WAIT! Program Recommendations Report SPRING 2016 - PRATT INSTITUTE • Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development Advisor: Jaime Stein Students: Lekhana Chidanand, Miguel Diaz, Maria Gonzalez • Graduate Communication Design Program Advisor: David Frisco Students: Melissa Berman, Corwin Green • Introduction Report • Implementation Plan • Land Use, Demographic & Overview Building Type Analyses • Survey Development • Literature Review • Engagement by Watershed Introduction • 2 Wait! Is a community engagement campaign to reduce problems with combined sewer overflow. This program uses printed media and text messages to encourage residents to limit their use of unnecessary water during rainy events. These activ- ities include washing dishes, using laundry machines, having multiple baths and Origin of the flushing the toilet. A pilot program is set to start this June on a small targeted area in Brooklyn. With Success, the pilot will grow to cover all communities in Brooklyn. Wait! Program After initial planning sessions with city wide water quality advocates including the S.W.I.M. Coalition and Newtown Creek Alliance, NYC DEP hired Futerra a behavioral design agency and M&R, a strategy and community engagement firm. Together they generated printed media, helped create the pilot scope and conducted preliminary community outreach. Introduction • 3 Pratt Institute joined the Wait! effort the Spring of 2016 to assist NYC DEP in assessing the pilot’s success and scaling it up citywide. Pratt’s research team includes graduate Green Infrastructure Fellows Maria Gonzalez, Lekhana Chidananda and Miguel Diaz led by Jaime Stein, Professor and Director of the Sustainable Environmental Systems program and graduate Communications Pratt Institute’s Team Design students Corwin Green and Melissa Berman led by Professor David Frisco. Collectively, the research team, over the course of the Spring semester, gener- ated a strategy and a list of recommendations to consider for measuring Wait!’s success expanding citywide. Introduction • 4 We consider Wait! to be a waterbody stewardship campaign which offers New Yorkers a way to take action in improving their local water quality. We set out the following objectives for Wait!: Approach • Connect Communities to Their Waterbodies • Harness Community Action and Objectives • Offer Qualitative Measures of Success for Wait! To accomplish these objectives and scale the Wait! pilot citywide, we propose an expansion strategy in which Wait! grows watershed by watershed, following the City’s ongoing Long Term Control Plan Process. The team also recognizes the importance of stakeholders in this effort. Advocates, community and civic organizations citywide are actively engaged in the mitigation of overflows and the education of community members as to how they can make a change to improve the current condition of our water bodies. This report offers an expansion framework with a strategic methodology for a watershed demographic study as well as a community survey, a stakeholder analysis and recommendations for qualitative tools for measuring Wait!’s success. In total, providing a methodology for replication of Wait! in each watershed. Our vision for Wait! is to achieve a social cohesion between the multiple communities that belong to the same watershed, so that they might understand their impact and how they can take action to change their current habits for a more sustainable environment in their homes and neighborhood. Introduction • 5 The goal of each Long Term Control Plan as determined by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is to “identify, with public input, appropriate Wait! CSO controls necessary to achieve waterbody-specific water quality standards (WQS) consistent with the Federal CSO Control Policy and related guidance”. As mentioned in the previous chapter, we propose a watershed-based methodol- Implementation ogy for city-wide implementation in order to integrate the implementation pro- City-wide cess within the existing LTCP schedule and ongoing City and Institutional efforts. The Long Term Control Plan Process as a Starting Point and Engagement Strategy Implementation Plan • 6 1. Longterm Control Plan The NYC Department of Environmental Protection has included 11 of these water- sheds within Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plans in an effort to Implementation reduce pollution from sewer overflow and improve water quality city-wide. Our recommendation is to work with the established timeframe and watershed order. Methodology 2. Waterbody by Waterbody The plan is to scale up a methodology that goes waterbody to waterbody. Our recommendation is to work with the established timeframe and watershed order to align City and State efforts with the plans and public involvement meetings already in motion. 3. Watershed Built Environment & Demographics This encapsulates the analysis of existing land use and buidling type, median household income, population density and affordable housing units, and demographic conditions, including race, ethnicity, and language spoken. Implementation Plan • 7 New York City is connected through 13 Watersheds. The NYC Department of Environmental Protection has included 11 of these watersheds within Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plans in an effort to reduce pollution from Implementation sewer overflow and improve water quality city-wide.1 The Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek watersheds in Queens are the pilot areas by watershed under study for the purpose of this report, as their Public Engagement processes are next in the LTCP schedule. Our recommendation is to work with the established timeframe and watershed order, as established in Fig. 1, to align City and State efforts with the plans and public involvement meetings already in motion. Implementation Plan • 8 1 S.W.I.M. Coalition, 2015. DEP'S PUBLIC MEETING TIMELINE In NYC, water quality is managed by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is charged with the development of the LTCPs. DEP is required to actively seek input from the public as these plans are developed, so DEP holds three formal public meetings to do this. It's up to citizens to make sure these opportunities for input are meaningful. The plans are then submitted to the State Department of Envrionmental Conservation (DEC) for approval. To sign up to receive notice of public meetings, email DEP at [email protected] and ask to be on their email list. 1 PUBLIC 2 PUBLIC 3 PUBLIC MEETING #1 MEETING #2 MEETING #3 DEP introduces LTCP at DEP presents DEP presents kick-off meeting. alternatives and its proposed plan. recommended approach. DEP reviews waterbody DEP evaluates alternatives DEP considers feedback and DEC approves characteristics and analyzes water and develops plan. submits proposed plan to DEC final plan. quality data. for review. WAYS TO SPEAK UP INDIVIDUAL LTCP SCHEDULES AT A DEP MEETING Waterbody Status* Public involvement 5 Alley Creek 3 Nov. 17, 2015 Tell the NYC DEP how you currently Fig. 1. Long Term Control Plan Schedule, and for how 1 use theCombined city’s Sewer waterways Overflow by watershed you would use the water if it were (S.W.I.M. Coalition 2015) Westchester Creek The State DEC expected to invite cleaner. It is important that DEP not comments on whether to approve just prioritize high traffic beaches for plan. water quality improvements. Hutchinson River Send public comments to the State Ask about the NYC DEP’s water Bronx River 2 quality goals for the plan. Will the DEC. water be fishable and swimmable. If Send public comments to the State you paddler, row, or use the water in Gowanus Canal DEC. any other way, advocate for the water to be clean enough to swim in safely. The State DEC expected to invite Flushing Creek comments on whether to approve Ask the NYC DEP how they plan to The City DEP will submit final plan to 3 control CSO in your waterbody. Will Flushing Bay they reduce CSO? Can expanding the State DEC. June 2017 green infrastructure help reduce CSO? Or, will DEP add chlorine to 1 Nov. 4, 2015. disinfect CSO, and what health and Coney Island Creek Send public comments to the City environmental risks does this pose? DEP through Dec. 4, 2015. Ask about the relationship of 4 each waterbody to its neighboring Jamaica Bay & waterbodies. For example, is a Tributaries proposal to reduce CSOs in one planning has not begun, stay tuned for more waterbody increasing discharges in Newtown Creek information on status of plan and opportunities for an adjacent waterbody? public involvement Ask about the LTCP timeline. When is Citywide 5 the NYC DEP starting improvements (East River & Open and why? Waters)* *This status is SWIM's best estimate of where DEP is in their development process. Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (SWIM) Coalition is a coalition dedicated to ensuring swimmable and fishable waters around New York City through natural, sustainable stormwater management practices. For more information about the plans and to get involved with our outreach program, stay in touch: [email protected] | www.swimmablenyc.org | @SWIMcoalition Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek are located in North Central Queens. The watersheds have a combined drainage area of 18,854 acres, of which 61.2% is served by combined sewers.2 This accounts for almost 10% of New Why Flushing Bay York City’s total land area.3 According to the Long Term Control Plan timeline, the Flushing Creek and and Flushing Creek? Flushing Bay watersheds are the following to undergo review by the NYCDEP and in public engagement meetings. As our recommendation is to follow the LTCP public engagement process, the team developed a series of maps to understand the various demographic data within the watershed such as the median household income, language distribution, population density etc. The group also analysed the watershed area in terms of the sewersheds, and the stakeholders that operate within the watershed area. The various stakeholders include educational groups, govern- mental, non-profit groups, business etc. The analysis of the data helped develop ethnographic research and surveys to discover the efficacy of the WAIT! program in the Flushing Bay & Flushing Creek watershed.