Loughlin Visits Newtown Creek

On November 13th, 21 students from Mr. Effron’s Environmental Sustainability class, along with science teacher Mr. Nelson, traveled by subway to Greenpoint to investigate New York City’s complicated relationship with its water.

First, the class visited with the Newtown Creek Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring Newtown Creek, a 4-mile tidal strait that feeds into the East River. The Creek is one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country, and is slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars to help to clean it up. The Alliance provided a colorful narrative detailing how oil, rubber, chemical, and other dirty industries knowingly polluted the creek over decades, including an undetected oil leak that became the largest land-based oil spill in U.S. history. We then toured the Alliance’s impressive Green Roof, which helps reduce stormwater runoff into the Creek, and did a walking tour of the trail built along the Creek. There, we took water samples to be tested for pollutants back in class, and also hauled up an oyster cage full of crabs, shrimp, and fish, revealing just how resilient life on earth can be.

The class then walked over to the nearby Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility, the largest of 14 facilities dedicated to cleaning NYC’s wastewater–a mix of stormwater and water used in homes, businesses, factories, etc–before releasing it safely into the East River. After learning about the way that NYC gets its pristine water from an expansive system of upstate lakes, reservoirs, and aqueducts that avoids billions of dollars of water treatment costs, we donned our hard hats and vests and took a tour of the facility. We observed the physical, chemical, and biological methods used to treat the water, including using bacteria that eat sewage and produce gases that can be used for heating, while providing compost to farms. The facility’s technology and engineering design was extremely impressive, and students walked away with a better appreciation and understanding of all that goes into keeping NYC’s water quality on a steady upward trajectory. The day also accomplished the broader goal of making important societal issues directly relevant to students’ lives.