WPCNR  ENVIRONMENTAL EPITAPH. NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. March 22, 2009 UPDATED March 23, 2009 (Worth a Second Look): The hypocrisy of Westchester County in sanctimonious  cooperation with the New York State DEC (Department of Effluent Coverup) and the hastily contrived press release put out by the Westchester Department of Health about the discharge of “screened and chlorinated raw sewage” scheduled to take place Sunday  speaks for itself. I am told that federal law permits raw sewage dumping when making "repairs." Does that make sense? Hold the stuff for smelling out loud.

Authorities report that only a million gallons of sewage went in to the Hudson early Sunday morning. Thank God for small favors! This makes it a good thing? However, how did they count the gallons? Can we believe that number? More to the point sewage could possibly have been loaded onto one large tanker barge or 100 tanker trucks, or a tanker ship  and not one drop spilled into the Hudson, stored then released back into the plant. They dumped it in the Hudson because it was easy. I sure do hope News 12 and Channel 2 where there to record this operation and the "sweet crude" going into the river. They were there, weren't they? They are always the first to do specials on environmental news conferences and on Indian Point stories. Of course they were there.

"Wait a Minute? You're going to pump what in where? You're ruining my buffet!"

Seagull, taking a break from munching on a tasty morsel, under assurance of anonymity reacts to news of County raw "chlorinated and screened sewage" going into the Hudson River today.

It stinks. It’s ludicrous. Human partially treated sewage is good for the Hudson? And slightly radioactive water from Indian Point is worse? Quick! Where's Riverkeeper? Where's the Temporary Restraining Order?

Look out downriver? Sewage "chlorinated and screened" but not up to standards will make its way downriver today. Avoid kayaking today, folks.

A U.S. Navy SWOB  (Shipwaste Offloading Barge) craft, 100 feet long,  capacity 100,000 gallons, unloading raw sewage from a naval ship. Especially designed for harbor pollution abatement. A possible solution?  Official US Navy Photo from http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/NAVFAC/OPER/mo910.pdf

When the Indian Point  Nuclear Plant is relentlessly pilloried in the press for the occasional  negligible radioactive, heated, or tainted discharge from their plant when that much-maligned “distract-the-public-with-outrage” story, and Riverkeeper renews its Don Quixote quest for closing Indian Point, you have to wonder about this  decision.

The release took place between midnight and 4 A.M. Sunday.

But where is the COUNTY and DEC thinking here? Where is Riverkeeper on this one?

If fact, I have a great suggestion to save a lot of money: dissolve the Department of Environmental Conservation.

This is the department that has let White Plains get away with a toxic dump for 33 years! And still has not issued a clean-it-up order! Still!

This is the Department that certifies areas as brownfields creating millions in tax credits for the opportune developer.

This is the department that saves lobsters by decreeing there is too much nitrogen in the water (remember $10 Million for lobsters a number of years ago) -- yet did nothing about the Harrison sewage spill in Silver Lake -- even when notified by this reporter.

 This is the department in cooperation with the Federal level that has us repairing sewer plants for multi-millions. Why repair them if you can just dump chlorine into the stuff... Why not pass out chlorine pellets for use in all toilets in the state?

Well anyway, you get the smelly drift.

This is the Department that demands environmental impact studies lining consultants pockets. 

The DEC's  hundreds of highly paid experts take years to make decisions forcing towns and cities across the state to spend millions of tax dollars on testing. Well, you get my drift.

How could the feckless DEC allow Westchester to pump sewage into the Hudson Sunday? And, hey, do we even need sewage treatment plants up to state of the art if chlorinating and “screening” is all right?

Hey Riverkeeper! How about going for a Temporary Restraining Order on this baby! If it was Indian Point you would!

So hold your nose downstream today folks – your DEC and Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities and Commissioner of Westchester County Gaskets (Ed Norton) are hard at work protecting your environment.

How come the gasket was bogus in the first place? Could you not build a bypass pipe while the gasket is installed?

Could we not store the sewage in a convoy of “honey dipper” overland tankers instead of  just shooting the stuff into the Hudson. Where’s the thinking here?

At a capacity of 9,000 gallons a tanker you would need about 100 tankers to handle the "reported" million gallons of sewage gorged. And how much chlorine did they use? How much did that cost?

Rent the tankers, hold the sewage then process it.  Renting the tankers would have been an excellent economic stimulus don't you think?

You also could have rented a 75,000 barrel floating barge which would take easily 3 million gallons of sewage allowing you to NOT rush the job. They apparently got this job done in an hour and a half, working fast. I hope they did it right. 

And,  I hate to raise such icky questions over coffee break, but how was the chlorine added...if it was added....after all this was done under cover of night  (I hope News12 was there to record the "sweet crude" going into the Hudson.

And, hey, what did they do with all that screened excrement? Where is that going? A greenhouse?

Or how about an oil barge to collect the sewage? Then pump it out back into the system.

Your no-brain county at work here, folks.

Environmental protection has done a lot of good things, but for the DEC to condone sewage dump thanks to again, county incompetence, this is amazing.

Consider the DEC lack of judgment.

And speaking of judgment -- 

Could the DEC render a decision on the White Plains City Dump TCE  toxins which perhaps, just perhaps,  have been causing the documented 50% higher rate of cancer in men in the 10605 zip code? Supposedly a decision has been reached, but the decision to remediate has not been made three years later.

I tell you I was in the dump Saturday, delivering obsolete electronic equipment for disposal (thanks to Journal News reporter Rich Liebson's excellent explanation of the byzantine White Plains garbage disposal regulations -- I mean who knew?)  and the smell emanating from that dump (wind was blowing it in my face) was richly, nauseatingly chemical to my nostrils -- and it was not even humid.

 What is the delay from the DEC on the White Plains dump? Let’s clean it up now. It can be done with neutralizing chemicals, and there are firms that specialize in exactly that.

But back to the stinky story on the Hudson River.

But this business of dumping sewage. Chlorine dumped into fresh water is not good for wildlife in the Hudson. And, I’m no chemist, but I suggest it takes a heavy dose of chlorine to kill the bacteria that is going to be in that raw sewage. How come we are advised not to touch the water, after all the chlorination any way?  What if there is heavy fishkill?

Give the DEC a wake-up call on this one.

Perhaps the crack White Plains resident who is on the County Department of Environmental Facilities staff at substantial taxpayer expense, Dennis Power, can look into this one for our friend the seagull and, the shad, the bass,  and the persons who live by the waterfront.