Over the past year, NCA worked closely with our partners at Riverkeeper and Perkins+Will to create the Newtown Creek Vision plan, a 150 page report chronicling priority issues and 85 proposed projects to address Remediation, Restoration, Recreation and Resilience. The report builds upon decades of planning and visioning efforts by numerous community members and organizations; framing ideas in the wake of upcoming Superfund remediation and Clean Water improvements. We look forward to continuing these planning conversations with local residents, businesses, agencies and elected officials. Click on the "Take Action" button to be part of the movement of the recreation for the Newtown Creek. You can also click on the donate button for our support. Click here to learn more about the process.
Dissolved oxygen (DO), the amount of oxygen present in the water, is a key factor in determining the health of a waterway and ability for fish, crabs and other marine wildlife to survive. DO can be measured as an amount, mg/L, or as percent saturation at the Newtown Creek Testing Stations. A percentage reading takes water temperature into consideration, so provides a more consistent basis regardless of season. New York State, for instance, requires that dissolved oxygen in the most impaired waterways, including Newtown Creek, not fall below 3 mg/L.
This sewage-indicating bacteria is used by federal, state and city agencies in determining water quality. Because the bacteria provides a high correlation with human pathogens often found in sewage, it is a good indicator for how safe a body of water may be for human contact, as well as determining baseline health of the waterbody. It is measured as Most Probable Number (MPN) of colonies per 100 mL. The EPA uses a few Enterococcus guidelines for determining swimability. The first is a Geometric Mean, or weighted average, ≤ 30 (MPN/100 mL) over a 30-day period.
Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for the growth and survival of aquatic plants and algae, used to produce important molecules, such as chlorophyll and proteins. While necessary for normal metabolic functioning, excessive amounts of phosphorus, from runoff and CSO effluent, into receiving water bodies can throw ecosystems out of balance. Excessive nutrients are often taken up by plants and phytoplankton, which subsequently experience spikes in population growth and in turn create algae blooms. Eventually these microorganisms die off, decompose and consume oxygen as a result; a process known as eutrophication.
The severe impacts of plastic pollution on marine wildlife has been well documented. Most of these plastic materials will take hundreds of years to decompose, and in the process can entangle wildlife or be mistaken as food - literally killing precious marine birds and animals. Additionally, many plastics act as a magnet for other chemical contaminants, and once consumed by wildlife can enter into the food chain and ultimately come back to poison us. With Newtown Creek connecting to New York Harbor and the Atlantic ocean, our local pollution very quickly becomes a global issue as the daily tides push debris in out of the Creek.
During our regular water quality boat trips, we conducted additional observations for activities including boat traffic, shoreline use, and wildlife monitoring, specifically a count of Heron and Egret populations. Dozens of other bird species were observed during the sampling period, including Cormorants, Belted Kingfishers, Barn Swallows and Ospreys. However, for simplicity sake, counts were only kept for Heron and Egret species. We found the Great Egret to be the most common species, and the Turning Basin as the most populated location, with more sightings than the other three areas combined. English Kills and the Main Channel had the lowest counts of Egrets/Herons, which may be related to dense shoreline activity, less shallow water areas or lower levels of shoreline vegetation.