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Once an open sewer, New York Harbor now teems with life
- neonate 4y agohttps://archive.ph/QZbfA https://archive.ph/QZbfA http://web.archive.org/web/20230101184445/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/opinion/new-york-harbor-clean-water-act.html http://web.archive.org/web/20230101184445/https://www.nytime...
- xvilka 4y agoTechnically, sewers also teem with life, just a different kind.
- sh1mmer 4y ago> At its worst, 10 feet of raw human waste blanketed portions of the harbor bottom, and certain reaches held little or no oxygen to sustain the life of its fishery. There is anaerobic life but much less of it there aerobic life. So it seems fair to argue that it wasn’t teeming at all.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- aliswe 4y agoA shame no photos were included
- bobbylarrybobby 4y agoHere's one from this past summer with photos of dolphins. Unbelievable (in a good way) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/science/dolphins-new-york-harbor.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/science/dolphins-new-york...
- neonate 4y agohttps://archive.ph/cmGfS https://archive.ph/cmGfS
- stephen_g 4y agoIt's fantastic to see. Nice that there are success stories like this, and others like the phaseout of leaded gasoline (last country in 2021 for land vehicles, hopefully general aviation soon). It's great that we finally seem to be making progress on PFAS too, but still many more substances to tackle (I hope things like phthalates will be the next ones to be eliminated).
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago> seem to be making progress on PFAS too It’s in your dental floss, too. Switch to silk or another natural fiber for flossing.
- _huayra_ 4y agoMy recommendation: Tom's of maine's natural floss is pretty good, but it might be a bit too thick for some folks
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoI can vouch for RADIUS silk unscented (no mint flavor or any other flavor). Even comes in a plastic-free container made only of cardboard and a small metal edge to cut the floss. It’s on Amazon.
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoThank you. Just bought some [1]. [1] https://madebyradius.com/products/natural-biodegradable-silk-floss2?variant=32322852552759 https://madebyradius.com/products/natural-biodegradable-silk...
- Gigachad 4y agoIt’s basically impossible to avoid. Not only is it added to almost everything, it just accumulates and exists in almost everything else.
- m_eiman 4y ago
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoThe filth, garbage, and trash on the streets of NYC in the 70s matched the filth in the harbor. Congrats on a great cleanup on both land and sea!
- janvdberg 4y agoReminds me of this 99pi story: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/oyster-tecture/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/oyster-tecture/
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoThe Billion Oyster Project [1] has great educational and volunteer opportunities. Their annual fundraiser in New York is also bomb (if you like to eat oysters). [1] https://www.billionoysterproject.org/ https://www.billionoysterproject.org/
- hackernewds 4y agoAre you implying this is a volunteer opportunity where people restore the oyster population. while also simultaneously eating... oysters?
- dachryn 4y agothe very same oysters that digest all the nasty stuff in the river. Has to be a great idea to eat those
- gilbertbw 4y agoI went and looked this up, because it sounded horrible. from https://www.billionoysterparty.org/oysterfarms https://www.billionoysterparty.org/oysterfarms > Oyster farms travel to the Billion Oyster Party from across the country, bringing their unique oysters for you to try — and pair with your favorite beverages.
- wil421 4y agoYou don’t eat them until after water quality has improved if it’s that bad. You also test for certain types of bacteria certain times of year depending on location. The biggest pollution is usually from run off and oysters eat nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen causes algae growth, like red tide, which deals all kinds of havoc to ecosystems.
- TeMPOraL 4y agoWhy not? If there's one tried and true way to ensure an animal or plant species survives and thrives despite the damage humanity does to the entire ecosystems, it's to make that animal or plant a food for humans. The most successful land animals today are... cows, pigs and chicken. (Compare with horses, which were successful because they were useful... until they weren't anymore, and their population dropped. And yes, this also implies that lab-grown meat is an extinction-level threat for aforementioned farm animals.)
- RajT88 4y agoI live on a river, and have lived near this river my whole life. This is the same story across the US. In 2012 when I took up fishing, I had a fellow tell me he had not seen a smallmouth bass caught out of the river in 30 years! Now it is trivial. Hard not to catch one. Just in the last 5 years the variety of birds showing up has changed. Many bald eagles and other raptors. 100+ strong flocks of pelicans. Pelicans! Apparently inland pelicans were normal 100 years go.
- rayiner 4y agoI left in the Chesapeake Bay and it’s the same story. It was never as industrial as New York Harbor, but suffered from tons of run off and other pollution in the 1970s. Now you can see bald eagles fishing in the early morning.
- andrewstuart 4y agoMelbourne is on Port Phillip Bay, nearly 2000 square kilometers in size. The government banned commercial net fishing in 2015, so the bay is now only for recreational fishing. I understand it had revived the ecosystem. https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bay-of-plenty-port-phillip-swimming-with-fish-after-commercial-net-ban-20170315-guytv2.html https://amp.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bay-of-plenty-po...
- kubb 4y agoThat Nixon character sounds so evil. How does one decide to veto the clean water act?
- Spooky23 4y agoJobs baby. What’s the big deal about 10 feet of poop in the East River? How many chemical workers should lose their livelihood for some oysters? Coastal elites eat oysters, real men eat steak.
- andy_ppp 4y agoIf the money is right a lot of bad decisions can seem obvious to a certain type of person.
- arlcode 4y agoAccording to this contemporary article he thought it was too expensive and could result in inflation and higher taxes [1] My take: Arguments never change in politics. I'll never understand why spending lots of money on military or company profits (aka the economy) is always prudent but improving the live of ordinary joe through quite cheap measures needs to be evaluated in great detail to not waste a single cent. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/18/archives/president-vetoes-clean-water-bill-nixon-acts-despite-strong.html https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/18/archives/president-vetoes...
- quickthrower2 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military–industrial_complex https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military–industrial_complex
- edwnj 4y ago[dead]
- veltas 4y agoPoorest people are hardest hit by inflation. The system is rigged from both ends, really. Sometimes it's conscientious to avoid inflation.
- MisterBastahrd 4y agoReminds me of The Great Stink of 1858 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink
- walthamstow 4y agoThe subject of a great episode of In Our Time just a few weeks ago.
- yakak 4y agoThat's a strange way to put it. What teems with more life than an open sewer?
- xg15 4y agoYeah, the article is good, but that headline had Onion qualities :)
- blitzar 4y agoIf I am not mistaken on my history, the NY sewers were the long time home to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- 411111111111111 4y agoIt depends on the sewage. Even bacteria die if there is lots of chemical waste innit, which was the case for a lot of so called open sewers.
- jollyllama 4y agoNot all life is equal.
- wkat4242 4y agoIt's life Jim, but not as we want it.
- notahacker 4y agoReminds me of a Terry Pratchett quip about looking at the microbes in the drinking water in Ankh Morpork, along the lines of anything that could support that much life had to be healthy
- nashashmi 4y agoThe gowanus canal is the last great Frontier of pollution to be cleaned. Rainstorm overflows are being reduced using rainwater gardens also known as "green" infrastructure, basically absorbable surfaces in sidewalk areas. Probably the biggest solution could have been to better regulate Rainstorm runoff from private properties. But the city did not pass such legislation except for larger properties.
- jimmytidey 4y agoLol, Gowanus canal
- MisterTea 4y ago> Probably the biggest solution could have been to better regulate Rainstorm runoff from private properties. But the city did not pass such legislation except for larger properties. This is a huge gripe of mine. I live in south Queens where the majority of homes are single family detached and so many have had their yards paved to 100% coverage. It infuriates me when I see water pouring down their driveways running into the streets. I don't know why but people seem to prefer hideous barren concrete to life supporting dirt. It pains me when I see a home sold and the property is cleansed vegetation and paved. Looking around my neighborhood on 1940s.nyc is depressing.
- josep-panadero 4y agoSomething similar happened close by my old neighborhood. The river was highly contaminated by close by industry. In the 80s a new initiative started to improve the quality of the river. Nowadays, there is promenade along the river and it is easy to see many birds around. People goes there to do jogging or cycle. The river is creating as much economic value as natural one. But it is nor inviting nor healthy to swim in the river, there is much more work to be done.
- eliseumds 4y agoHow much of that is actually due to the Clean Water Act (nation-wide)? Moving industries away to SEA/China/India probably had a bigger impact, now it's their problem.
- acomjean 4y agoA river actually catching on fire because of all the pollution was one of the starts of the environmental movement in the 60s. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught... We’ve come a long way but still more todo.
- ilamont 4y agoBoston Harbor was a dumping ground in living memory. There were industrial sites along the Charles, which empties into the harbor. Sewage went right into the water. Trash was dumped there. It was toxic. You can now catch bluefish, see harbor seals, and even spot whales within sight of skyscrapers. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/08/01/humpback-whale-spotted-breaching-in-boston-harbor/ https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/08/01/humpback-w... One of my favorite transformations: Spectacle Island, which doubled in size after being used as a city dump from the 1920s until 1959, is now a national park. https://www.bostonharborislands.org/spectacle-island/ https://www.bostonharborislands.org/spectacle-island/ https://www.nps.gov/places/spectacle-island.htm https://www.nps.gov/places/spectacle-island.htm
- prottog 4y ago> One of my favorite transformations: Spectacle Island, which doubled in size after being used as a city dump from the 1920s until 1959, is now a national park. Nitpick: it's a National Recreation Area, not a (capital) National Park. I suppose in lowercase it carries a different meaning :-)
- lapetitejort 4y agoThe naming scheme used by the National Park Service is so confusing. My only contribution is that "National Park" means funding has been designated via Congress; "National Monument" means designated via the executive branch.
- blamazon 4y agoA nice page with all the various NPS designations: https://www.nps.gov/articles/nps-designations.htm https://www.nps.gov/articles/nps-designations.htm TIL of National Preserves and National Reserves, which are different.... The parkways are also somewhat odd. I didn't know NPS operated so many miles of urban roadway.
- emptysea 4y agoSewage still goes in the river during heavy rains at the numerous sewage outflows I think it’s technically a combined sewer system that has both street water and sewage so when it rains, the system gets overloaded. Fixing the sewer system is a massive project
- paulcole 4y agoFor a sad look at what happens when things go in the opposite direction: https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2021/it-runs-downhill-the-fight-to-save-floridas-indian-river-lagoon https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2021/it-runs-downhill-t... I grew up in this area and it’s very sad to see a place that held an incredible amount of life become a shell of what it once was.
- gausswho 4y agoI've visited and fished the Indian River and had no idea. Thank you for sharing, sad as it is to read. The site has some other good reads too.
- paulcole 4y agoEvery summer, my dad and I used to sail the Intracoastal Waterway from St. Augustine down to Marathon in the Keys (and back) and I’d fish the whole way. Once we took the motor off the boat and sailed into the Banana River No Motor Zone near NASA to spend the night. They were doing a night launch of something and a helicopter flew over us and shined a light on us before the launch. I guess we looked harmless enough! One of my favorite places was Eau Gallie with the big concrete dragon — which now is long gone as well. Bitter Southerner is a great site and worth supporting with a membership or one-time donation. I like a lot of their merch too and proudly wear my Yoknapatawpha t-shirt.
- User23 4y agoDon’t open sewers also teem with life?
- moloch-hai 4y agoPresumably they mean "multicellular life". Or "wildlife". As distinct from toxic and anaerobic microbes.
- Scubabear68 4y agoA lot of this goes back go the Clean Water Act from the early 70s, and how it’s precedent enabled more local laws and bodies to focus on water quality (like the Delaware River Basin Commission near me protecting the Delaware River watershed). These laws and orgs can be overly bureaucratic, and need constant monitoring to make sure they don’t halt all progress in a given area, but it is a vast improvement to earlier times when the government cares not a whit about water quality. We have the same story here on the Delaware - a river you would not want to dip a single toe into 20 years ago is now beautiful, serves as drinking water to millions, and supports all sorts of hunting, fishing and tourism industries.
- msla 4y agoOpen sewers teem with life, too. That's rather the problem: They have plenty of infectious life.