Issues at Flushing Creek

from second article.

1) Significant quotes extracted from the following blog: Flushing Creek: Issues raised around one of the most critical and most polluted waterway.

• "Further, besides the industrialized factor, the dumping also cause the river to become an eyesore and health hazard. To be more specific, during serious rainy weather, the waterway regularly swells, flooding into the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, streets of Willet Point, and even into the Van Wyck Expressway. Imaging after the flood, cities overused weak sewer system pours raw sewage into the Creek, causing a downward spiral of pollution issues. The sewage overflows also caused death of thousands of fishes, creating environmental problems as well as health concern to all New Yorkers who are accessing our sewage system from a daily basis."

• "However, issues about rezoning, community, affordable housing…etc appear to surface in the process of discussions."

• "Another issue worth discussing is the struggle of rezoning Flushing Creek from industrial to residential. Real estate developers such as the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation (FWPCLDC) that has long pushed for revamping the waterfront, also came up with proposals, such as to rezoning it to residential area which turns waterfront from manufacturing use. However, plans like this also might have immense impacts” on the fragile condition of the Flushing waterfront. Since it’s already heavily polluted and will raise health concerns, and possibly overwhelm the Creek’s overburdened infrastructure Also, some activists quickly points out that they are not opposed to development in the area, but are opposed to development that fails to prioritize the needs of the community. Affordable housing are needed but not provided. Which further enhanced the debate to whether prioritize water treatment, or residential, or how to have solutions to create a balance."

2) Significant quotes extracted from the following article: NYC sewage overflows kill thousands of fish

IMPORTANT OBSERVATION: this article was written over 4 years ago but during my site visits I still saw several dead fishes floating along the waterfront (mostly by Sky View's Waterfront Esplanade)

• "Flushing Bay was a milky, murky blue-green color – and Flushing Creek was filled with thousands of dead menhaden"

• "Why did these fish die? New York City’s sewers. When it rains, the city’s combined sewers dump millions of gallons of sewage and street water into Flushing Creek. There are hundreds of discharge points around New York City, but the effects in Flushing Creek offer a particularly stark example of the consequences from dumping massive pulses of pollution into the water every time a storm rolls through. The pollutant load includes pathogens associated with raw sewage, along with pharmaceuticals and other household chemicals; heavy metals, salts and oils from the street; and loads of plastic, cigarette butts and other trash. The killer of these fish though was likely nutrients, which led to a bloom of algae; when the algae died off, bacteria consumed the dead algae and depleted the oxygen in the water. In Flushing Creek, as part of expanded dissolved oxygen monitoring with CUNY Queens College, we measured almost zero oxygen Wednesday."

• “Throughout New York City low oxygen conditions are observed in Combined Sewer Overflow-impacted waterways – at times and in places violating New York State Water Quality Standards – especially in tributaries and embayments with restricted water circulation,” said Greg O’Mullan, of CUNY Queens College, one of Riverkeeper’s primary Water Quality Program partners"

• "In Long Term Control Plans mandated by the Clean Water Act, New York City has proposed in many cases adding chlorine to Combined Sewer Overflows in order to kill pathogens. That would leave other pollutants untreated – including excess nutrients that underlie these fish kills. What is really needed is dramatic reduction in the volume of overflows."