Jamaica Bay Bullet Points

Specifically, the agreement-in-principle announced today includes commitments from the city to:

• Upgrade four sewage treatment plants to drastically reduce nitrogen discharges to the bay, on a schedule running through 2020
• Spend at least $15 million on marsh restoration over the next five years, which could leverage nearly $30 million in additional federal funding through the Corps of Engineers
• Resolve a long-running dispute over the city's Clean Water Act permits by agreeing to new, stricter permit terms that will lock in the treatment plant upgrades, and the resulting water quality improvements, into the future
• Improve water quality monitoring in the bay, which may include using new equipment to provide continuous, real-time information on conditions in the bay.
• Nitrogen discharges from the sewage treatment plants are the biggest cause of the severe water quality problems in Jamaica Bay. The plants discharge nearly 40,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay daily, which cause harmful algae blooms that frequently render portions of the bay inhospitable to marine life and unusable for people. There is also mounting evidence that elevated nitrogen levels contribute to the rapid and accelerating loss of the bay's signature marshlands, which provide not only invaluable wildlife habitat but also shoreline erosion control and a protective flood barrier to the neighborhoods ringing the bay.

Paerdegat Basin is about to be “stimulated” by the feds, city officials said last week.

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection announced the registration of a $15 million contract to restore 38 acres of wetlands and natural grasslands adjacent to the Paerdegat Basin combined sewer overflow facility, a project expected to create a stunning “ecology park” near the shores of Jamaica Bay. Click here for the rest of the NY Post article

Queens Neighborhoods Get Link To City Sewage System - NY1.com

Queens Neighborhoods Get Link To City Sewage System - NY1.com

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Jamaica Bay Dredging Project

7. Title: Jamaica Bay Restoration

Authorization Cost: $140,400,000

Project 111-NY-9th-009: Restoration work including tidal marshes and creeks, and work on restoring water quality by filling over-dredged areas at 8 sites surrounding Jamaica Bay. Sites include Dead Horse Bay, Paerdegat Basin, Fresh Creek, Spring Creek, Hawtree/Bergen Basins, Bayswater State Park, Dubos Point and Brant Point.

JAMAICA BAY DREDGING: This project requires the dredging, possible transportation, and placement of approximately 333,000 cubic yards of material, with placement at the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS). for details, click here

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Matinicus Double Ender
Rollover!
The much anticipated flip off of the building form arrived last week. For a full report, click HERE.

Matinicus Double Ender

I've finished all of the planking, and have the outer stems and keel glued on. The hull got a coat of epoxy all over, and I'm building a cradle in preparation for the turnover! For a full report click HERE .

 

 

 

Why our high-water expectations were so high...

One last quick note here about the proxigean tides. Both John & I mentioned that expectations were for a pretty dramatic high water.

Well, here's why!


This was the high-water mark left by the last major proxigean tide, back in December '08. I don't think anybody was at the club to see it, but we were plenty impressed by the evidence it left behind. I'm still amazed that the cherry tree by the ramp actually lived to tell the tale.

There was a pretty steady northwest wind this year, that probably served to mitigate the high & exacerbate the low.

Proxigean Paddlers

After a delicious breakfast at the Sebago Clubhouse (photo top right), six full and hearty (or foolhardy) paddles embarked before 9:00 AM this morning, in 15°f air temperature, determined to find a high water passage through the salt marsh at the end of Ruffle Bar. With the proxigean high tide occurring just before 8:00 AM, we hoped the highest tide of the year would allow us to paddle into the salt marsh and right out the other end. The company consisted of Bonnie, Elizabeth, I(John), Minh, Pete, and Phil. The marsh crossing was not to be.

Veterans of previous proxigean tides remarked that this one was not as high as they had witnessed in previous years, suggesting the tide might not be high enough to paddle all the way through the marsh. While Bonnie and Pete paddled up the marsh’s main channel, the rest of the party continued around the southern end of Ruffle Bar, planning to meet up with Bonnie and Pete at the western end, if they made it through the marsh. According to them, they were not too far into the marsh before they started breaking slush and ice with their bows and paddled back out.

After paddling back through a head wind which produced some nice sized standing waves, two by two and one by one we started straggling into the Sebago dock a little before noon. We were cold and tired, had not seen any harbour seals, but were not defeated. With a glaze of ice on all our kayak decks, up to a quarter inch of ice on our spray skirts, and ice balls clinging to our dry suits (as demonstrated by Boonnie in the photo bottom right), we sauntered back into the Sebago club house from which we had departed hours earlier, to be warmed by hot coffee, Mary’s hot soup, a fire in the stove, and a few other Sebago members.

I have posted a much longer trip report on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Icy Paddle

From Proxigean Paddle!

The proxigean high wasn't the bank-buster it was last year - apparently this time it was the 1 a.m. low that was the big deal (to the point that there had been a warning about it in the marine forecast). But we were already at the club, and breakfast was delicious, and we had a good icy paddle with a toasty woodstove, sandwich fixings and homemade soup & applesauce waiting at the clubhouse when we finished (the food was a nice surprise, I only thought we were getting breakfast).

And the photo is of my spare paddle, a Greenland paddle I carry on my front deck at all times except when I'm using it (at which point the Euroblade becomes the spare). It became a very icy paddle on our icy paddle!

Full photo trip report at the link above.

Thanks to all the clubmates who instigated & made it happen!

cross-posted at Frogma

PS - I'm actually posting this after John's but I like his report so I'm changing the time on this so his stays on top.

Sebago Herring Fishing Expedition #1

Ending stats:

Fisherpeople: 4
Herring: 0

I still enjoyed it! It was a beautiful day for hanging out on the pier watching the water go by if you were properly bundled up. Andy said he'd organize another outing if & when reports come in that the herring have arrived in the bay. If I'm in town when that happens, I'm totally up for another trip!

There's a bit more on Frogma.