by
I
NARR: Newtown Creek runs for three-and-a-half miles betweens Queens and Brooklyn before emptying into the East River. It is a strip of water that is slicked with oil, trash and industrial waste. Newtown Creek's seven mile shoreline is one of the numerous sites on New York's waterways that is a victim of illegal dumping. Basil Seggos is the lead investigator of an environmental group called Riverkeeper. He says the creek's waterways are probably the dirtiest in the city.
TAPE: BASIL SEGGOS, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, RIVERKEEPER (13)
Every hundred yards is a site where someone is dumping something into the waterfront. And it is the result of the old approach to our waterfront, which is essentially treating our waters like sewers.
NARR: New York city's other waterways like the the Gowanus Canal, the Harlem River, the Flushing Creek and the Bronx River are also filled with pollutants. Theresa Crimmins is the environmental coordinator for the Bronx River Alliance. She says the Alliance sends out crews every few days to remove debris from the river.
TAPE: THERESA CRIMMINS, ENVIRONMENTAL COORDINATOR, BRONX RIVER ALLIANCE. (27)
Over the last five years our restoration crew in cooperation with the parks department has pulled out well over 15 cars out of the river.
NARR: The Alliance has also pulled out couches, bottles, cans and tyres from the river. Environmental groups say that one of the reasons why illegal dumping continues is because current fines are too low to act as a deterrent. New York City's fines for dumping are as little as five dollars with a maximum of two-hundred-and-fifty dollars. Neal Kronley is the legislative policy analyst for New York city council's infrastructure division. He says that since the city is enforcing the laws against dumping it should be able to collect more civil penalties.
TAPE: NEAL KRONLEY
We have introduced legislation that will increase the fines ranging from $1000 to $5000 for a first offence and each additional offence from $5000 to $10,000.
NARR: Kronley says that there are also federal fines against dumping that can be as high as 33,500 dollars a day. But imposition of those penalties is up to the federal authorities. For the last three months, the city council has been conducting hearings on how to create a plan to put together a task force and build an effective enforcement program. On March first, Riverkeepers' investigator Basil Seggos testified before the council. He says that illegal dumping prevents neighborhood residents from enjoying the waterway.
TAPE: SEGGOS (23) (WHAT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US/SUPPORT FOR FINES)
Places like this, Newtown Creek, we have a heavily dirty waterway traveling three miles back into a community that has no green space whatsoever. Despite the polluted conditions you have people fighting to get to the waterfront.
NARR: Riverkeeper supports the city council's committee's efforts to increase fines because it will raise the cost of dumping and offer residents a chance to reclaim their waterfront. But till the city puts its legislation in place, environmental groups like Riverkeeper are trying to tackle the problem. Riverkeeper has conducted more than one hundred patrols of Newtown Creek. It has filed citizen law suits against seven polluters including ExxonMobil for damage to the creek.
TAPE: BASIL SEGGOS
If the city isn't picking up the slack then it falls upon citizen groups like the Riverkeeper, like the metropolitan waterfront alliance to try to enforce the laws when the government is choosing not to.
NARR: In the next few months, the city council hopes to wrap up its hearings on the issue and then put to vote the legislations to increase the fines and create a new task force. For New Yorkers starved of access to waterfronts this will be the first step towards cleaner waterways.
Priya Ganapati, Columbia Radio News