New York AG Pours $1.8M into Bronx River Stormwater Upgrades

The funding is part of the $7 million that the Attorney General's Office obtained from 2007 settlements with four local municipalities and the Yonkers Racetrack that ended their illegal discharges of raw sewage to the Bronx River.

The Bronx River at Scarsdale, New York. (Photo by Alan Wu)

The City of Yonkers, the City of White Plains, the Village of Scarsdale, and the Town of Greenburgh settled with the state for polluting the river with raw sewage. The remaining $5 million plus in settlement funds will be allocated in future years to projects that will further reduce pollution discharges to the river.

The 1.8 million in settlment funds released today will pay for nine green infrastructure projects to capture and treat polluted stormwater before it reaches the river.

"Improving the health of the Bronx River has been a longstanding priority of my office - the cleaner the river is, the more of an environmental, recreational, and economic asset it will be to the area," said Attorney General Cuomo. "This funding is not only an investment in the Bronx River, but also an investment in the many communities along its banks."

The settlement funds will be distributed among seven entities - the Bronx River Alliance, THE POINT Community Development Corporation, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York City Parks Department, the Town of Eastchester, the Village of Ardsley and the Westchester County Planning Department.

Cuomo's funding has allowed these nine projects to leverage over $1.9 million in additional matching money, bringing total funding available to these Bronx River improvement projects to almost $3.8 million.

The funded projects are:

• Green Roofs - THE POINT Community Development Corporation, a non-profit that works towards youth development and the cultural and economic revitalization of the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, was awarded $149,793 to install green roofs at its Garrison Avenue facility. Plantings in rooftop gardens will capture and treat rainwater and serve as a demonstration project and outdoor classroom for the community.


• Stormwater Capture - The Westchester County Department of Planning will use $250,000 to construct a 3-acre wetland constructed at Scout Field in Bronxville to intercept and treat polluted stormwater runoff that is now directly discharging to the river.


• Stormwater Management - The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx will receive $349,599 to deploy permeable pavement, wetland restoration and other green infrastructure, coupled with innovative structural upgrades, to reduce and treat discharges from four existing stormwater discharge pipes located near the Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill.


• Rainwater Harvesting - The Bronx River Alliance was awarded $117,500 to implement a pilot program to reduce stormwater runoff by harvesting rainwater from the roofs at five sites in the Bronx. The collected rainwater will be stored and used later for watering gardens and lawns. This project will develop guidance for rainwater harvesting that will satisfy New York City building codes.


• Stormwater Capture - The New York City Parks and Recreation Department was awarded $250,000 to create vegetated catch basins known as swales to intercept and treat polluted stormwater that would otherwise flow directly into the river at the East 211th Street entrance to Shoelace Park. The project is a part of the effort to create a Bronx River greenway.


• Stormwater Management - As a part of the relocation and restoration of its historic Village Hall at Ashford Park, the Village of Ardsley was awarded $51,086 to employ permeable pavement, rainwater harvesting, and native plant landscaping to capture, treat and re-use stormwater that currently discharges to the Sprain Brook tributary of the Bronx River.


• Riverbank Stabilization and Wetland Restoration - The Westchester County Department of Planning was awarded $350,000 to use a combination of green infrastructure and engineering techniques to repair eroded riverbank and re-establish plants along the Bronx River adjacent to the Westchester County Center in White Plains. The project will also restore a freshwater wetland along the river that is currently overrun by non-native plants.


• Stormwater Control and Riverbank Restoration - With this $148,569 award, the Bronx River Alliance will implement the first phase of a two-phase project to reverse the ecological damages caused by stormwater discharges to the Bronx River at the Nereid Avenue Bridge in Yonkers. Redesign of a large stormwater discharge pipe and the reestablishment of native plants and stabilization of portions of the riverbank that have been damaged by stormwater outflows will be accomplished in this phase.


• Pollution Control, Municipal Maintenance Yard, Eastchester - The Town of Eastchester was awarded $169,550 to control discharges of polluted runoff from its municipal maintenance yard. This project will employ a combination of structural changes and pollution prevention practices to intercept and treat polluted runoff generated at the yard before it reaches the Bronx River.

The Bronx River, which flows for roughly 23 miles through southern Westchester and the Bronx, has a long legacy of pollution problems. While progress has been made toward reclaiming the river, restoration efforts are still hampered poor water quality.

A principal cause of the Bronx River's water quality problems is stormwater runoff - rainwater and snowmelt that flows over impervious surfaces and into waters, carrying raw sewage, litter, gas and oil, pesticides, fertilizers and other harmful pollutants into the river.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. said, "The Bronx River is a jewel of our borough and for too long it was literally treated like a sewer. The green initiatives funded by these grants, which will be used to fund environmentally friendly pollution control methods on the Bronx River, represent a major step forward for both this great body of water and The Bronx as a whole."

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.