The Newtown Creek Water Treatment Facility (in Greenpoint Brooklyn), built in the late ’60s, is the largest sewage treatment plant in New York City, and purportedly the largest on the East Coast as well. There are a lot of people in New York City – they all expel waste on a daily basis – and that waste has to get treated somewhere. The plant also treats commercial waste from industry in the City as well (regulated toxic chemicals dumped into the water supply). The treatment area for this plant encompasses the East side of Manhattan below 72nd Street, the West side of Manhattan south of 14th Street, North Brooklyn and Western Queens. Running over capacity for years, the Newtown Creek plant has ceased being able to handle the volume it receives. And during “storm surges,” i.e. heavy rain storms, sewers overflow sending untreated sewage directly into the harbor. To rectify this problem, the plant began undergoing a major overhaul in 2003. The plant remains functional during this process, which will be completed in 2010. One of the major victories of this overhaul is getting the aeration and sedimentation tanks covered. Previously, the aeration tanks were open, which meant air was bubbled through the liquid waste, dissipating both chemical toxins and rank odor into the air of Greenpoint. You may read more about the Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Plant renovation project, by clicking the links below.
http://www.water-technology.net/projects/newtown/
http://www.habitatmap.org/sites/SewageTreatmentFacility/SewageTreatmentFacility.html
