest safety concerns," says Emilio Velazquez, of the New York State Parks Police, which operates in city waters. In the last year, over 300 citations were given to recreational users, mostly powerboats. Over a third went to jet-skiers. The charges were as minor as inadequate markings, but also included operating too close to other vessels, or too close to swimmers.

A recent scan of local water-oriented list serves detail clashes. A kayaker wrote of being "buzzed" off Liberty State Park by a four-person Jet Ski. The kayaker called for more enforcement and prosecution. While highly stable in general, kayaks can be easily swamped by the wake given off by the powerful motors of personal watercraft. According to list serve writers, along Brighton Beach and Coney Island, jet skiers "pass the white markers, at least once a day - weaving among the swimmers".

Recognizing that recreational user conflict is partly a matter of education, city and state agencies have introduced mandatory courses in water safety aimed at new or young power watercraft users. Eventually, all users will fall under the new regulations that will be phased in by 2004.

The personal watercraft industry agrees with the need for education, regulation and enforcement, as do advocates of diverse recreation. Shared use of the water's refuge only works if all users obey the rules. To obey the rules, one must know the rules. The rules ought to reflect today's shoreline scene, a place of peace, refuge and fun for swimmers, paddlers, sailors, fishermen, pedestrians - and powerboats too, when they respect the rights of others less powerful.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

City Beaches: Safe for Swimming?


There was a time when a hot-dog vendor working on the beach at Coney Island could sell 250,000 hot dogs in one day.

That, at least, is what one of them told Sergey Fedorovskiy recently. Fedorovskiy is a lifeguard at Manhattan Beach for the summer and a student in computer science at Staten Island College the rest of the year. On a recent Friday, the small beach next to Fedorovskiy's chair had maybe 50 people spread out on blankets and beach chairs. Only a dozen or so were getting wet. Few were eating hot dogs.

So far this summer six million people have set foot on one of the city's seven beaches3Orchard Beach in the Bronx, Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, the Rockaways in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach and Wolfe's Pond in Staten Island. But last summer the attendance was much higher, approximately 10 million by the end of August, according to the New York City Department of Parks.

For the three years that he has been a lifeguard, Fedorovskiy has noticed the number of beach-goers dwindling.

"It could be the ecology," he speculates. "The water's not that clean. Or maybe it's the neighborhood or the maintenance of the beach."

A few years ago, needles were washing up on the city's shores, millions of gallons of sewage regularly colored the waters and popular beaches were declared off-limits to swimmers. How safe is it today to swim at New York City beaches? How clean is the water? A lifeguard shortage was announced at the beginning of the season. Did it affect the safety of the beaches? And is the West Nile virus discouraging people from getting into their swimsuits?

WOES OF A SINGLE SYSTEM:

It rained heavily this summer and heavy rains can mean sewage run-off into our beaches. New York City's sewage pipes are combined with stormwater runoff pipes in a single system. In the event of heavy rains, the additional rainwater can cause run-off of untreated sewage into the city waterways.

A report released last week by the Natural Resources Defense Council, "Testing the Waters, 2000: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches" faulted New York City for not making greater efforts to inform the public about combined sewage runoff and its relation to heavy rainfall

Brooklyn and Bronx beaches are tested weekly by the New York City Department of Health, and the Rockaways once every two weeks. But even when levels exceed the standards, the public is not notified, says Mark Dorfman who authored the Natural Resources Defense Council report.

The New York City Department of Health responded that there is an ongoing wet-weather advisory posted on some Bronx beaches warning bathers of the dangers of going in the water should rainfall exceed certain amounts. These amounts vary by borough because of the sewage infrastructure (see Wet Weather Advisory chart). This advisory can also be found at the Department of Health's website.

Wet Weather Advisory:
Private Beaches, Eastchester Bay area, BRONX
Refrain from swimming in the water for 48 hours following rains greater than .2 inches in two hours or .4 inches in 24 hours

Manhattan Beach, BROOKLYN
South and Midland Beach, STATEN ISLAND:
Refrain from swimming in the water for 12 hours following rains greater than 1 - 1.5 inches in 6 hours in previous 24 hours

 

According to the National Weather Service, precipitation in the city for the month of July (August not yet available) exceeded the safe rainfall standards on several days. Though the city has not yet released how many beaches were closed this year, they said that none of them were closed due to sewage. But the last year figures were available (1998), 59 beaches were closed either because bacteria levels were exceeded or there was a known "sewage release."

TESTING THE WATERS:

The Natural Resources Defense Council also criticized New York City, and all but one county of New York State (Niagara), for their testing process that uses fecal coliforms (found in human waste) as the indicator of potential disease causing organisms in the water. The EPA recommended in 1986 that the presence of enterococcus organisms be used as the indicator instead of fecal coliforms because their presence is most often linked disease-causing organisms. A bill is presently making its way through the Senate and Congress to make the EPA recommendation mandatory for all states. "You can't test for every possible disease causing organism," said Dorfman, "but enterococcus is the better indicator of contamination of swimming waters."

John Gadd, a spokesperson for the Department of Health maintained that fecal coliforms were an effective and efficient indicator of the presence of bacteria. "Coliforms are always present in waters that have too much sewage," Gadd explained.

In addition to water testing, the Department of Health monitors sanitary conditions on the beaches. They would also conduct epidemiological investigations in the event of an outbreak of disease caused by unsafe waters, "which to my knowledge has not happened," assured Gadd.

ENHANCED BEACH PROTECTION:

Meanwhile, the City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is applauding the efforts of its own Enhanced Beach Protection Program that monitors, analyzes and performs preventative maintenance on the wastewater facilities and sewage bypass outlets near City beaches during summer months.

According to the DEP's soon to be released Harbor Water Quality Survey of 1999, DEP found fecal coliform bacteria to have decreased from 2000 cells per 100 milligrams to levels below 100 cells per 100 milligrams from 1974 to present.

OTHER HAZARDS:

The last report of needles washing ashore was in 1998 and the Department of Parks was not aware of any more recent appearances. "The beaches are very clean" said Amy Chiu, a spokesperson at Parks and Recreation, "and we are taking good care of them."

Perhaps anxiety over the West Nile Virus contributed to the reduced numbers at the beaches, but if so, needlessly. "The types of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus are most active from dusk to dawn," explained Gadd from the Department of Health. The precautions to cover up only apply to those hours.

Swimming after dusk can also be hazardous. A mother and her six-year old daughter drowned while swimming after seven at night at Rockaway Beach on June 25th. The lifeguards go off-duty at six. And an 11-year old boy also drowned this summer on a private beach in the Rockaways outside the city's jurisdiction. There was no lifeguard.

LIFEGUARD AS PAYBACK:

Fear of a lifeguard shortage at the beginning of the season sparked a massive recruitment effort outside of the city, including a call to "able bodied American's everywhere: Don't you owe New York something for all it's done for you," mentioning fashion, Broadway and Seinfeld as good reasons to "give back" and become a lifeguard. Although the Department of Parks couldn't say how many lifeguards they employed from out of town, apparently this effort paid off and all the beaches were covered.

It was starting to look like rain again as Sergey Fedorovskiy was relieved from his lifeguard chair. He stretched out for his break on a reclining lounger at the foot of the lifeguard station. "We like the rain," he said, and smiled, as he closed his eyes. Fewer people at the beaches make at least some people happy.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

The City's Crowded Waterways


Giant oil tankers, passenger ferries, freight ships laden with Toyotas all navigate the narrow channels of New York's harbor. So, increasingly, do sail boats, jet skiers and kayaks.

The waters are not always calm between the traditional commercial and the new recreational users. "You can not see them until it is almost too late", says one tugboat veteran of the kayaks and jet-skies. "They seem to steer right toward us", said one kayaker of the ferries.

"Everyone has a right to use the waterways," says Chip Lopez. "Kayakers have just as much right as tug boats."

Lopez is a lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard. He is leading the effort to make sure the recreational and commercial users avoid knocking hulls or knocking heads.

Lieutenant Lopez works closely with the Coast Guard's Vessel Tracking Service, a mostly modern facility tucked into the Fort Wadsworth complex on Staten Island. Computer screens show harbor images to trained Coast Guard officers. Cameras located at critical harbor crunch points send back live pictures. The CG has the resources to watch the big ships and the danger spots. Small vessels and most of the harbor's small waterways are "off the radar screen."

Adam Brown, president of the not-for-profit Working Waterfront Association, works to balance a rising tide of usage with the traditional ways and routines. "Pleasure craft are the smallest, least maritime educated and fastest moving users", he notes. Mr. Brown has entered the fray between kayakers and ferryboats, jet skiers and container ships, maritime tradition and recreational freedom.

Brown observes that "this is the smoke before the fire". Commercial traffic is up. Pleasure use is rapidly emerging. "We need to educate and we need to plan". Brown supports efforts to educate users by promulgating nighttime lighting schemes for small boats and creating color-coded harbor maps showing the shipping channels. A test program to identify conflict points has been proposed.

While safety is the primary mission of the responsible authorities, enforcement is also necessary. The Coast Guard, the New York State Marine Police and the New York City Police Department Harbor Units share jurisdiction. None of the entities has adequate resources resulting, in gaps in enforcement. The mix of federal, state, and city waterfront regulations lead to overlap and confusion. The harbor itself is vast. New users are untrained in maritime practice.

On a recent afternoon, million gallons of oil headed through the Arthur Kill even as a dozen kayakers paddled on a free boat trip to the Statue of Liberty. On this trip, their routes did not cross.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

In The News: Trashing the Littoral


Few New Yorkers are aware that the waterfront begins at their doorstep. In fact, the quality of City beaches and water is related to consumption and use of water at home. City streets connect to the waterways through catch basin, storm drain and combined sewer systems. A cigarette butt casually tossed to the ground in Manhattan can wind up in a wildlife refuge in Brooklyn or on a Staten Island or Queens beach. Motor oil dumped in a catch basin in the Bronx can find its way to Manhattan shores. Everyday actions of New Yorkers, many of whom rarely think of the City's waters, affect City shores dramatically.

According to Andrew Willner, of the New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, "industrial and institutional polluters were the biggest threat to the waterways." "Now," he stresses, "'non-point sources' are the most significant water discharge issue we face." Non-point sources include easily disposed items such as paper trash, oil products, plastics, dog feces (scooped and then dropped down a catch basin) and cigarette butts.

On a visit to the marshes of Bayside's Little Neck Bay, cigarettes float in abundance alongside fluttering plastic bags and bottles bobbing on the tide. The marsh is urban habitat for turtles, bullfrogs, red fox, geese, swans and striped bass. "Over 320 species of birds live in or migrate through the area" says Lora Harris of the nearby Alley Pond Environmental Center. The floating pollution migrates from the Long Island Sound and from catch basins in Northern Queens. These 'floatables' become caught in the wetlands' high marsh grasses. Though jostled by the tides, the trash accumulates becoming a threat to wildlife as well as an eyesore.

The Bronx River, the City's only true fresh water stream, is afflicted with extraordinary accumulations of trash that detract from the considerable natural beauty of that scenic, canopied watercourse. In water that ducks, herons and muskrat call home, Snapple bottles, Dunkin Donuts Styrofoam and Burger King paper form a trash flotilla.

Not content to let their nascent canoe route be befouled, fifty civic groups and government agencies including the Department of Parks, Partnership for Parks, Bronx River Restoration and The Point Community Development Corporation have organized clean-up efforts and river festivals. Presently, they are attempting to create boat launches at key river sites. Urban Park Rangers offer canoe lessons and tours (800-201-PARKS) focused on water safety.

Such efforts publicize the improbable amenity that is the Bronx River. These actions create access for nature lovers and for recreation. Trash ranging from junk food wrappers to junked cars is being removed. Jenny Hoffner, coordinator of the Bronx River Working Group, described the work. "Last year, we removed eighty tons of debris and twenty-seven cars. Twenty-two blockages were also removed." Eleven community groups have now adopted stretches of the river ensuring ongoing stewardship. According to Ms. Hoffner, "Partnering has been phenomenal. The Parks Department has been instrumental."

In Jamaica Bay, residents also face a complex challenge though in a much larger ecosystem. The issues include beach cleanliness, bay water quality, commercial and recreational fishing, wastewater flows, wildlife protection and dune erosion. Recently, on a Jamaica Bay list serve, residents and organizations prepared for beach clean-ups, trash awareness campaigns with elected officials and public education about the link between storm drains and the shores. An educational conference on litter has also been proposed. According to Shino Tanikawa of the NYC Soil and Water Conservation District, a clean up of the bay's many abandoned boats will kick-off on June 10th.

Some list serve participants have suggested a renewal of abandoned efforts to stencil catch basins throughout the city as part of a floatables educational campaign. Stenciling drains, under permits granted by the Department of Environmental Protection, alerts passers-by to the connection between the street and the sea. Stenciling also aims to deter dumping of motor oil and restaurant grease by would-be polluters.

Peter Sounds Off:

There used to be a bumper sticker that read "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance." The average New Yorker lacks awareness of the waterways that surround the City and his or her role in protecting them. In this highly urban environment, it is easy to forget that New York is encompassed by a natural world. The water itself is an amenity offering open space, recreation, and alongside its industrial and infrastructural roles. City shores offer wildlife refuges, beaches, parks, and marinas serving a multitude of urban purposes.

Managing the City's shores and waterways for multiple use must be the goal of the responsible city, state and federal agencies. In particular, City Parks, DEP, the NYS Department of Conservation (the agency with enforcement power) and the National Park Service should expand efforts to make the public aware of ITS role in protecting these valuable water and shore resources. Prevention is far less expensive than remediation.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

In The News: Pier Pressure


In recent weeks, while the weather still spoke more of winter than spring, the Hudson River Park Trust severed a number of Hudson River piers. With little fanfare, HRPT contractors cut a fifteen-foot slice out of three piers thereby creating three long flat islands off the coast of the West Side. It's been a long time since Manhattan was made smaller.

West Manhattan is not the only city coast where access to the waterfront is at risk. In neighborhoods surrounding Jamaica Bay, local residents are warily watching a State proposed plan to place contaminated dredge spoils in bay waters. The Bay's Channels have unused depth creating space on the bottom for unwanted muck. Bay residents, protectors and users fear for the health and safety of that diverse waterway and wildlife refuge.

In the South Bronx, the City is rebuilding the Tiffany Street pier. Its predecessor, an innovative plastic pier built five years ago, burned after a lightning hit only two years after it opened. The City promises to re-open the pier for the summer of 2000. During the two years the plastic pier was operational, it was a heavily used community resource. It was also the only place along more than eight miles of Bronx coast where residents of the South Bronx could access their shores. Along that lengthy stretch an industrial iron curtain severs half a million people from water's edge.

Access to the water's edge has markedly improved at two sites in the Brooklyn harbor. At Red Hook, a new pier at the end of Coffey Street offers its users a fine view of the Statue of Liberty. Alongside the pier is a small sand beach -- one of a very few harbor sites from which kayakers and other small boats can access the harbor. The return of small boat access reconnects New York City to hundreds of years of its maritime past. In Brooklyn, the 69th Street Pier is being rebuilt. Opening is expected for the summer of 2000.

Fort Totten, in Northeastern Queens is at the other end of the City. This 120-acre waterfront site is a former U.S. Army Base. Though the Army is mostly gone, the base is largely closed to the public. Almost entirely surrounded by water, Fort Totten includes the "Old Fort", an abandoned nineteenth-century fortification set into the highest point along the Queens shore. The forts, old and new have commanding views of the East River and Long Island Sound.

A Reuse Plan for Fort Totten would provide public access to some of the old base. Plans suggest making 35-50 acres public open space. Access to the base' waterfront esplanade, to the bluff that encompasses the "old fort", and to the docks or small boat launching sites near the existing parking lot would create a fine waterfront amenity.

Peter Sounds Off:

Not since the glaciers rearranged Manhattan has any force voluntarily eliminated real estate on that valuable and crowded island (Marble Hill may be the exception). Never mind that HRPT says that the piers will be rebuilt in just a few years. Manhattan is now smaller. Its links to the sea have become more tenuous. Many West Side residents are nervous about the Trust's commitments and funding. Many regret having to wait for years.

Piers are traditional and obvious link to the water. Severing them reduces waterfront access while increasing crowding on the already cramped shorefront esplanades. In this bustling metropolis, access to the waterfront for fishing, strolling, sunbathing, boating, solitude or open space is an antidote to urban ills and a catalyst for the imagination.

The good news is, providing access is relatively inexpensive, and is often a capital expense. Lightning aside, piers, bulkheads, esplanades and beaches last for a very long time, needing little in the way of ongoing maintenance.

Waterfront space, in all boroughs, is heavily used and appreciated. Uses tend toward the creative. Recently, I saw two running dogs take their leash-holding rollerboarding owner for a West Side esplanade stroll. Such accessible waterfront space is still limited. Thus, in the Bronx, fishermen walk out on rock jetties surrounding landfills to find solitude.

The City has a great deal of idle or inaccessible waterfront on the slow track toward beneficial use. With the land and streets safer and the water markedly cleaner, it is time to accelerate and fund access to this unique and timeless source of urban quality of life.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

 

Solid Waste


THE LOWDOWN:

Until the mid-1980s, New York City disposed of virtually all of its garbage locally: burying it in landfills or burning it in incinerators. Since then, with time running out local landfills and new incinerators rejected as environmentally unacceptable, New York has been transitioning to a system of exporting its garbage to distant, rural landfills. Virtually all of the City's commercial garbage, which is collected by private carters, is now exported. And a steadily increasing percentage (now over 50%) of the residential garbage collected by the Department of Sanitation is now being exported as well. By the end of 2001, when the City's last landfill, Staten Island's infamous Fresh Kills, closes, NYC will export 100% of its residential garbage.

Exporting garbage requires a new infrastructure facility: the transfer station, where collected garbage is consolidated and transferred to long distance trucks. There are now roughly 100 such facilities for commercial garbage citywide, and they are generally loathed by the residents of the industrially zoned neighborhoods like Greenpoint where they are concentrated. The closing of Fresh Kills will require an additional system of transfer stations for residential garbage.

In many ways, New York's solid waste management has had a very successful decade. Recycling is up, the cost of commercial waste disposal is down, incineration has been abandoned, Fresh Kills is on the way to being closed, and out of City landfills are accepting the City's garbage with a minimum of difficulty. The City has transitioned to an export system of garbage without the disposal crisis many predicted.

But the transfer station system works badly and faces ongoing attack. Unlike other integral components of the City's infrastructure, which at some fundamental level are accepted and accommodated, even after a decade transfer stations continue to be regarded as illegitimate temporary expedients. The problem is that New York has been unable to make its newest infrastructure system work except by allowing transfer stations to externalize their very high social, environmental and financial costs - costs that are disproportionately paid by working class and lower income communities.

THE TRANSFER STATION PROBLEM

Transfer stations handling commercial waste have brought to their local communities major odor, noise and traffic problems. They are frequently a major obstacle to community renewal efforts, while their concentration in lower income neighborhoods, often ones with large populations of people of color, is raising growing issues of environmental justice and fair share.

City and state solid waste planning and permitting processes have done little more than mitigate the worst transfer station impacts. Oversight agencies have been hobbled by their recognition that transfer stations have become an essential component of the City's infrastructure and by their resulting fears that aggressive regulatory enforcement would disrupt the outward flow of garbage. The governmental memory of New York's two garbage strikes and streets filled with rotting garbage remains vivid and frightening.

(NO) MORE TRANSFER STATIONS

13,000 tons of commercial garbage now move through transfer stations each day. 15,000 tons more of residential garbage will have to go through transfer stations once Fresh Kills is closed in 2001.

To create this capacity while avoiding the perils of siting the new transfer facilities itself, New York City has issued a series of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for private waste entities to ship specified amounts of garbage out of the City, with the understanding being that the private entity would either establish a new transfer station or expand an existing one.

Unfortunately, the problems associated with transfer stations, and the lack of confidence in government oversight of them, has spawned bitter local opposition to many of these private sector efforts. Two battles in particularly are currently energizing opposition to the transfer station system - one in Red Hook and the other at Hunts Point in the South Bronx.

These and other battles have divided neighborhoods and pitted borough against borough and New York against New Jersey. The resulting stalemates have forced the City into a series of short term contracts to directly truck waste across the river to New Jersey disposal sites and transfer stations, which has greatly increased the cost of solid waste disposal and garbage-related truck traffic.

GOVERNMENT VS. COMMUNITY

The transfer station system evolved through individual ad hoc decisions, as private garbage collectors went into industrially zoned areas and set up on the cheapest, most immediately convenient sites. These operations were often undercapitalized and environmental concerns like odor control came last. Since this unpromising beginning in the late 80s, regulators have been playing catch-up, with marginal success.

Government's failures to solve the transfer station problem are rooted in two major fears. The first is the fear of regulators that aggressive enforcement could cause too many transfer stations to close, with unwelcome consequences for the smooth flow of garbage out of the City. And second, government has also feared that overly active enforcement role would leave it with the dread responsibility for siting transfer stations. Even having the unequivocal ability to prevent transfer station siting has been seen as something for government to avoid, for community opposition would almost certainly embroil sanitation and environmental agencies in an endless series of siting conflicts that governments perceive would be lose-lose choices that could similarly threaten smooth garbage export.

If government policy toward transfer stations is problematic, so too are community and civic efforts to reform transfer station management. First, many of these efforts have pursued essentially process strategies: better solid waste planning and regulatory enforcement, and genuine consideration of issues such as environmental justice and fair share. But after a decade of such efforts, the continuing persistence of transfer station problems demonstrates that process strategies alone cannot overcome the inherent governmental fears.

Second, advocacy efforts have generally had limited or single target goals: block a particular facility, improve recycling, address fair share, etc. But from a citywide perspective, even when such efforts succeed, they simply push the impacts elsewhere.

Third, advocates and critics of transfer station management have never developed a real systematic alternative to the existing system. Advocates also have political realities that dictate caution. They are wary of accepting involvement in site selection, or of being seen as an ambassador for ideas like consolidating residential and commercial garbage that could raise local fears that their neighborhood will wind up getting more garbage. And often, they lack the resources to do anything more than focus on the immediate crisis.

Yet the current folklore that transfer stations are an intrinsic evil needs a major reality check. Like it or not, transfer stations perform a critical environmental and infrastructure function. They are important sources of blue collar employment and light industrial activity, and are critical for preserving public health. The question therefore is not how to get rid of them, but where should they be sited, how should they be run, and what changes in current laws and practices are needed to bring civic peace and resolution to the issue.

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED

So what will it take to create a viable transfer station system? The answer would probably include the following: 1) Obtain agreement on a policy goal of siting transfer stations where they will minimize both local and interstate truck traffic and maximize garbage movement by barge and rail; 2) Combine the currently separate commercial and residential garbage streams to minimize the need for transfer stations; 3) Understand the implications of those concerns for current siting controversies such as Red Hook and AMR in the South Bronx ; 4) Make transfer stations operate in an urban friendly manner; 5) Shut down existing substandard stations as new ones come on line; 6) Determine the role of recycling and waste reduction, and the role of marine transfer stations once they are no longer needed; 8) Lower the rapidly escalating costs of garbage handling; 9) Determine the right division of labor between public and private sectors and assess the current administration's privatization program. These questions should all be answered, and then of course, there remains the task of putting them all together and making the right solution work politically.

THREE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In recent months, some critical local stakeholders have realized that they must go beyond opposing proposed local transfer stations and work as well for an overall solution. Thus, spurred by the Red Hook Civic Association, the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods has proposed that the City consider conversion of its eight marine transfer stations (which are currently used to load garbage into barges for shipment to Fresh Kills) to waste transfer stations once Fresh Kills is closed.

This proposal is appealing because it avoids the complications and community costs of siting new facilities. It is far from a complete solution. Yet the willingness of community interests to recognize the need for an alternative presents a major opportunity to engage community interests in a process of a viable solution. But so far, government interests are responding to this opening in a vague and desultory manner.

Under State law, the City has to modify its solid waste plan to include its program for managing residential garbage post Fresh Kills. The long delayed Draft Environmental Impact Statement for such a plan is supposedly going to be issued by the New York City Department of Sanitation "soon." Since the plan modification must be approved by the City Council, advocates are looking towards using the plan amendment process to raise community concerns over transfer stations, citywide garbage truck traffic increases, and the rising costs of solid waste management. Many advocates see these hearings, if and when they occur, as a first step towards making transfer stations an issue in the 2001 mayoral election.

Third, though citywide civic groups have long been involved with solid waste, most of that involvement has been at the policy planning level or in promoting recycling. Issues of siting have largely been left to local community groups. Now two of the citywide civics, EDF and RPA are actively reaching out to community and environmental justice interests, seeking to forge a local-regional coalition that can put forth a credible alternative program to the existing jerrybuilt transfer station system.

THE OUTLOOK

Only two things seem certain at this time. The first is that the Fresh Kills landfill will close on schedule and the City will be exporting 100% of its solid waste by the end of 2001. Everything else - how it will be done, at what price and with what external impacts - seems up for grabs.

The second certainty is that the issue of solid waste and transfer stations will wind up in the 2001 mayoral race. If the advocates follow the course of the past, then the Mayoral campaign will hear a primal scream of "help us" and the candidates will respond with various pledges to feel your pain and make solid waste planning and regulation work better. There will be improvement at the margins but all the basic problems will remain. But if civic stakeholders can come up with a specific strategy, one that they can make a touchstone of solid waste concern that candidates can safely respond to, then the prospects for finally resolving the transfer station problem and replacing today's motley set of ad hoc facilities with modern, community friendly transfer stations will be greatly improved.

ADDITIONAL PERSPECTIVES

John McGutrick of the Red Hook Civic Association, is a major opponent of Waste Management Inc.'s proposed Red Hook transfer station and a strong force in the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods. Steve Hammer, Co-chair of the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board, writes about the role that recycling should play in lowering the pressures to create transfer stations.

LINKS:

New York City Department of Sanitation - Admired for their operational skill in doing an unattractive job, but without the kinds of planning and community relations skills needed to address the transfer station problem. Also responsible for enforcing transfer station compliance with local solid waste regulation.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation - Oversees the state required solid waste plan development process municipalities are supposed to go through. DEC also grants permits for transfer stations and other solid waste facilities, and enforce state solid waste regulations. Given that the solid waste planning process is designed to insure garbage is disposed of without the external costs of New York's current transfer station system, most regard that as prima facie evidence of DEC failure to properly administer the solid waste planning process.

New York City Council - Must approve the solid waste plan and future amendments to it. The Council has been a strong and effective defender of recycling, but otherwise has yet to carve out for itself a substantial role in formulating solid waste policy.

Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari - Has taken advantage of a Republican Governor and Mayor, and of the critical role he played in getting both elected, to insure Fresh Kills is closed on time and keep new waste facilities on Staten Island to a minimum.

Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer - A major actor in the Hunts Point AMR facility controversy and has been working to develop integrated areawide and citywide solutions to transfer station issues. A voice of reason on the need to recognize that transfer stations are needed and must be properly managed.

Neighbors Against Garbage (NAG) - Greenpoint, Williamsburg based group concerned with the clustering of transfer stations for commercial garbage in the northeastern Brooklyn.

New York Environmental Justice Alliance - Focuses on transfer stations, their siting and their concentration in neighborhoods of low income and color.

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest - Active in providing legal muscle on a number of transfer station issues, including the two leading current controversies, the Red Hook and Hunt's Point facilities.

The Point Community Development Corporation - The community organization in Hunts Point that has led the community opposition in Hunts Point to the AMR facility.

Environmental Defense Fund - Long time environmental force on New York issues thanks to its stalwart Counsel Jim Tripp, is now working actively with local communities on waste transfer issues. A major focus of the EDF effort is exploring combining management of the two main waste streams, commercial and residential garbage, to rationalize facility siting and minimize the number of stations needed.

The Regional Plan Association - Also involved in the issue, driven by waterfront and community renewal concerns. One RPA focus, reflecting its transportation interests, is using the rail system for solid waste export, to minimize truck traffic and help fund the proposed trans-Hudson rail tunnel. RPA is also working on minimizing transfer stations on the waterfront and replacing the current sprawling network of 100 plus transfer stations with a handful of modern facilities modeled on successful overseas best practices that could serve as nodes of local, light industrial redevelopment.

Inform - An environmental organization with a distinguished record in environmental education and analysis, is reportedly preparing a new planning analysis of the potential for local waste reduction.

Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods - A citywide coalition of communities bordering the waterfront that are concerned with conditions of current transfer stations and threats to bring new ones into their communities.

Uprose - A Sunset Park based community organization that is not currently fighting any transfer specific new transfer station proposal but sees the Sunset Park waterfront as a prime target for future garbage management and is determined to head it off.

The Solid Waste Advisory Boards are a borough by borough system of citizen advisory oversight set up by the New York City Department of Sanitation.

The Citywide Recycling Advisory Board is a similar entity focusing on recycling. Currently preparing a Snuff Mill Manifesto on new opportunities for waste reduction and recycling.

 

Recycling Before Exporting: Turning Garbage into Dollars


Amidst all of the turmoil accompanying the City's long overdue closure of its Fresh Kills Landfill, one bit of good news has been overshadowed: in late 1999, the City's diversion rate of recyclables - the most commonly accepted measure of recycling success - surpassed 21% of the City's residential waste. In three boroughs, over 25% of all garbage is now being recycled.

Local Law 19, requiring mandatory recycling, has come a long way since its passage ten years ago. Still a 21% diversion rate is but prelude to two significant challenges still facing the City. First, we must boost diversion rates even higher, so that the existing infrastructure for collecting and processing recyclables is being fully utilized. Second, the City should take maximum advantage of the economic value of what is collected and marketed - by attracting and developing local businesses that create jobs and economic activity.

It's worth noting that the City is exporting not only enormous quantities of residential and commercial trash - more than six million tons each year - but an increasingly large amount of cash, to national waste management and transportation companies, as well as communities that host landfills. Similarly, the bulk of the city's recyclables are also exported - to factories and mills located elsewhere in North America and in the world. These materials then create products that the City's businesses and residents turn around, import and buy.

So what can be done to boost recycling? Several things. First, improve collection of currently targeted materials. Much like the Police Department used ComStat as a tool to identify and target pockets of crime, the Department of Sanitation (DOS) has the data, but not the commitment or resources, to target poor-performing community districts. Returning to weekly collection has helped - nine districts now divert over 30% of their waste. But four districts still languish at 10% or below.

Second, expand the materials targeted for recycling. Look around the country. Other cities are targeting additional "discards" for which economic markets exist, or are developing. From residences, those materials include textiles (used clothing) and electronics; Seattle just added additional plastic containers, such as butter tubs and yogurt cups. Notwithstanding the City's failure to enforce existing commercial recycling rules, used commercial carpeting is on the cusp of being economically viable as a recyclable and should be so designated.

Third, expand recycling collection to public spaces - the last frontier. Currently, New York City Transit flaunts state and local law by refusing to collect recyclables throughout the subway system, and recycling containers should be included in the City's much-delayed plans for new street furniture.

Fourth, although more of a waste prevention initiative, food waste can now easily be eliminated from the City's residential garbage - through an aggressive program to install food waste disposers, i.e., garbage grinders, in residences. Although legal for over two years, disposers have not yet caught on in New York - in part because new housing construction is at historic lows. Yet, food waste is approximately 15% of the city's collected garbage - twice the national average. Reducing food waste also makes sense because it is largely water-based and generates vermin, odor, and methane gas problems at every stop along the way.

As to the economic development potential of recyclables, the City does have one flagship project: the development of the Visy Paper corrugated cardboard mill on Staten Island, which now consumes a good portion of our wastepaper. Unfortunately, the Visy mill is the exception that proves the rule. While New York is the "Saudi Arabia" of recyclables, it has failed to be creative and aggressive in capturing their value.

In fact, New York's enormous volume of wastepaper could supply several more urban-sized mills (for which at least one project is on the drawing board). Other cities are spurring and supporting businesses based on the recycling of tires, computers, carpets, wood, and other materials. Why isn't New York?

The problem isn't lack of studies; previous Sanitation and economic development czars have researched and advocated seizing this opportunity. We also don't lack models for programs; dozens of state and city-supported models exist elsewhere. Perhaps it's a matter of scale: when compared to Wall Street and Silicon Alley, recycling-related opportunities seem small. But for the City's dwindling manufacturing sector, and its residents who rely on those job opportunities, creating recycling-related jobs makes enormous good sense. After all, the raw materials already are here, as are the markets for the new products they can make!

As the debate sharpens over the City's management of solid waste for the coming decades, the opportunities for expanding and benefiting from recycling deserve serious consideration. In the face of estimates of $300 million or more annually in increased waste handling costs once Fresh Kills is closed, it makes no sense to continue unnecessary exports of trash - and hard-earned cash - to economies outside of our border, when they could much more beneficially be recycled and reused here.

Steve Hammer is Co-Chairperson, Citywide Recycling Advisory Board

Transfer Station Siting and Community Quality of Life: The Red Hook Story


In less than two years, Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill, the last in New York City, will close. Creating an alternative system that will manage the post-Fresh Kills disposal of the 13,000 tons of residential garbage the City generates each day presents a tremendous opportunity to rationalize its solid waste management and create opportunity where now there are only problems.

Unfortunately, the Giuliani Administration has not taken advantage of the opportunities this transition offers. There has been no attempt to reduce the waste stream through aggressive recycling, nor to minimize the creation of neighborhood-disrupting new garbage facilities by converting to new uses the existing Marine Transfer Stations that will no longer have a purpose once Fresh Kills closes. Nor has there been any serious exploration of new waste management technologies which might, for instance, convert garbage to pollution reducing ethanol. Instead, the City has allowed a siting process to go forward that does not minimize community impacts, but rather shifts the burden of garbage management from Staten Island residents to poorer, minority neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the South Bronx.

For years, the City has ignored the law and refused to obey siting regulations designed to prevent this conflict producing opportunism. Even after losing in State courts on two occasions, there is still no genuine City compliance with either the specifics or intent of the law. As a result, garbage transfer stations, with their foul odors, noise and vermin, continue to be located next to parks, residences and churches in poor communities. In addition, the number of such facilities that can operate in a given area remains unrestricted.

I live in one of these communities, Red Hook, Brooklyn, which is now targeted for one of the largest waste facilities on the East Coast.

Red Hook is an old waterfront community with a rich, working class history. First settled by the Dutch in 1636, Red Hook was home to tide mills (mills which depended on the ebb and flow of the tide to turn the mill wheels) and later to ships and their support industries. By the Civil War, Red Hook was a thriving community of industrial and residential uses with a population of approximately 23,000. The factories and homes of the mid-19th century, are the housing stock and commercial/industrial spaces that exist today, which make Red Hook attractive for both residential and industrial uses.

Today, Red Hook is a one square mile peninsula, cut off from the rest of the City by the physical barrier of the Gowanus Elevated Expressway and the Brooklyn Battery tunnel, and isolated by the lack of subway service. Its current population is 12,000, with a median income of $10,500. Its residents are ninety percent African-American and Hispanic. Low income housing is 87% of the total housing stock. Red Hook already has five waste transfer stations, including a City municipal marine transfer station (MTS) with a capacity of 4800 tons of garbage per day. It is also the location for waste industry support facilities and other noxious uses such as an oil depot, chemical plants, impound lots, and bus depots (many of which are unpaved) The air shaft for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, through which 70,000 vehicles travel each day, vents into the neighborhood. A number of brownfields are a further burden on neighborhood quality of life. Industrial zoning that was foisted upon the community in 1961 has decimated neighborhoods and produced large tracts of vacant land that make the community a prime candidate when a site for a noxious use is needed.

In recent years, the Red Hook community has struggled to revitalize itself by getting rid of such noxious uses and by gaining access to its own waterfront, a hitherto undiscovered treasure and the one place from which the Statue of Liberty can be viewed face-on. A pier was recently renovated for public access and several waterfront esplanades have been opened. Red Hook also boasts New York's only working trolleys. Red Hook is a diamond in the rough. It has some of the most stunning waterfront in the region with its commanding views not only of Lady Liberty, but also of the Manhattan Skyline and New York Bay. It is home to the Civil War Era waterfront warehouses and it is less than 1000 feet from Governor's Island.

At a time of growing national consensus about the need to control sprawl, it is critical that communities such as Red Hook are redeveloped to their fullest potential. They can offer a quality of urban life that can compete with the lure of the suburbs. Not to recognize and foster this potential would be a profound failure of civic imagination, one that would present major issues of environmental justice as well.

Working in concert with other communities through The Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN), major environmental groups and elected officials, the Red Hook Civic Association and the Red Hook community intends to see that this opportunity is not missed and the interests of the community, which are the interests of the City, shall prevail.

John McGutrick is a member of the Red Hook Civic Association

In The News: Waterfront Primer


The City's waterways are a maritime crossroads for a varied group of users and uses. These can generally be divided into six categories: organizational, economic and commercial, historic, environmental, communal, recreational.

Organizational -- Though the City's political process is sure-footed on land, offshore, it is chaotic. Overlapping jurisdictions and uncertain responsibilities make waterfront politics murky at best. More than twenty different federal, regional, state and city agencies share responsibility for the harbor. Labor unions, and civic, recreational, environmental organizations and business also enter the mix. No one entity is in charge, because everyone is.

Economic and commercial Commerce was the harbor's raison d'Ætre, and NYC's pre-eminence owes greatly to maritime activity. New Amsterdam was established for its fine harbor and abundant supply of export furs. Industrial innovation included Fulton's steamship, the Erie Canal, the Brooklyn Bridge, and containerization established New York among the world's great port cities.

Since containerization and a move toward integrated water and land shipping, cargo ports have moved to the New Jersey side of the harbor where space and geography facilitate road and rail links. Today, New York's remaining shipping terminals -- Howland Hook in Staten Island and Red Hook and South Brooklyn Marine in Brooklyn -- vie with ferry terminals and tourist attractions for harbor related income.

Congressman Nadler's rail tunnel proposal is rooted in the Empire State's tradition of large industrial innovations. His plan would connect terminals throughout the harbor, and would link East of Hudson rail lines to rail networks nationwide. His vision is a modern variation of a 1927 Port Authority plan.

Historic -- Historic sites are scattered throughout the harbor. They include popular sites like Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and less well known sites like Castle Clinton at the Battery, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, Fort Schuyler at Throgs Neck, and New Jersey's Sandy Hook Lighthouse. At Fort Schuyler, hidden within the SUNY Maritime College campus, is a well-preserved example of early nineteenth century military architecture with an extraordinary view. And the 1764 Sandy Hook lighthouse was already old when its much better known cousin, the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge was built in 1920 on the Hudson River. Few buildings or landmarks in NYC or in the nation have seen as much history drift past.

Environmental -- These days, less bad stuff floats in the waters of New York harbor. The 1972 Clean Water Act eventually forced NYC to process and treat all of its solid waste. Other local area governments also complied. While wastewater treatment does not always happen satisfactorily, particularly after significant storm events, water quality improvements have been widely noted.

Law, in concert with the acts of individuals and advocacy groups, has pushed government agencies to improve area waters and shores. Successes include the restoration of salt marshes, increases in harbor heron and striped bass populations, and safer water at bathing beaches.

The struggle for environmental improvement in this heavily used metropolis continues. A recent decline in the western Long Island Sound lobster population is attributed to water quality. Combined sewer overflows still release untreated sewage during heavy rains. Piers are crumbling due to marine borer infestation, a condition caused by cleaner waters. Each wave of ecological progress unveils the need for further action.

Communal -- Throughout the harbor, communities, individuals and organizations fight for access to the water, seeking improvements to the quality of their shores and esplanades, opening boat clubs, and promoting environmental awareness. In the South Bronx, where half a million people currently have no access to their encircling shoreline; residents protest further municipal encroachment. These Hunts Point residents want a waterfront that includes greenways, and boating - not garbage transfer.

Community efforts lead to conflict as well as to access. A ban on spoils dumping restricts dredging options, which in turn threatens port-related jobs. Using the Bronx coast to move garbage facilitates the City's efforts to shut the sprawling dump at Fresh Kills. What Staten Island gains, Hunts Point loses. The political process uses the waters to transfer political pain along with garbage and sludge.

Recreational -- As recreational uses emerge, human-powered craft are returning to harbor waters. In 1999, Tribeca's Downtown Boathouse sponsored thousands of free Hudson River kayak trips. On the East River, local youth row specially designed Whitehall gigs built in NYC. Intercollegiate crew brings pomp and regalia to the waters of Pelham Bay.

Currently, Mayor Giuliani is seeking to bring minor league baseball to Staten Island's north shore and to Brooklyn's Coney Island, incorporating the waterfront as a key element of design and transport. The Mayor's mostly-dormant proposal to move the Yankees to Manhattan's west side assumed that ferries would be a major means of transport for fans. The proposed $200M sports center on Randalls' Island and the plans for 2012 Olympics in NYC both include water transport as an integral component.

Finally, NYC has dozens of waterside parks where people push strollers, jog, fish, and seek sunsets. Open space at the waterfront is a source of inspiration and freedom in a crowded city. The air is better and there is elbowroom. At water's edge, there are places to relax, explore and escape.

Peter Sounds Off:

Only in NYC could 578 miles of waterfront be both heavily underutilized and insufficient for all users. Despite this skewing of supply and demand, today's harbor has tremendous latent possibility. While the waterfront is not likely to regain its status as the main focus for jobs and economic activity, it could become the nexus for recreation, open space and improved quality of life.

A few points are essential:

1) The environmental improvement of recent years must be nurtured and extended. Investments in water quality must continue in all watersheds that drain to the harbor from the upper Hudson River to the open ocean.

2) Pioneering efforts that increase access should receive bureaucratic and financial support. Zoning should facilitate recreational access in manufacturing zones. Piers should be stabilized and opened to the public. Bulkheads should be made safe or repaired.

3) The City's youth should be educated about the waterfront and taught to swim. The swimming pool on a barge concept should be realized.

4) The waterways are now being shared by more and more users; each user must respect the rights of the others.

5) Ferry service should be expanded for tourism, recreational access and commutation. Ferries and other vessels should be subject to appropriate air pollution and wake guidelines.

Peter B. Fleischer, currently writing a book on the New York City waterfront, was formerly a transportation and environment policy advisor to New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani.

State Legislature Battles Over Minimum Wage Increase


livingwage
Photo provided by Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo

The debate over minimum wages continues to divide the NY State legislature, with the Democrat-controlled assembly led by Speaker Sheldon Silver calling for the state rate to go up to $8.50, from the current $7.25. Republicans in the Senate and some business groups oppose the measure, saying it will hurt jobs and the broader economy.

The assembly held a series of hearings across the state in April, with more to come in May. Pro-labor groups such as the Business and Labor Coalition of New York testified on behalf of the legislation, saying that raising the minimum wage is essential to make sure workers can survive at the present costs of living. Many New Yorkers who make minimum wages came out as well.

"These hearings are an important next step in the process to raise the minimum wage," said Silver in a statement. "It is important for our communities to speak up. Raising the minimum wage fairly rewards low-wage workers, helping those who are striving to help themselves and in the process, giving a boost to local economies."

Similar debates are ongoing in many states around the country, driven by a slow economic recovery. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey are all considering increases.

New York's minimum wage peaked in 1970, when it was $1.85 per hour, a purchasing power equal to about $10.70 today. The state's minimum wage is 19th from the top in the country. Vermont's minimum wage is $8.46 per hour and in Massachusetts, it's $8 per hour.

For the Raise

Analysts at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank, said that the increase would benefit 880,000 New Yorkers who earn below $8.50 per hour as of 2011, about 10 percent of the state's workforce, according to FPI research. The institute goes on to say that at $8.50, a person employed full time would earn slightly less than the federal poverty rate for a three-person household.

'Women, blacks and Latinos would be among the main beneficiaries of a higher New York minimum wage since they are disproportionately represented in low-wage jobs,' said James Parrott, deputy director of FPI.

FPI adds that the increase would drive greater consumer purchasing power, increasing demand for goods and services and stimulating the economy. The institute's testimony cites a study from the MIT journal Review of Economics and Statistics, which found that high minimum wages did not reduce employment across the country.

Assemblyman Keith Wright, chair of the labor committee, co-sponsored the bill and held many of the hearings. The bill has the support of politicians like assemblyman Sam Roberts and Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also supports the increase.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said that he supports an increase in principle but he has yet to see how it will affect New York State's economy, which will dictate his decision.

Against the Raise

Many Republican senators and assembly members criticized the bill, skeptical of its merits or fearing job loss. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos called it a 'job killer' and it 'increases all the costs of the job creators.' Other legislators who oppose the bill include State Sens. John DeFrancisco, Tom Libous and Patty Ritchie, as well as Assemblymen Will Barclay and Gary Finch.

Russell Sykes, a senior fellow at Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank, said that raising minimum wage will not help many low-income New Yorkers because many people who earn minimum wage live in households which have other, higher income.

'Higher minimum wage would reduce job opportunities for the very people it's supposed to help, even as the benefits flow mainly to households that aren't poor,' Sykes wrote in an op ed.

Sykes, who worked as deputy commissioner at New York's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance", said that there are better ways to help New Yorkers, such as Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal and state tax break for poorer families with children. He said that these programs are much more targeted towards actual poor households who need the help.

Parrott responded that EITC and raising the minimum wage are good complementary measures and one should not replace the other.

Still, there are some organizations that think that the $8.50 per hour goal is a step in the right direction but not enough, such as the nonprofit group National Employment Law Project, which testified at similar hearings in New Jersey, in March. According to the group, a minimum wage consistent with 1970 standards would come out to $10.39.



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