SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: Geoffrey Croft via awalkintheparknyc.blogspot.com

Source: Geoffrey Croft via awalkintheparknyc.blogspot.com

Early Thursday morning to Friday, 1,100 gallons of gas and oil spilled into the Paerdegat Basin Creek, which connects to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, after a pipe-cementing incident had gone wrong.

We reported on the story as it broke, and more information has since been released . Geoffrey Croft, blogger at A Walk In The Park NYC and founder of NYC Park Advocates has put together some photos of the environmental calamity and got feedback from local mariners.

“You could taste oil in your mouth” a boater said at the Midget Squadron Yacht Club, according to Croft, who also notes that neighbors were reporting headaches and nausea.

After the spill, the Coast Guard sent out pollution responders which included the FDNY, DEC and the Miller Environmental Group, an environmental waste crew. The cleanup crews are  laying down oil booms and blue absorbent pads in the water to help soak up the oil.

Over the weekend, officials were near the spill warning boaters and fishermen not to go near the water.

National Grid, which is the company that was replacing the pipe that initially leaked the toxins, was on hand, too. According to Croft, “Contractors were filling up multiple 55 gallons drums along Seaview Avenue in front of Canarsie Park.”

National Grid released the following statement after the spill:

On Sept. 27 National Grid and its contractor were working on filling in an old gas main that is no longer in service with cement.

During the process an oily water residue spilled from the exit pipe into a valve box. An odor from the residue was released, resulting in a number of odor calls. We were onsite with crews throughout the night investigating and did not find any gas leaks. We immediately notified the appropriate agencies and we and our environmental contractors are working under the direction of the Coast Guard and the NYS DEC to clean up a spill in Paerdergat Basin.

“Our whole club filled with gas,” said Mike Keller from the Diamond Point Yacht Club, a maritime club within the vicinity of the spill. ”My car completely filled will the smell of methane gas to the point where I was gagging. This whole area was filled with methane gas, waves of gas.”

Keller also said the spill spread was pushed out by outgoing tides to Jamaica Bay on Friday.

“Coast Guard pollution responders, working closely with city and state partners, will ensure the responsible party performs a proper and complete cleanup of the spill site,” wrote Petty Officer Erik Swanson, Coast Guard spokesman in New York, in a statement.

If National Grid is found responsible for any wrong-doing, they will be fined.

Lisa King, from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation stated that the spill “contained some PCBs,” which is a persistent organic pollutant, whose production was banned in the late 70′s. She goes on to say that:

At this point, it appears the spill is contained to that waterway. National Grid was performing work in the area at the time. You need to contact them for more specifics on the work they were doing. We are advising against recreational fishing and boating in the waterway until further notice. National Grid hired a contractor to clean up the work that has been on scene since the night of the spill. DEC is overseeing the work with the US Coast Guard. Once the immediate spill clean up efforts are complete, DEC will conduct sampling to see if there is lingering environmental damage.

In the meantime,boaters are still asked to stay away from the contaminated site.

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz issues a press release this morning, commending the state Department of Environmental Conservation for their fast response to Friday’s oil spill in Jamaica Bay.

Below is the press release:

In the wake of Friday’s oil and gas spill in JamaicaBay, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn), a member of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation, is praising the state agency charged with overseeing the investigation for its quick response and asking to be kept informed as the probe into the spill moves forward.

According to published reports, National Grid was cementing an “older pipe” on the evening of September 28 when 1,100 gallons of natural gas condensate, compressor oil and turbine oil discharged into Jamaica Bay.

Inspectors from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEC) and Coast Guard responded, and an environmental response contractor hired by National Grid has been working to suck the water-oil mixture out of the area to prevent further environmental damage.

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UPDATED POST (7:28 p.m.): National Grid contractors are cleaning up 1,100 gallons of gas and oil that gushed into the waters of Paerdegat Basin, which connects to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, after an accident Friday night.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson told Sheepshead Bites that National Grid was cementing an older pipe when there was an unexpected discharge of hazardous materials at approximately 1:30 a.m. The discharge was a mixture of natural gas condensate, compressor oil and turbine oil.

National Grid alerted the Coast Guard, who sent a pollution responder team to the scene, along with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation inspectors.

The company hired Miller Environmental Group, a Long Island-based environmental response contractor, to clean the waters, which involves sucking the water-oil mixture out of the area to prevent anymore sheening or environmental damage, Swanson said.

The contractors will be working throughout today and tomorrow, but the repairs are expected to continue past the weekend.

Coast Guard and local governmental agencies will investigate the cause of the accident. If National Grid is determined to have caused it or acted inappropriately, they will be fined, Swanson said. There will also be continued testing of the waters to ensure the public’s safety.

Authorities are cautioning mariners and fishermen to avoid the area.

Original Post (5:00 p.m.): Authorities are telling fishermen, mariners and water enthusiasts to stay away from the Paerdegat Basin are of Jamaica Bay, following a National Grid oil spill. Here’s the alert:

Alert issued 9/29/12 at 4:45 PM. Oil spill contractors working for National Gird Corporation, under the direction of the US Coast Guard and the NYS DEC, are working to clean up a spill of oil and hazardous materials in Paerdergat Basin, Brooklyn. The public is advised to avoid fishing and recreational activity in this area until further notice. An odor may also be present in the area. There is no danger of an explosion.

We have contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the circumstances of the spill and are awaiting a response.

This is a breaking news story and may contain inaccuracies. We will update it as more information becomes available. If anyone has more information or additional photos, please send them to tips (at) sheepsheadbites (dot) com.

Source: NYPost.com

A police sergeant is facing disciplinary charges after his thoughtless actions allegedly led to the sinking of a fully-equipped $500,000 Port Authority patrol in the waters between Breezy Point and Manhattan Beach earlier this month.

According to a New York Post report, the officer ordered the opening of a hatch beneath the water line, causing the vessel to flood and putting 11 lives at risk.

The vessel sank 40 feet to the ocean floor on September 9, forcing eight officers and three civilians to swim approximately 900 feet to shore. Nobody was seriously injuried.

The 37-foot M-2 Moose Boat, equipped with firefighting hoses, nozzles, marine radios, radar, GPS, scuba gear and inflatable rafts, went under during routing rescue exercises after “vibrations” were felt coming from the ship’s engines. A civilian safety consultant from Ocean Rescue Systems, a Maine-based firm hired by the Port Authority to oversee the exercises, suggested the officer open the hatch to take a look.

The hatch, though, was under the water line, and should only have been opened in dry dock.

The boat sank within a half-hour.

The officer faces disciplinary charges and, according to the Post, “will likely lose vacation days for failing to maintain supervisory control and basically abdicating his command to a civilian.”

Reader Kathleen Higgins snagged this photo of the quirky Dragonfly Banquet roaming the waters of the Rockaway Inlet this past Sunday.

The vessel is a unique raft made entirely of recycled materials by Tim Johnson and Gretchen Neutrino in 1995, and the raft’s beautiful murals were painted by Gretchen in a fit of psychedelic inspiration.

The ship itself originally arrived in the New York-area after sailing down from Provincetown, Massachusetts, making a stop in Martha’s Vinyard, then reaching its final destination in  Broad Channel, Queens, and becoming a part of the artist’s collective in the middle of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

The Dragonfly Banquet is a raft constructed entirely from recycled materials of another ship, that was also constructed of entirely recycled materials.  The original ship, known as the “Son of Town Hall,” was the first vessel made entirely from scrap and recyclables to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The journey of the original ship was a perilous two-month trip that featured a crew member heart attack, and intense storms with gale force winds. What remains of the “Son of Town Hall” is probably what’s built into the Dragonfly Banquet, as the original vessel was set for imminent destruction by French authorities as of 2008.

Well known are the stories of heroism on the part of firefighters, police officers and other first responders on September 11, 2001. But there’s yet another story of heroism that has largely gone under the radar, involving ordinary civilians who put their life and property in harm’s way to save others.

Boatlift chronicles the story of the largest sea evacuation in history, when a fleet of civilian and Coast Guard vessels voluntarily navigated to the seawall of lower Manhattan, and helped evacuate nearly 500,000 people in less than nine hours.

Sheepshead Bay’s own Vincent Ardolino, captain of the Amberjack V, was one of those who played a pivotal role on that September morning 11 years ago. Seeing the attack on the news, he boarded his vessel and set out to ferry evacuees between the boroughs – long before the Coast Guard put out a call to all available ships for help in the evacuation. Ardolino is heavily featured in the film, as are captains from around Brooklyn and New York City, as well as New Jersey.

Boatlift was executive produced by Stephen Flynn and Sean Burke, and co-directed by Rick Velleu. It premiered on September 8 at the “9/11 Tenth Anniversary Summit: Remembrance/Renewal/Resilience” in Washington. The summit kicked off a national movement to foster community and national resilience in the face of future crises. See www.road2resilience.org to learn more.

Photo by Scott K.

We began receiving e-mails yesterday about a boat found mysteriously dumped in the middle of Emmons Avenue near Batchelder Street, blocking traffic and turning eastbound Emmons Avenue into a one-lane strip.

The first spotting we heard about was just after 7:00 a.m., where it sat for at least 24 hours before Sanitation workers arrived this morning, loaded it on a flatbed truck, and hauled it off – again at approximately 7:00 a.m.

Keep reading, and see more photos.

Source: Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons

Folks strolling along the Emmons Avenue pier may notice the dinner boats, the restaurants and the swans in the Bay. And, of course, that local trademark: groups of fishermen, at the crack of dawn, continuing Sheepshead Bay’s traditional line of work.

The New York Times ran a profile of one of the fishermen, 28-year-old Kyle Kaltenmaier, who works on the Sea Queen 7, a party boat that docks along Emmons Avenue.

Kaltenmaier, who is from Woodhaven, Queens, is a first mate and an aspiring professional poker player. Better known as “Dolphin” to his crew, he reels in as many customers off the street as he does fish of the day.

The day the Times was there, he pulled 20 would-be fishermen for one of the Sea Queens’ three cruises.

On the boat, after the rods are hooked and baited, the lines are dropped and everyone relaxes, Kaltenmaier’s job is telling fishing tales like a modern-day Hemingway.

He talks about the whale he saw off the Rockaways and fishing disasters he’s had to avert with novice anglers.

As fulfilling as his life may seem, Kaltenmaier wants to take a break from the sea and spend more time in the casinos. As an aspiring professional Texas hold’em player, he wants to hit it big.

He’s been saving his fishing money and taking breaks in the winter time to work his card shark game in Altlantic City.

“I’ve tried it the past few years, but it’s just never worked out,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting the right cardS.”

Kaltenmaier said he got into poker after watching passengers playing on the ship. He got so good that he was banned from playing against his customers.

“Poker is a lot like fishing: part luck, part skill,” said Kaltenmaier.

As you flip through the photos in this article, you’ll need to remind yourself: yes, this is still New York City.

It’s an easy fact to forget on the waters of Jamaica Bay and, just outside the Rockaway inlet, the Atlantic Ocean. Homes seem few and far between. Greenery is lush. And, oh, the quiet is so… quiet.

But on a clear, sunny day like June 24, the day of the 26th Annual Blessing of the Fleet, the Freedom Tower and Manhattan skyline loom in the background, an impressive reminder of place.

The Blessing of the Fleet is an annual tradition in which all of Sheepshead Bay’s yacht and boating club members converge in the open waters, sail through the Bay, and past the Emmons Avenue yacht clubs. There, leaders of various faiths dole out wishes of good fortune and safety to more than 100 participating vessels.

Find out more about the event, and view our photos!

From Newsday:

The fluke and porgy seasons open in New York waters Tuesday with less restrictive rules on the number and size fish anglers can take.

For fluke, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cut the size of keeper fish this month to 19.5 inches from 20.5 last year. Anglers can keep four fluke of that size, compared with three last year. The season ends Sept. 30, same as last year.

… In January, the DEC said the easing was likely because anglers didn’t catch their full allotment last year. Some said that was because the larger size and smaller amount made fishing unfeasible, particularly compared with states such as New Jersey, which can catch more, smaller fluke.

“These regulation changes reflect improvements to populations of scup, black sea bass and summer flounder,” said DEC Assistant Commissioner for Natural Resources Kathy Moser, who added the scup, or porgy, fishery is “particularly robust.”

… The DEC also eased rules for porgies, or scup, doubling the number anglers can keep to 20 from 10, and extending the season to Dec. 31. The size limit remains the same at 10.5 inches for those on shore or in private boats. Those on licensed party/charter boats face an 11-inch size limit, but they can take 40 fish during September and October.

The DEC eased the black sea bass restriction to include 15 fish during a season that starts June 15 and ends Dec. 31, with a minimum size of 13 inches.

That should be good news to Sheepshead Bay’s fishing fleet, the operators of which have long complained that New York State’s heavy-handed restrictions hurt their ability to compete with nearby fleets in New Jersey and elsewhere. It hasn’t been all good news from the DEC this year, though; the agency tightened restrictions on blackfish in March.