Harlem's Surrounded By 5 Open Sewers

The Harlem Sewers

PARK ON TOP OF SEWER
&
OPEN SEWAGE TANK

CLICK HERE FOR OTHER PARK AND SEWER PICTURES

I pray that in the almost ten years since I left Harlem, this situation has changed, but I can find no evidence that it has. If you have any, please share.

Harlem is surrounded by 5 open sewers, North River Water Pollution Control Plant, Wards Island, Tallmans Island Water Pollution Control Plant, Hunts Point and Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plants.

The two most obvious, North River (135th & Hudson River, 10027) and Wards Island (Wards Island, NYC 10035) Water Pollution Control Plants (Sewage Treatment Plants) are on the west side of Harlem and in the river off of the east side respectively.

In great part due to the open windows at all ends of the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, and outdoor tanks at Wards Island, Harlem is breathing, daily, volatile organic compounds (VOC's -airborne living organisms) from these sewage tanks.

I've posted some pictures I took of North River shortly before I left Harlem.

http://www.geocities.com/cureworks/Envirphotos.htm

Across the river on the east side, Harlem is also close to Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant, Tallmans Island Water Pollution Control Plant, and Bowery Bay Water Pollution Control Plant. The bottom line is if folks are smelling it, they are breathing it, the city's sewage and all airborne elements it produces. And by the way, there is relatively new technology that removes the smell, but the question is what about the toxins?

Politics and common sense need to merge in Harlem. Her best park, Riverbank State Park, is located over the North River plant and has people, among them children and seniors, exercising over an open sewer…not healthy.

The NYC EPA says “The roof of the building is the home of Riverbank State Park, a popular recreational facility with three swimming pools, an amphitheater, an athletic center, a skating rink, a restaurant and sports fields - and, of the two New York State park facilities in the City, the only one built on top of a water pollution control plant.” It’s won many awards while placing Harlem residents in danger of toxic chemicals, methane gas and mutating germs.

Established Harlem leadership had decided to put a Hudson River mall just south of the sewer.

Don't they think that the funk from the sewer may affect the quality of the meal or are they confident in the new equipment?

Environmentalists are being honored in Harlem who keep the conversation about odor and flow rather than toxins and germs coming off the sewers.

Sewer System As A Source of Germ Disbursement: “The greatest danger…in breathing of sewer air is that of inhaling with it the living particles (bacilli, etc.) contained or developed in the excrement of diseased persons.” {Roger S. Tracy, Handbook Of Sanitary Information For Households, NY Appleton, 1895}

Sick people from all over the world come to New York City to benefit from her extraordinary medical system. Though hospital waste is handled separately from the general sewer system, during the time before sick people check into the hospital, and, if they remain in the city, after they leave, they are using the general sewer facilities.

In this time of terrorism, toxic materials (both medical and chemical that could cause illness and death) can be dropped into the sewer system and a large portion of the population could be impacted days after the event.

Floating material http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dep/html/float.html could contain harmful elements and the results, devastating. This is because many, if not all of the NYC sewer plants, are not covered and in some cases could be easily contaminated from street or building levels without the culprit being noticed.

At North River, the large windows by the tanks are open. At Ward’s Island, the tanks are outside. Though we are encouraged to take comfort in the fact that chlorine kills 85-95% of the germs in the sewer, the more relevant question is what is in the other 5-15% that is strong enough to survive chlorine, food additives, genetically altered foods, human growth hormone, antibiotics, etc. Consider what happens when those strong germs and toxic chemicals get together in North River’s secondary tanks, with their steam wafting off the tanks next to open windows.

The additional chlorine put into the environment via tap water and flushed into the river can have a seepage effect on the land it comes in contact with, further empowering mutating bacteria.

The water in North River’s secondary tanks frequently has steam coming off them, which lifts some germs and they become air borne. Harlem's infant morality rate in the year after the North River Plant went into operation was 2.5 times higher than the rest of the City. Yet the discussion is limited to odor and flow, which haven’t killed anybody.

When you connect the dots between when the North River plant was open and rises and falls in her infant mortality rates over the years, you’ll see a direct correlation.

North River Plant and Infant Mortality Rates in NYC & Harlem 1984-1993

Year - NYC - Harlem
1984 - Plant Construction - 13.6 - 16.0
1985 - Plant built - 13.4 -23.3
1986 - 12.8 - 27.6
1987 - 13.1 - 20.9
1988 - 13.4 - 22.0
1989 - 13.3 - 23.4
1990 - 7.6 - 27.7
1991 - Primary Tanks Covered - 11.4 - 19.2
1992 - 10.2 - 15.9
1993 - Crack in tank - 10.2 - 25.

I failed at getting the people in charge to see the direct connection between actions taken at the sewer and the area's infant mortality rate.

I see a radical jump in the infant mortality rate the year the plant was built, a higher than normal rate during the early years of the plants operation, a drop in 1991, the year they covered the primary tanks. There was another radical jump the year there was a reported crack in the tank (I don't know if it was a crack in the tank or the cover, but it resulted in a higher release of toxins into the area.) Public information after that point was not longer available at community meetings between '93 and '98, when I left.

What needs to happen to correct the problem?

First, the windows need to be covered or at least the tanks sealed, like what was in the original plans. Hemp makes a good bullet proof plastic out of Hemp Stone that could be a cost effective solution. The glass needs to be bullet proof because the sewer is next to the river, which is an estuary, at the edge of the ocean, at the beginning of global warming. The plant is just above the river level and subject to danger in case of a radical tidal wave.

“The problem with covering and air treating the secondary tanks is one of expense … NYCDEP’s rough estimate for subjecting the secondary tanks in a similar odor control system as that for the primary tank is in excess of $100 million.” From “The Smell of Success? An assessment of Odor Control Measures at the North River Water Pollution Control Plant” (June, 1994)

Where are they shopping? Tiffany’s?

We need to honestly evaluate the situation at hand. Consider using sealed aircraft aluminum covers for the secondary tanks and using a NYC labor pool, featuring Harlem residents trained for the job.

Community residents will be motivated to do a good job because they and their families are breathing the air.

Second, regular testing of the sewer's contents and airborne materials need to be done and the results published. The people have a right to know what's in the air, water and land. As we remove or control the cause of the problem, the effects, what we experience as reality, will diminish like what happened in 1991 when the primary tanks were covered.