NRPA Newsletter Summer 2019.Pub
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A Publicaon of the Natural Resources Protecve Associaon Coalion Against Water Disposal of Contaminated Sediments Post Office Box 050328 Staten Island, NY 10305 In Memory of Edward “Kerry” Sullivan SUMMER 2019 Executive Director BALD EAGLES AND OTHER cancers. Try to eat organic if possible and Ida Sanoff CREATURES RETURN TO NYC look up the list of the “Dirty Dozen” CAWD environmental toxins. Director By Jack Bolembach Secretary In the 1970’s, the waters were so polluted that Tony Rose I saw two Bald Eagles in a tree that are a very little sea life existed. Due to the clean Staten Island Sport Divers mating pair. They first arrived at Mount waters in the Harbor and Bay, the microorganisms and fish have started coming Director Loretto in the Spring of 2016 but they only succeeded in having two babies that survived back in the 1990’s. Forty-five years of fighting Treasurer and reducing pollution as a result of the Clean Membership in 2017. Each Spring they build a nest as Newsletter they have done again this year. Water and Clean Air Act has created an Richard Chan ecosystem where wildlife has returned and is NRPA I met a few bird watchers and walked around now thriving. An interesting outcome of with them. This is the first pair of mating Bald cleaner water was seen in the foundation of President the shoreline walkway alongside the Financial Jim Scarcella Eagles in the New York City area in over a hundred and fifty years. The Bald Eagles are Center at the Hudson River. It was originally NRPA constructed with wood pilings. But as the NY/NJ Baykeeper here because the Bay now has an abundant source of food. Not too long ago, the waters Harbor became cleaner, microorganisms Vice President were too polluted to support a mating pair of which bored into wood returned and Charles Perry Bald Eagles. Ospreys are also seen at Mount undermined the foundations. The architects Protectors of Pine Oak Loretto and many other species of birds and and engineers never thought these organisms Woods wildlife. Dozens of deer live in the park too. were an issue because the harbor was so Assistant Treasurer polluted for a hundred years. They had to John Malizia In 1970, a survey estimated that only two build cofferdams and pour water resistant S. I. Yacht Club, dozen Bald Eagles were living in all of New concrete to form new foundations. S. I. Tuna Club, FCA York State. The pesticide used by farmers called DDT and the acid rain that formed from Occasionally, prior to 2000, a few seals and Assistant Secretary the pollution emitted from power plants in the whales might be seen near New York Harbor Robert Carrano but they could not survive because of the NRPA south and mid-west were killing fish in the lakes of New York and New England. These pollution and lack of an adequate food source. TRUSTEES fish were a food source for Eagles and their As the Harbor became cleaner, seals arrived sharp decline, along with the use of DDT, Dr. Martin Schreibman nearly decimated the Bald Eagle population. Brooklyn College AREAC As a result, the Bald Eagles were placed on Dr. John T. Tancredi Molloy College the endangered species list. Cindy Zipf DDT was ultimately banned and strict Clean Ocean Action pollution controls at power plants were put into place. As a result, today we see a remarkable comeback in the Bald Eagle population as well as in other species of wild animals. It was recently discovered that the herbicide Round-up adversely impacts the environment and is a known carcinogen. It was sprayed on crops and weeds. This could be a reason why This photo taken with my iPhone of the two Bald people are developing many types of Eagles sitting in the tree. In this Edion Page 1 BALD EAGLES Page 3 THE FASCINATING HORSESHOE CRAB – A Page 2 ACOE HARBOR AND TRIBUTARIES STUDY SPECIAL PRESENTATION (HATS) Page 4 NRPA SPRING SUMMARY Page 3 OAKWOOD BEACH CLEANUP AT KISSAM AVE. Page 5 UPCOMING EVENTS Page 2 NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION SUMMER 2019 None of these things were possible in the 1970’s when the waters were I took the S-44 bus from the St. very polluted. The waters will George ferry terminal, traveling continue to improve as long as along Richmond Terrace. As we funding is provided to keep the 14 passed the old US Gypsum plant, Wastewater Treatment Plants within my thoughts turned to the tens of the City of New York operating thousands of men and women who efficiently and staffed with highly had worked there during the plant’s trained, skilled trade workers. New 80-year operation. Ships were Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut docked there night and day, and the along with the municipalities along North Shore rail line tracks are still the Hudson, Raritan and Passaic there, running thru the length of the Close-up of these two Bald Eagles taken Rivers must all continue to do their quarter- mile building. The bus by a woman with a telephoto lens. I took part in safeguarding the environment passed Leidy’s, an Island institution, the photo with my iPhone off the screen of and fighting the discharge of pollution where the sailors and longshoremen her camera. into the waterways. would trade stories, play cards, and share beverages. Several homes around 2000 and over the last 19 ACOE HARBOR AND nearby were part of the Underground years they have established a large TRIBUTARIES STUDY Railroad, providing freedom to colony on Swinburne Island. Tour African Americans. As I glanced over boats depart from Sheepshead Bay (HATS) the guardrail, the waters of the Kill By Jim Scarcella during the winter months so people van Kull were roiling by and I saw can observe seals on Swinburne what looked to be a homeless Island. The Army Corps of Engineers recently released preliminary scoping encampment 25 feet below the documents related to the NY/NJ sidewalk elevation. Snug Harbor The seals leave in May and migrate seemed to be deserted, but I found north to the coasts of Montauk, New Harbor and Tributaries Study Coastal Storm Risk Management (HATS). the Music Hall and signed-in with the England and Canada. They have presentation team. The posters were their babies in the nutrient rich colder Several alternatives are being proposed, and each has its own visually informative. The Corps noted waters and return in November. that the five-mile sea wall from Ft. Humpback Whales have been seen benefits, analysis, risks, cost, ecology disruption and much more. Wadsworth to Great Kills Park is in the Lower Bay off Staten Island planned, funded, and to be started in and even in New York Harbor 2020. feeding on fish as they make their Historical storms have severely impacted the NY/NJ Harbor region. Spring and Fall migrations to and Basically, the Corps has allotted the from Canada and the Caribbean. The study is assessing the feasibility of coastal storm risk management value of economic assets in our area to be approx. $400 billion dollars. Because the water is now cleaner, alternatives that can be implemented within the very large authorized study Most of these buildings and Oysters are now being placed by infrastructure is in flood zones. marine biologists in strategic area (NY /NJ Harbor, the Rockaways , the Hudson River, the Several Alternative Plans were locations around the harbor and presented. Alternatives 1 and 2 are bays. In the mid-1800’s and earlier, Raritan, the Passaic, Lower Bay, the eastern portion of Long Island by far, the most expensive and the City of New York had the largest environmentally damaging. Oyster populations in the world. In Sound, the Hackensack, and more). The public meetings were held in Alternative 2 is a 5-mile barrier from Conference House Park, you can Sandy Hook to Breezy Point, find evidence of Oyster shells on the Brooklyn, Staten Island , Poughkeepsie, the Bronx, shipping lanes, tides, currents, surface of the ground where migratory fish, shellfish and wildlife Woodchucks have made burrows. Middletown and the Customs House in Manhattan. be damned. It is difficult to imagine These Oyster shells are hundreds of all of the harmful impacts of this years old. They were taken from the The Staten Island meeting was held barrier, including the threat that it will Bay by Native Americans as a rich result in the retention of sewage in source of food. Native Americans on a Tuesday evening at Sailors Snug Harbor. area waterways. The Corps says this lived in the area reaping the will cost $112 billion and take 25 abundance of seafood from Raritan years to complete. Other Alternatives Bay. A Native American burial involve various combinations of ground was discovered in the 1890’s smaller flood gates. The Corps has by archeologists from the Natural admitted that all of the flood gates History Museum under a ridge about will result in barrier induced flooding. three quarters of a mile southeast of Basically, when a storm surge hits a the Conference House, which was flood gate, it will be diverted to areas built in 1680. It’s called Burial Ridge alongside of the gate. So, any flood and today is safely protected within gate will also require massive the established parkland. amounts of shoreline hardening on either side of the gate, adding to cost and environmental impacts. (continued next page) SUMMER 2019 NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION Page 3 right here in the NY/NJ Harbor Bight There are also concerns about apex, but Dr.