New Bridge at Paedergat Basin

Here is the new bridge as proposed, with east and west bound lanes seperate...

Sun? Check! Fun? Um...

Maybe not so much at the moment this picture was taken -- or at least I bet there were a few people who wouldn't have used the word "fun" as their first desciption of the last couple of miles of Saturday's big Orient Point paddle!

Most of the day we'd been blessed with insanely perfect conditions (even the notorious Race was barely a-bubble as we passed through), but the Weather Deity decided our characters & skills needed at least a little bit of building at the end & threw in a good quartering wind of the sort that makes a kayak act like wayward, cranky, iron-mouthed old trail-ride horse whose mind is entirely focused on the grass on the side of the trail. Takes focus & a lot of energy to keep that nose pointed in the right direction!

Characters were duly built. But I guarantee skills were too, and aside from that tough last stretch and a couple of other odd moments, like the one where we were being yelled at by surly parking lot attendents in Greenport (silly us for trying to go have a drink there on Saturday night, I guess) it was another great weekend pulled off by the Cruising Committee!

And look look how beautiful.

More pictures tonight. If you really want, they are up on Picasa now & I think that clicking on the photo above will take you to an uncaptioned gallery - I hope to add captions tonight, though, and although a picture may be worth a thousand words, sixty are a lot to plough through without at least a little storytelling to go along! Still, couldn't resist this quick lunch-break post.

This trip report "teaser" cross posted at Frogma.

Residents want to see plan for Paerdegat Basin Park

By Gary Buiso

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 7:11 PM EDTA fast-tracked plan to beautify Paerdegat Basin Park — which sat on a shelf for 15 years before being brought to life by federal stimulus money —has residents demanding the city let them know what’s being done.

Critics charge that the Department of Environmental Protection has bulldozed portions of the 160-acre park without informing locals about the work, which they claim has already devastated local flora and fauna.

“There was supposed to be a park plan. Where is that plan?” demanded Mary Anne Sallustro, president of the South Canarsie Civic Association.

Already, unkept forestland along four blocks of Paerdegat Avenue North has been completely wiped out, with more blocks up next.

“There was no public process that we know of,” said Canarsie resident David Phillip. “I’m angry no one was notified.”

But the city disagreed, saying that it met with Community Board 18 in July and Jan. 2010, and that locals have been amply briefed about the plan to rebuild the park — which has not been amended since the board approved it over a decade ago, and is available for view on its Web site.

Still, Phillip charged that the city provided information only to those “who they wanted to hear it and not who would really be affected.”

They included state Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Mill Basin), who represents the Bergen Beach side of the basin, and Community Board 18 District Manager Dorothy Turano.

City officials met with them a year ago, just before a letter typed on community board stationary was dispatched to the agency stating that “it was the shared sentiment of all the interested parties to wholeheartedly embrace and approve the Paerdegat Ecology Park Project at the Paerdegat pumping station.”

That didn’t make sense to Steven Kaye, vice president of the civic association.

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“It is not a community board meeting if you don’t have community board members there!” he roared.

Board member and Canarsie resident Mercedes Narcisse said she doesn’t recall receiving any word about a summer meeting.

“If this is going to affect the community, there should be a fair presentation,” she said. “I would love to see a park, but the community should be made aware.”

But those at the meeting said there is no cabal.

Turano said she briefed the board about the meeting in Sept. 2009, and said there were no changes to a plan the community board approved in the 1990s — and that the South Canarsie group blasted back then for adding truck traffic to the neighborhood.

Still, she said, the city never bothered to notify the board when it would be doing the work.

“I was never given a specific plan,” she said. “I complained that we were not notified. This is a good thing, but it’s not a good thing we weren’t notified.”

Kruger said the meeting he attended was strictly informational.

“It only memorialized what was going to be done,” he said, adding that any changes would have to go through a formal public review procedure, which was not undertaken.

Ultimately, he said, the city is beautifying an area that has been long-neglected.

The two-year project began in March, and the city insists it will result in a lush Natural Area Park —with no public access in order to promote habitat restoration and ecological improvement — and a five-acre ecology park on the Bergen Beach side of the basin.

The $15-million, 38-acre habitat restoration and park was planned and approved back in the mid-1990s as an accompaniment to a state-mandated initiative to clean the polluted basin.

When federal stimulus money became available last year to fund the parkland portion of the work, the city was finally able to move ahead with the project.

The city sent out a notice to CB18 with a project description, requesting a summer meeting, so that the agency could advertise and award the contract for the work by Dec. 31, 2009.

But a full board meeting was never convened.

The $15-million parkland component is small potatoes compared to a massive$457-million upgrade of the pumping station at Ralph and Flatlands avenues and construction of a 20-million-gallon underground storage tank, which will prevent raw sewage from being dumped in the basin during heavy rains, a common predicament caused by the city’s aging sewer system.

Some pictures by Dwan

Dawn Kish works with National Geographics. She played with a simple camera while out in the bay. Here are some pix. She is off to Wyoming on an assignment.

I know I am in the pictue a lot. Enjoy. Have a great summer.

What is going on at Paedergat Basin?

The project Will Improve Water Quality, Create Ecology Park and Restore Jamaica Bay Wetlands

The New York City 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 (CSO) Facility located on the shores of Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn. The registration means that the contractor, Tully/Posillico Civil, can begin to mobilize so the stimulus-funded project can get underway.

“This investment will greatly improve the ecology of the Paerdegat Basin area,” said Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway. “When finished, the community will be able to enjoy a five-acre ‘Ecology Park’ teeming with native plant life. The combination of absorbing more stormwater and the creation of tidal wetlands will improve water quality in Paedergat Basin. This is just one part of DEP’s larger commitment to improving water quality and ecology in Jamaica Bay.”

The project will help absorb stormwater by reintroducing local plant life and restoring the shoreline. Five acres of parkland will become an “Ecology Park,” which will offer access to salt marshes and grassland area and include educational exhibits about coastal habitats. Construction is expected to begin this spring and completed in January 2012, with public access in 2013. The project is funded through Clean Water State Revolving Funds — a program administered the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation — that were authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The restoration will complement the $357 million capital investment that DEP is making in building the Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) abatement project, which will store 50 million gallons of CSOs during storms. When stormwater surges into sewers it can trigger CSOs when sewers and treatment plants reach capacity, which by design protects the sewer system and treatment plants. CSO tanks reduce this problem by storing flows until storms pass, allowing for release and treatment. The City continues to invest in major infrastructure projects that improve the wastewater treatment system and has budgeted $1.9 billion in capital improvements. The City is also taking steps to incorporate sustainable strategies that keep stormwater from reaching sewers in the first place.

DEP manages the City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to more than 9 million residents, including 8 million in New York City, and residents of Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties. New York City’s water is delivered from a watershed that extends more than 125 miles from the City, and is comprised of 19 reservoirs, and three controlled lakes. 6,600 miles of water mains, tunnels and aqueducts bring water to homes and businesses throughout the five boroughs, and 7,400 miles of sewer lines take wastewater to 14 in-City treatment plants. DEP also manages storm water throughout the City, and ensures that the City’s facilities comply with the Clean Water Act, and other federal, state and local rules and regulations. The DEP police protect the watershed and its facilities (including seven wastewater treatment plants), and the agency’s HAZ-MAT unit responds to hazardous materials emergencies and toxic site remediation. The agency is also responsible for asbestos monitoring and removal, and enforcing the City’s air and noise codes.

The Youth Paddle That Wasn’t

What do about a dozen Sebago volunteer paddlers do when the youth they were expecting to introduce to kayaking do not show up? They go kayaking, of course. They go kayaking longer and farther than they would have if they had been introducing the youth to kayaking. Read more about the trip on my blog, Summit to Shore, a post which includes a link to photos from the day.

The 2010 All Club Invitational

In the words of Phil Giller (photo above), one of its main organizers, the “all club Invitational was a great success. We are working on final numbers but we had OVER 100 guests on the water and 60 members signed in, so my unofficial count is that we had over 150 people on the water at 1 time.”

I think it was a rip, roaring, rowing, rolling, wind riding success! When do we start planning for 2011?

Photos taken around the club house, docks and adjoining areas can be seen on my Picasa page.

More personal reflections have been posted on my blog, Summit to Shore.

July 16, 2010 Youth Paddle

Here is a link to more photos from taken at the July 16, 2010 Youth Paddle than you would probably ever what to look at.

According to Tony Pignatello "we took out 15 young boys and girls from the Brooklyn Sports Club. We had either 27, 28, 29, or 33 paddlers on the water (it all depended on who was counting). We came back with at least 27 so it was a very successful trip. It was picture perfect and the kids seamed to have a really good time.  This was a Sebago record, we had more volunteers than guests. Thanks to Mary E, John W, John H., Vicki the mermaid, Laurie P, Nina S. and Raphael, Matt F., Cecelia F., Griffin F., Andy N, Marty S, Dennis S, Barbara T., Jerry D, Gerard the bocce man, Gary (head of security) G., Anne G., Lori (not B), Beth E. and Mike C.  Everyone had a good time."

Tony continues "We have the best club in the metropolitan area and it's our volunteers that make it so. Thank you all and forgive me if I missed anyone. Thanks."

You can read my own comments about the day on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Saturday Open Paddle with Roland Lewis

Roland Lewis, the president and C.E.O. of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, recently lectured at Sebago Canoe Club on our open Paddle. Here are some photos of that paddle, and we were joined by some horses at the end ...










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The Cool-Off Paddle

The only way to cool down after 103 F heat is to paddle after sunset. So Patrico and John Zhou and myself went out Tuesday, July 6th with the excuse to cool off and maybe catch some fish. The bay was like a lake, smooth as glass and clean as it ever can be. The tide was leaving and going to be low tide by 11:30, so we should be into fish according to plan. We were hoping for striped bass, maybe some bluefish, and if we were desperate, go for some fluke. After going under the bridge, the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees, but the water still looked like glass. No splashes, no swirls of fish tails, the tell tale sign that bass are in the water feeding. No bunker jumping, but lots of blue claw crabs swimming around, being very alive and busy eating.
The silence was deafening. But it was very cool (temp wise) and quite beautiful. I recommend this Cool-off paddle to all non-fishers as well as fishers, because we got no fish. They are too smart to hang out in a hot bay, they went to the ocean to cool off.