6 NEWTOWN CREEK Vision Plan 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 Executive Summary Throughout the visioning In early 2015, the Newtown Creek 46). They range from the conspicuous Superfund Community Advisory Group (removal of contamination, stopping process, there were (CAG), met at LaGuardia Community ongoing pollution sources, and preventing College to develop a set of guiding future contamination) to the less overt few messages that principles and thereby establishing a (promotion and protection of industrial resounded with the framework for determining the future of uses, restoration of indigenous wildlife the Creek and its surroundings as the in the water and onshore, resilience in community as clearly EPA’s process for remediation moved light of climate change and its impacts on forward. The members of the CAG knew Creek communities, and public access as the need for better that if any long term plan for the cleanup and participation in the waterway). connections between the of the waterway were to be a success, They are a dynamic and proactive set the bar had to be set high in order to see of guidelines, designed to usher in a communities and the appropriate attention and investments. Newtown Creek for the 21st century; waterways. They knew that if the community robust, resilient, and as teaming with life surrounding the Creek was to benefit from as the City that surrounds it. the coming remediation they had to be With City plans for sewage and involved as proactive participants in the stormwater pollution investments taking planning of its future restoration. shape through DEP’s Long Term Control From that initial meeting, 12 Guiding Plan (LTCP), legacy contamination clean- Principles were outlined (see page up through the EPA’s Superfund process Newtown Creek at Whale Creek 8 NEWTOWN CREEK Vision Plan 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / The Vision underway, and redevelopment of all kinds exploding in communities surrounding the waterfront, Newtown Creek needs its own comprehensive long-term plan, one that pulls all of these elements together and sees the waterway in its future, cohesive state. The CAG’s principles were the first concrete steps in creating a roadmap for agencies at the helm of the Creek’s remediation. This Vision Plan takes those principles and builds off of them; visualizing a new way for the Creek to function in the coming century. To create such a roadmap, Riverkeeper and the Newtown Creek Alliance, alongside A working waterfront A natural waterfront Creek stakeholders in the Brooklyn and Queens communities, launched the vision community, have yet to launch – given infrastructure alike. process to capture decades of community the pollution and access barriers extant The industrial sector around Newtown conversations in one report. in this watershed. The Vision Plan is Creek inadvertently has removed many also a record of the pollution, access, With all of the pollution presently of these neighborhoods from their and investment barriers facing Newtown discharging into these waterways each waterway. Crucial to past and present Creek, and a plan for how to overcome year, and uncertainty around access and regional economies, these industrial those barriers, together. the way in which Superfund remediation sites are both the cause of many of the and restoration will take place, there THE CREEK Creek’s worst problems and hold the keys is, and always has been, a community Determining a path forward for the to many of the it’s most valuable clean of people fighting for this community Newtown Creek requires efforts and water innovations. However and often resource and a place to play, learn, fish, innovation through large tracts of both surprisingly, recreational activities abound and paddle. We hope that this report Queens and Brooklyn, it’s clear that throughout the Creek, despite toxic captured the concepts of the local change in the waterway is driven by contamination, sewage and stormwater community – residents, businesses, change in the watershed. The Creek pollution, and inaccessible waterfronts. visitors, and visionaries alike. both connects and divides a number Street-end access points, boat clubs, and environmental education hubs have We see Newtown Creek not as an of communities in Queens (Long arisen in several of the quiet corners unapproachable problem, or as forgotten Island City, Sunnyside, Maspeth, and and protected areas of the Creek. With a waterway; rather, we see waterways Ridgewood) and Brooklyn (Greenpoint, valuable and significant maritime uses, teeming with aquatic life, active East Williamsburg and Bushwick). These historically low levels of pollution, new recreational communities, clean water neighborhoods are home to hundreds commercial investments, and growing stewards, and committed educators. We of thousands of New Yorkers; a host of local neighborhoods, Newtown Creek see a waterway with great potential. cultures, economies, and interests. Many of these areas are experiencing rapid plays a unique and crucial role in the This Vision Plan is a community- commercial and exponential residential economic, social, and urban environment driven catalog of these efforts already expansion and growth, exerting extreme of Queens, Brooklyn - all at the underway, as well as some new ideas pressures on existing industry and (geographic) center of New York City. for investments and innovations we, the 9 STATE OF THE CREEK A singularly complex and dynamic urban ecosystem, Newtown Creek is deeply polluted and has suffered more than a century of degradation. The last two decades however, remarkable strides have been made to reverse this legacy. The ebbs and flows of use and abuse, attention, and care from the regulatory and management agencies, universities, industries, and local advocacy efforts, continue to shape the Creek systems we work and live with today and will define the bounds of what is possible for the future. These complex systems are not always easy to define, some elements of them are very clear; legacy pollution, Surface contamination in the Creek ongoing contamination, rebounding ecosystems, a transitioning industrial wetlands that do exist (or have been built) impermeable surfaces that lead from core, exploding adjacent commercial and in the Creek reveal the potential for the to the water's’ edge to several blocks residential development, a strong and waterway to realize the many co-benefits upland. Multiple truck routes, highways, growing group of community advocates of salt marsh restoration, such as water and significant bridges cross the Creek, and stewards. How these systems filtration by native mussels and oysters the Pulaski, recently modified for better intertwine to form a healthy future is what and storm surge protection due to energy bike and pedestrian use, the newly-rebuilt this planning document envisions. absorbing landscapes. Kosciuszko, the more than a century old Grand Street bridge and a host of Ecologically, the naturalized riprap, hard The Creek, home to water-dependent streets along and around the shoreline bulkheads and soft edges, floating docks industries – barges brining materials in are all highly trafficked industrial and and fledgling salt marsh wetlands, street and carrying the City’s wastes out – must commuter corridors. Pressing up against ends and sewer outfalls of the Creek are figure prominently in this Vision. These this industrial activity the region is being all a part of the larger estuary system that industries are the hidden life's blood to reshaped by dense new developments, is the New York Harbor. Tidally driven and the City; providing well paid entry level new infrastructure, and new zoning plans. inundated by runoff with every rainfall, blue collar jobs, critical infrastructure, these waterways have the potential to and economic stability to many of the Layered over these ecological, social, be part of a very productive regional surrounding communities. The waterway and economic considerations is the ecosystem. Today, however, much of the itself is designated as a Significant catastrophic stress caused by ongoing historic wetlands, marshes, seagrasses Maritime and Industrial Area (SMIA); sewage and stormwater pollution. The and soft edges have been transformed, industries along the Creek move over a vast majority of the land that drains hardened with bulkheads, functionally million tons of freight by barge every year. to this waterway – the ~6,500 acre removed from the rest of the ecosystem The Creek’s waterfront is nearly entirely Newtown Creek sewershed – is served – in short, the Creek has been turned industrial - the Mouth of the Creek being by a combined sewer system. In this from a natural wetland to a man made the only exception. antiquated waste water system (where waterfront, losing the benefits of habitat storm drains in the streets are connected Expansive pre war rooftops, enormous rich soft edges and water infiltrating soils. underground with the sewer pipes parking lots, miles of pavement, all The natural and constructed floating coming from homes and businesses), 10 NEWTOWN CREEK Vision Plan 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / The Vision precipitation events as common as appear hopelessly marred by humanities site, relief and environmental justice is in 1/10th of an inch can exceed the sewers’ activities. sight. capacity, overflow within the system, and Industry, particularly oil and other Newtown Creek was listed on the National discharge directly into the Creek. Up to refineries and metal processing facilities, Priorities list in 2010, triggering