The Treatment - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 48

to break down pollutants. As a result of concerted cleanup efforts, the quality of New
York Harbor and Hudson River water has improved significantly in the last two dec-
ades, he said, and “oxygen levels have returned nearly to their natural state.” Even so,
parts of the New York waterfront, including Newtown Creek, remain polluted and un-
safe for recreation, especially after heavy rainstorms.
John Lipscomb , a Riverkeeper boat captain, said that city studies claiming that local
waterways are cleaner are flawed because they show only average water quality; what is
more important, said Lipscomb, is the quality of water at specific locations. That kind
of detailed analysis is becoming more important as the city opens the plant to the pub-
lic, including nature trails, art installations, and a grand stairway leading from the plant
down to the polluted water of Newtown Creek. “We're going from the bad old days
to a hopeful future where we're inviting people to the water,” said Lipscomb. “But we
don't have the information that the public really needs to make an educated decision on
whether they're gonna fish there, whether they're gonna eat that fish, whether they're
gonna climb down that ladder and get in the water.”
As of 2010, Newtown Creek is listed by the EPA as “unclassified water,” which, Pynn
explained, means it is not suitable for recreational use. “We're tryin' to educate the pub-
lic and promote the conceptof fishing—as a sport,” he said. “But we don't want people
actually eatingish out of Newtown Creek.”
Even with expensive improvements to the city's sewer system, “there's no way to
completely stop CSOs,” Pynn acknowledged. He explained that New York will have to
rely on its combined sewer pipes for the foreseeable future because replacing them with
a “two-pipe” system would be expensive and unpopular and would require entire neigh-
borhoods to be excavated.
Environmental planners point to basic steps to control storm-water runoff and CSOs.
New York City has allocated millions of dollars for “green” infrastructure projects, insti-
tuted new laws that give tax credits for green roofs, and required that new parking lots
include landscaped areas to absorb precipitation. The next step is to plant more trees
and use permeable pavement and sidewalks. These relatively cheap fixes will help re-
charge aquifers and enhance overall environmental quality. More ambitious plans in-
clude building large rooftop or subterranean cisterns, which collect rain and storm-wa-
ter runoff and release it slowly—as has been done in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. This
takes pressure of the sewer system and cuts down on the amount of pollutants swept
into waterways.
Other cities are taking similar steps. Philadelphia, for instance, has one of the nation's
oldest sewer systems, which is notorious for backing up and causing floods along the
Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. But over the next two decades, it plans to reinvent itself