As the decades-long work to clean up the city’s rivers and creeks, canals and bays rolls on, it’s unclear just how big a problem unauthorized sewage connections and illegal industrial dumping present.
But water-quality advocates are seeking more than just better engagement.
The EPA let New York State use outdated standards in approving the city’s plans to finally deal with pollution from sewer overflows that taint rivers and bays, canals and creeks, advocates say.
For some residents in a few neighborhoods, a rainy day brings the risk that sewage will flow back into their basements. The city has been working to address the issue, but the feds are demanding faster action.
The regional head of the EPA invites New Yorkers to nominate the community leaders, advocates and experts who’ve fought to protect human health and natural spaces.
A city law bans the use of pesticides linked to cancer, but exemptions and waivers mean thousands of pounds of such chemicals are still used. Assessing the health risks and trade-offs when battling something like mosquito-borne West Nile Virus is not simple.
Of all the challenges facing the city’s awe-inspiring water system, the most contentious might be playing out now at Flushing Bay, the Bronx River and other waterways, where a push to make city waters open to swimming and fishing is running into concerns over cost.
A strategy to clean up Flushing Creek, one of a number of waterways the city has to target for pollution reduction, has environmentalists pushing the de Blasio administration to use a little imagination.
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