Gird Your Noses, Greenpoint: The Newtown Creek Is Getting Dredged
It’s an especially difficult time to be a Greenpointer. There’s the impending G train hiatus coming this summer and then there’s the Greenpoint Landing project, which will soon be underway. We feel for you.
Unfortunately, you guys have another inconvenience coming your way and this time, it will be courtesy of Brooklyn’s second favorite Superfund site: the Newtown Creek.
According to Brownstoner Queens, the Department of Environmental Protection began a six-week dredging of the stagnant creek yesterday. The project will create a new path for boats to pick up sludge from a new dock at Whale Creek.
The whole thing is tied to the aforementioned Greenpoint Landing project. The old sludge dock was located near the East River, but has to be demolished to make way for those affordable apartments we told you about. So, really, Greenpointers brought this on themselves (we kid!).
And, because this is New York City, there will be a smell. Despite the DEP’s best efforts, residents may have to deal with the scent of rotten eggs caused by hydrogen sulfide gas trapped in the sediment. Accordingly, the DEP will start off slowly, easing residents into the process by only dredging from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at first. After that, dredging will become a 24-hour affair “in order to minimize impacts to marine traffic.”
As always, if the whole thing gets to be too much, you can always vent to a 311 operator.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk