By Alex Robinson
The city launched a planning process last week to clean up the ever-smelly and polluted Flushing Creek.
In 1987, the city proposed building a sewage retention tank in Flushing Meadows Corona Park to help deal with large amounts of sewage that has flowed into the creek for decades from three combined sewer overflows.
After years of arguments between park and environmental advocates over whether it should be built, the 43-million-gallon tank, which cost $349 million, was completed in 2007.
A second retention tank is now one of a number of ideas the city Department of Environmental Protection is considering to lessen the 800 million gallons of sludge that seep into the creek every year.
DEP officials announced what they called their Long Term Control Plan, which will examine ways to tackle the problem, at a sparsely attended meeting last week.
Officials presented a number of alternatives they will consider as part of the plan. These included installing green infrastructure such as green roofs, curbside bioswales and permeable pavements, which will reduce the amount of rainwater flowing into the overburdened combined sewer system.
Advocates looking to clean up the creek, however, said just installing green infrastructure would do little to solve the problem.
James Cervino, chairman of Community Board 7’s Environmental Committee and a professor in marine pollution at the Woods Hold Oceanography Institute in Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview before the meeting that the area needs a second retention tank to help alleviate the sewer overflows.
“Why are we spending money on putting a Band-Aid on something that won’t solve the problem?” he said of green infrastructure initiatives.
Cervino commended DEP for building the existing tank, which holds sewage, diminishing the burden of the combined sewer overflows during heavy rainfalls.
Officials said building an additional retention tank and dredging the creek are options they are considering, but they did not commit to any specific plans at the meeting.
The city has already committed to dredging 16.8 acres of Flushing Bay, a larger body of water adjacent to the creek.
DEP said it will conduct its research over the summer and then present its plan to the public at an October meeting, before it is finalized a month later.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
