Newtown Creek Launch Ban REVERSED

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the ban on using the public access launches at the Newtown Creek has been reversed.
Thanks to everyone who made or submitted comments, who rallied their concerned friends and neighbors to the cause, and particularly to all those who attended last night's meeting in Greenpoint (I arrived as it was letting out, alas).

It is a victory for our community, as we came together and put pressure on an agency that had acted without the proper public input and they recognized us as a constituency, heard us, and reversed their improper action.

But the story is not over. While the ban has been lifted the launches are currently not open due to the usual seasonal closures cited on the Parks Department's website:

Public Hearing on the "feasibility" of Kayak Access?

Yes, you read correctly: there will be a public hearing next week in Greenpoint on the "feasibility" of future access to city-owned - public - kayak launches that, until recently, were a key part of the New York City Water Trail.

As some of you may know, Newtown Creek's two Water Trail launches--the only two access points in north Brooklyn for human-powered boats--were abruptly and unceremoniously closed last month, without prior notice to users, community members, stakeholders, or even the Parks Department Commissioner who oversaw the creation of the Water Trail. This clandestine interagency decision, spearheaded by the Department of Environmental Protection, came a few weeks after Newtown Creek was designated a Superfund site by the EPA.

What, aside from the designation, has changed about the Creek's waters?
Nothing, the DEP admits.
So why close the launches?
The DEP says it is waiting for the results of a NY State Department of Health report on water quality in the Creek that may or may not be available by the end of the year, and may or may not show the waters of the Creek to be unsuitable for secondary contact activities.

Such an action is extremely problematic for two reasons:
• it sets an inauspicious precedent whereby public access to the commonly held waterways can be withdrawn based on the unsupported fears and liability concerns of bureaucrats rather than on actual evidence of a health or safety hazard
• it was undertaken without any public process or community outreach we know of; the closure signs simply appeared one day on the launch gates

At last month's meeting of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee, paddling and public access advocates turned out in force to join several of the committee members in asking DEP to reverse the ban on use of the launches, reveal the results of its own in-house monitoring efforts, and convene a public meeting so that boaters and other stakeholders might share their concerns and ask questions about the situation. The DEP agreed to only the latter.

If ever there was a time to stand up for your right to access the public waterways, and to use your presence and your voice to make a difference, it is now.