26th Ward WTP changes

[isa...@aol.com]

ENB Region 2 Notices 6/16/2021

Public Notice

Notice of Public Comment Period

Project Title:

2021 Jamaica Bay 26th Ward High-Level Sewer Separation Modification to Order on Consent between the City of New York and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC Case # CO2-20110512-25, a.k.a. NYC CSO Order.

Counties:

New York (Manhattan), Richmond (Staten Island), Kings (Brooklyn), Bronx (Bronx) and Queens (Queens)

Lead Agency:

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)

Brief Description:

The NYC CSO Order was executed between the NYS DEC and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) in 2005 and has been modified several times since executed. The NYC CSO Order includes various milestones and projects associated with abatement of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) within New York City. Based on additional analyses, the parties identified changes to the NYC CSO Order. Pursuant to Paragraphs XVI.A and D.3 of the 2005 CSO Order, NYS DEC is required to publicly notice "[i]n the event of a substantive and significant modification to the construction compliance schedules provided for in this Order." The 2021 Jamaica Bay 26th Ward High-Level Sewer Separation Modification to the NYC CSO Order consists of deletion of the following Appendix A milestones:

Consent Order, Appendix A	Current Milestone Date	New Milestone Date
XII.B, 26th Ward High Level Sewer Separation, 10. Phase 3 - Initiate Design	April 1, 2017	Deleted
XII.B, 26th Ward High Level Sewer Separation, 11. Phase 3 - Design Completion	March 2019	Deleted
XII.B, 26th Ward High Level Sewer Separation, 12. Phase 3 - Notice to Proceed to Construction	March 2020	Deleted
XII.B, 26th Ward High Level Sewer Separation, 13. Phase 3 - Construction Completion	December 2022	Deleted

In January 2013, the NYS DEC approved the 2011 Jamaica Bay Waterbody/Watershed Facility Plan (WWFP). The WWFP included a project to complete high-level sewer separation (HLSS) in approximately 443 acres within the drainage basin for Fresh Creek. The NYC DEP proposed constructing the project in three phases, and the total estimated construction cost at the time was $111 million. Since implementation of the HLSS project commenced in 2012, the scope and location of the HLSS was modified several times to accommodate characteristics of the drainage basin. Phase 1 of the HLSS was completed in 2018. Phase 2 of the HLSS project is currently in construction. Design of Phase 3 was initiated in 2017, but in 2019, the NYC DEP encountered unforeseen field conditions where the HLSS was to be implemented. In particular, the NYC DEP identified interference with a major fuel line to JFK Airport operated by Buckeye Partners and inadequate sewer coverage at three locations within the Phase 3 HLSS area. The proposed redesign of the Phase 3 HLSS to address these unforeseen field conditions increased the construction costs for Phase 3 HLSS from $62.5 million to $244 million. In light of the increased costs, the NYC DEP reevaluated the cost-effectiveness of the project and the impacts to water quality if the Phase 3 HLSS was eliminated. The modeling results indicate that projected water quality attainment levels in Fresh Creek for fecal coliform and dissolved oxygen would not be adversely impacted by elimination of the Phase 3 HLSS. Based on these modeling results, NYS DEC concurs with the elimination of the Phase 3 HLSS.

Document Availability:

Hard copies of the 2005 CSO Order and approved modifications are available for public review at the following offices of the NYS DEC and NYC DEP:

• NYS DEC - Division of Water, Office of the Director of the Bureau of Water Compliance, 625 Broadway, 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-3506.
• NYS DEC - Region 2 Office, Division of Water, attention: Selvin Southwell, 47-40 21st Street, Long Island City, NY 11101.
• NYC DEP - Bureau of Legal Affairs, attention: Diana Dellafiora, 59-17 Junction Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11373, Phone: (718) 595-6555.

Questions regarding the 2021 Jamaica Bay 26th Ward High-Level Sewer Separation Modification can be directed to: Ryan Waldron, NYS DEC - Division of Water, 625 Broadway, 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-3506, Phone: (518) 402-8244 Fax: (518) 402-9029, E-mail: ryan.w...@dec.ny.gov.

[Alexander Betser]

I'm new to this ... sewage so I'm freaking out just based on this text and general knowledge of what CSO is (yuck)!

Freak out 1: "NYC DEP identified interference with a major fuel line to JFK Airport operated by Buckeye Partners and inadequate sewer coverage at three locations within the Phase 3 HLSS area." - how come a major fuel line was missed when WWFP was designed? Did Buckeye Partners just surreptitiously built it without calling 811 or architects forgot to call 811 when they photoshopped over GIS screenshots? In software engineering it's called concurrency conditions and in the real world it's called negligence. How come 9 year into the project all of a sudden engineers identified inadequate sewer coverage? Did we just repossess new land from Native Americans? Did we just realize that sewer lines got clogged? Did we miss some demographic or gastrointestinal trend that made existing sewers no longer adequate for the amount of shit produced? Too CENSORED-up to be true.

Freak out 1.5: "The proposed redesign of the Phase 3 HLSS to address these unforeseen field conditions increased the construction costs for Phase 3 HLSS from $62.5 million to $244 million." - I can't justify or disprove any numbers but I imagine that in dense urban settings sewer lines "bend" around many different obstacles including gas pipelines so yet another fuel line should not be a major component of this price increase. I'm more versed in workflows than in shitflows so I have difficulty understanding how "inadequate sewer coverage" can increase the cost of installing a separate stormwater pipeline. If there's no sewer coverage then there's nothing to separate. Shit just floats in a puddle until it dries out. What am I missing here?

Freak out 2: "The modeling results indicate that projected water quality attainment levels in Fresh Creek for fecal coliform and dissolved oxygen would not be adversely impacted by elimination of the Phase 3 HLSS."  - EITHER modelling software had a bug fixed/introduced since WWFP was first modelled OR water quality regulations had degraded since then OR Phase 3 HLSS was planned as a pure boondoggle with no noticeable impact on the water quality. I had a better opinion of the civil engineers.

Either this whole story deserves a show on Comedy Central or my rants deserve me a free crash course in civil engineering but something here just doesn't solve the time-space continuum. Or maybe government agencies operate in an alternate/altered reality.

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[Alexander Betser]

Flush the WWFP! We need to think (and shit) outside the toilet bowl.

Option 1: Two non mutually exclusive options: property owners to buffer rainwater and/or sewer and discharge it according to sewershed specific schedule.  Street drainage is actually what defines this schedule and is expected to be unbuffered. At least in the beginning phases or per location. Think of it as a smart grid of shit. Whether rainwater and sewage buffered separately or mixed together is just an implementation detail. The main idea is to discharge whatever it is according to where it's gonna go down the bay or to a treatment plant. Think of it as a shit traffic control. Welcome shit law enforcement and shit tickets. This idea is better suited for dictatorship like North Korea, China or former USSR and will be difficult to implement in democratic countries. We fought for freedom to ... swim in our own shit or launder tax money for resource intensive projects.

  

Option 2 (democratic): Implement separate fecal collection program where bio waste containers are set for curbside collection or drop-off sites. Imagine a mandatory shit take back program where any merchant that sells food is obligated to accept containerized metabolites. This waste stream will go to the same wastewater treatment plant but unlike combined sewage it can be buffered and does not depend on precipitation. We don't rain shit. At least in meteorologic quantities or as often. This is not any less boondoggling that Option 1 especially considering medical fraud of 200x but at least it's gonna be less corrupt than mega million municipal infrastructure projects.

[Bill Woodroffe]

Just curious. With the record rainfall, how many gallons of black waste water was directly emptied into local waters with the CSO? Since NYC is a NDZ, how does that compare with the estimated discharge of boats. In other words how long would it take for boats to discharge the same amount that was released with the recent rains? This is not to say the NDZ shouldn't be there, only one of comparison. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jamaica-bay/CAO7%3DyBGOGdKyDvA%2BVGjhXNcB9n3nTb_QmFZoXrez4%2BrLpF_r-A%40mail.gmail.com.

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Bill & Maureen

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