By Madina Toure
The city Department of Environmental Protection announced that a new interceptor line that will reduce combined sewer overflows into Flushing Bay, Powell’s Cove and Little Bay has been activated.
In 2012, the DEP started constructing a 2,100-foot-long, 6-foot-high by 6-foot-wide sewer line running north from the intersection of 131st Street and 11th Avenue under Powell’s Cove Park in Whitestone to the Tallman Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in College Point.
The project, which cost $30 million, is expected to reduce combined sewer overflows—when a diluted mixture of rainwater, human waste and sewage is released into local waterways once the sewer reaches capacity—into local waterways by nearly 140 million gallons each year.
“The completion of this new interceptor sewer line will result in cleaner and healthier water in Flushing Bay, Powell’s Cove and Little Bay,” DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd said in a statement. “We are also pleased to have been able to add wetlands and improve Powell’s Cove Park for the enjoyment of local residents.”
On a dry-weather day, the treatment plant receives, cleans and disinfects about 55 million gallons of wastewater.
James Cervino, CB 7’s environmental chairman and president of the College Point Transfer Station Advisory Board, commended the DEP’s treatment plant, noting that it lowers the nitrogen, phosphorous and ammonia levels in the plant.
But he said the sewer line would help lower the amount of nutrients and raw sewage getting into Flushing Bay.
“When it rains, now raw stuff is going to go out into the bay,” Cervino said. “It’s going to capture it. It’s going to hold it.”
Before excavation and construction of the sewer line began, a diversion chamber was constructed under the intersection of 131st Street and 11th Avenue, which directs wastewater into the new interceptor sewer line.
The existing section of sewer running under 11th Avenue between 130th and 131st streets was then disconnected, and a valve was opened to allow the flow to run north from 131st Street and 11th Avenue into the new sewer.
The DEC also enlarged outlets and raised a weir—a low bar or dam built across a river—at 11th Avenue and 138th Street, 7th Avenue and 144th Street and 15th Drive and Willets Point Boulevard, key regulators within the existing drainage system, to allow for more wastewater to flow toward the new interceptor.
DEP worked with the city Parks Department and the Public Design Commission to restore Powell’s Cove Park. About 700 new trees and shrubs were planted, 1.3 million acres of tidal wetlands were enhanced and a quarter-acre of new wetland was added. They also replanted three acres of grass and wildflowers, added a new split rail fence and removed a dilapidated wooden pier.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
