"The New York City Health Department has lifted the beach pollution advisory for
Sea Gate in Brooklyn as well as the beach closure notices for South Beach, Midland Beach
and Cedar Grove Beach in Staten Island starting immediately. The most recent water quality
sampling indicates that bacteria levels found at these locations and in New York Harbor
has returned to acceptable levels. Additionally, the Health Department has determined that
recreational activities may resume in the Hudson River, the East River from the Robert F.
Kennedy Bridge to Verrazano Bridge, the Harlem River and the Kill Van Kull to the Goethals
Bridge. These waterways are now fit for recreational activities that entail possible direct
contact with water."
"Warning signs at beaches and kayak launches will be removed as a result. Specific
beach information continues to be available to the public through website postings at the City's
beach website www.nyc.gov/health/beach, at www.nyc.gov under NYC Right to Know, and at
www.nyc.gov/health, the City Information Hotline 311, and those who have signed up to Notify
NYC will receive up to date status information relating to public beaches via Twitter, RSS, email
and SMS."
Note that specific beach information continues to be available but information on other waterways continues to be UNavailable.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 28, 2011
No. 72
Update on North River Wastewater Treatment Plant Fire and Impacts
Overview of Incident
The North River Wastewater Treatment Plant was taken offline last Wednesday
afternoon following a four-alarm fire in the engine room that started at approximately 11:45 am
that morning. At approximately 5:15 pm Wednesday, untreated wastewater started to be directly
discharged into the Hudson River. The North River plant has been in operation since 1986 and
treats an average of 120 million gallons of wastewater a day from Manhattan's west side from
Bank Street through northern Manhattan.
Status of Plant Operations
On Friday, DEP made significant progress in making the plant operational by bringing
two engines back online and, as a result, all untreated discharges into the Hudson River stopped
Friday night as of approximately 9:30 pm. Saturday morning, at approximately 5:00 am, an
electricity feeder that supplies power to the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant went
offline because of an electrical utility manhole fire. Con Edison was able to isolate the failed
feeder, which helped DEP restore internal power. Both engines started again in less than an
hour, but as a result of the power interruption, a pump connected to one of the engines did not
take flow for several hours due to a mechanical issue related to the power stoppage. Because
of this, the plant temporarily was able to treat roughly 104 million gallons a day of wastewater
with primary treatment and chlorine disinfection; while the second pump was offline, untreated
wastewater was discharged into the Hudson River at a rate of roughly 15-25 million gallons a
day. The second pump was restored to service at approximately 2:00 pm Saturday afternoon,
and the rate of untreated discharges quickly decreased until they stopped completely at
approximately 3:30 pm on Saturday. Since then, intermittent issues with the plant's operations
related to the fire continue to be addressed as they arise. No discharges have occurred since
Saturday afternoon.
All health advisories in place over the last several days have been lifted. Please refer
to the Environmental, Health and Community Impacts section of this release for the most
recent update.
DEP is still working around the clock to stabilize the operations that have been restored
and is putting affected systems back in working order. Of the plant's five engines used to pump
wastewater into the facility, only two engines need to be operating during dry weather to handle
the wastewater flow into the plant. The wastewater that is being processed is receiving primary
treatment and chlorine disinfection, which are the key components of the sewage treatment
process needed protect public health. On Wednesday, DEP successfully restarted a third engine
at the plant, providing critical redundancy during dry weather and adding additional capacity
during storms.
Over the past several days, substantial progress has been made restoring secondary
treatment. Two of the three critical systems necessary to achieve secondary treatment, aeration
tanks and final settling tanks, have come online and are in operation. The third system—aeration
achieved by blowers that supply oxygen to the process—is partially operating, with two of the
three blowers needed to achieve secondary treatment currently online. As a result, since Monday
DEP has been averaging Total Suspended Solid Removal requirements, a major indicator that the
plant is making progress towards meeting secondary standards for treating wastewater.
As a backup in the event of further operational disruptions, and to increase treatment
capacity during wet weather, DEP has installed an additional pumping system in case any
further issues with the existing system arise. That installation is now fully online, providing an
additional 24 million gallons a day of pumping capacity. Because the plant now has enough
pumping redundancy with the addition of the third engine and back-up pumping systems that
were recently installed, DEP deactivated small "pump arounds" that were temporarily pumping
wastewater flow out of an 84-inch sewer at West 117th St. in Manhattan to a 42-inch sewer at
Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 117th, which flows to the Wards Island Wastewater Treatment
Plant.
Environmental, Health and Community Impacts
The New York City Health Department has lifted the beach pollution advisory for
Sea Gate in Brooklyn as well as the beach closure notices for South Beach, Midland Beach
and Cedar Grove Beach in Staten Island starting immediately. The most recent water quality
sampling indicates that bacteria levels found at these locations and in New York Harbor
has returned to acceptable levels. Additionally, the Health Department has determined that
recreational activities may resume in the Hudson River, the East River from the Robert F.
Kennedy Bridge to Verrazano Bridge, the Harlem River and the Kill Van Kull to the Goethals
Bridge. These waterways are now fit for recreational activities that entail possible direct
contact with water. Consuming fish caught from these areas is again permissible, provided that
individuals follow the New York State guidelines for consumption of fish caught in New York
City waterways. That information can be found at http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/
outdoors/fish/docs/down_state_advisories.pdf.
Warning signs at beaches and kayak launches will be removed as a result. Specific
beach information continues to be available to the public through website postings at the City's
beach website www.nyc.gov/health/beach, at www.nyc.gov under NYC Right to Know, and at
www.nyc.gov/health, the City Information Hotline 311, and those who have signed up to Notify
NYC will receive up to date status information relating to public beaches via Twitter, RSS, email
and SMS.
In the event of rainfall that would trigger a wet weather advisory, the Health Department
will issue standard wet weather advisories for public beaches through 311, Notify NYC and its
Web page. Descriptions of wet weather advisories can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/
html/beach/beach_adv.shtml#wetweather.
DEP and the Health Department will continue to take samples in the harbor and at
permitted beaches to ensure that bacteria levels remain within acceptable ranges. For the most
up-to-date information, go to the NYC Health website at www.nyc.gov/health, the DEP website
at www.nyc.gov/dep, or call 311. Individuals can also receive proactive alerts by signing up
through 311 for Notify NYC, the city's official source for information about emergency events
and important city services. Riverbank State Park, located atop the treatment plant, is open.
Westchester County and New Jersey DEP are also performing water sampling and water flow
modeling to determine any impacts on their rivers and beaches.
Contact:
Farrell Sklerov/Michael Saucier (DEP)
Susan Craig/Chanel Caraway (DOHMH)
(718) 595-6600
(347) 396-4177
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