SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

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.

Photo by John

Last month, a recently opened recycling center – a hub for those bottle-and-can scavengers – became the target of angry neighbors on East 15th Street and Avenue U. Neighboring businesses and residents complained about crowded sidewalks, awful stenches and litter, as reported by Brooklyn Daily.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, responsible for licensing such centers, fined the business for lacking proper paperwork. Later, according to Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, it was found to violate zoning, too.

The business, Mainstream Recycling Group, shut down at the end of July.

Though neighbors near Avenue U were upset when it operated and happy when it closed, neighbors on Avenue Y had the opposite reaction.

Find out why the Avenue Y underpass is a mess, and what local leaders are doing about it.

SEAL! (Credit: Melissa Alvarez, Senior Project Biologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.)

The following was sent to us by Dr. JoAnne Castagna, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District:

As construction workers maneuver bulldozers and spread sand to restore the degrading marsh island, Yellow Bar Hassock in Jamaica Bay, their work is being closely observed by an area resident.

“For the past few months we’ve seen him on the site. He just keeps doing his thing,” said Melissa Alvarez, a senior project biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.

The resident Alvarez is referring to is a harbor seal who has been seen lying on the dredge pipeline that is delivering the sand and sunning himself as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs its work.

“I find it so amazing every time we construct one of these island projects how quickly wildlife will use this area.”

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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.

It was way back in 2009 that Sheepshead Bites and Brooklyn Independent Television (a.k.a. BCAT) teamed up on the video above to tell the story of Sheepshead Bay’s struggling recreational fishing industry. With the help of Brooklyn VI’s Captain Sapanara, we identified some of the key issues facing the fleet, which shrank from dozens to just a handful in the last two decades. The causes included rising gas prices, cultural changes and a slew of overwhelming regulations that are smothering locals’ ability to compete with out-of-state fleets.

New regulations unveiled by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently have now dealt another blow, shortening the blackfish season by nearly four months, and upping the minimum size limit of each fish caught.

According to Courier-Life:

The state Department of Environmental Conservation shortened the 2012 Blackfish fishing season — which usually runs from October until April — for recreational casters by 70 days, forcing it to end in January. The agency also increased the minimum size limit of the catch by 2 inches, so that many of the Blackfish that were hooked had to be returned to the sea.

Charter boat captains say blackfish — which are also known as tautog and oyster fish and taste like cod or flounder — are a winter staple for fishermen trolling borough waters. Now that the blackfish season has been cut short in New York, their business has been cut by nearly 60 percent as recreational anglers go to New Jersey, they say.

“In a time of economic hardship why we’d want to send business out of state is beyond me,” said Greg Nardiello, captain of the recreational vessel Ocean Eagle, which used to troll for the ugly, but tasty, water breathers nicknamed “the poor man’s lobster.” “Blackfish is really the big ticket fish in the winter season. Now people are heading to New Jersey for it.”

Much like other regulations that determine the size and number of the catch, the latest rule-tightening is based on the population of the target species. The problem is that the data being used is either wrong or outdated.

Even the Fisheries Commission admitted that their numbers were off base: in a statement released on March 7, the agency admitted that their determination to reduce blackfish fishing by 53 percent was an overestimation and only a 37 percent reduction was necessary — meaning that the blackfish season could have could have extended.

Adding insult to injury, New York opts to follow more restrictive federal guidelines, while neighboring states like New Jersey determine their own rules – even if they’re fishing in the same waters. As many local fishermen point out, that often means a Sheepshead Bay boat might be anchored next to a New Jersey boat and casting into the same spot, but local passengers may only be allowed to bring home two fish, while New Jersey anglers can take home more.

According to Courier-Life, Department of Environmental Conservation officials will meet later this month to discuss the changes.

Director of the Northeast Chapter of the American Littoral Society and Jamaica Bay Guardian Don Riepe said toxin levels in Jamaica Bay's waters needs further study. (Source: Laura Vladimirova)

A proposal to allow deicing chemicals and other toxins from John F. Kennedy International Airport to flow freely into Jamaica Bay has sparked a heated debate between city and state agencies and local stakeholders around New York City’s most important federal parkland.

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Source: uaff.info

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx until 11:00 p.m. tonight. That means all the pollutants that we New Yorkers persist in calling “air” are getting stirred up with the heat and humidity, elevating the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the five boroughs to 101, more than double what would be considered “normal.”

What’s the AQI, anyway? Well, the DEC’s website puts it thusly:

The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. It was created as an easy way to correlate levels of different pollutants to one scale; the higher the AQI value, the greater the health concern. When levels of ozone and/or fine particles are expected to exceed an AQI value of 100, an Air Quality Health Advisory is issued alerting sensitive groups to take the necessary precautions.

This means that all the fine particles that shoot out the end of your cars, float up from your barbecue grills, creep away from your cigarettes, or otherwise take to the air are reacting with the sunlight, heat and moisture to weigh on your lungs. So if you’re sensitive to that kind of stuff – and that means anyone with lung disease, such as asthma – you should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.

Really, the takeaway here is that you’ve got a damn good excuse to chill out in some air conditioning. Feel free to print out today’s AQI forecast and tell your boss that going to the Post Office for him can actually kill you. Then spend that time surfin’ around Sheepshead Bites.

Source: Department of Transportation newsletter

A new Belt Parkway exit ramp will open tomorrow serving drivers at Rockaway Parkway (Exit 13). It’s the first stage of the new, permanent exit ramp. Upon full completion, the exit ramp will provide a wider lane, better riding surface and a safety shoulder for emergency stopping. The increased width will also provide better visibility while exiting the highway.

But that’s not the only update with the Belt Parkway reconstruction, which began at the end of 2009 and will ultimately see seven Southern Brooklyn Belt Parkway bridges replaced by 2016. While commuters have been banging their heads over the construction-spurred traffic problems, environmentalists may have reason to rejoice. As part of the project, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is mandating the contract recipient tidy up the shoreline and restore wetland habitats.

Find out more about what they’ll be cleaning up, and how it’s progressing.

Smog over Manhattan and Brooklyn - Courtesy of urbanfeel via Flickr

Whenever I see a Notify NYC alert in my inbox, I half expect it to be announcing the end of days.

Usually, though, reality falls far short of my expectations, and Notify NYC is sending a note about low-flying planes or something banal going on nowhere near here (and that’s good… boring, but good).

Today, though, I got this one:

Notification issued 06/04/10 at 11:40 AM. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx from 1 PM to 10 PM today.  For more information visit the NY State DEC website at http://bit.ly/ddZ0rw

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It was ten years ago that scientists began to take note of Jamaica Bay’s rapidly deteriorating marshes, and earlier this year that Congressman Anthony Weiner proclaimed a four point plan to target the culprit: nitrogen. While small projects have come and gone to shore up the city’s most important ecological treasure, which includes Plumb Beach and Gateway National Park, they proved to be akin to putting a band-aid on a late stage Ebola victim. Well, Ebola-infected Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, get ready for your cast!

The United States Army Corps of Engineers announced last week that it will partner with several agencies to help restore the dying salt marshes. The marshes starting shrinking by more than 44 acres a year, according to a study done in 2001. At the time, scientists predicted it would be gone in 20 years, and with it the fish, shellfish, birds, and plants that make the most unique and important ecosystem in the northeastern coastline. The marshes help improve water quality by removing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphates. That is, unless it overdoses on those ingredients

And it has. More than 250 million gallons of “treated” shit, piss, and children’s dead goldfish pour into Jamaica Bay each day from four wastewater treatment facilities. The nitrogen buildup proved to be too much for the marshes, and like a heroin addict with too much smack, they’re withering away.

That’s why in November the Corps of Engineers (Earth), Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Fire), the U.S. National Park Service (Wind), the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation (Water), and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (Heart) have combined their powers to dump 200,000 cubic yards of clean sand (Captain Planet) into our Bay. The project aims to restore about 35 acres of low and high marsh habitat in Jamaica Bay, at a cost of $11.5 million.

This is a good thing, right? We think so, but we still can’t shake the idea that this is just a larger, more expensive band-aid on that heroin-addicted Ebola victim. Afterall, if the marshes are declining by 44 acres each year, how the hell will 35 acres and $11.5 million change the situation?