In the early 1960’s, a new sewage treatment plant (also called water pollution control plants) was to be built between West 70^th and West 72^nd Street in the Hudson River.

In a move that many say was politically and racially motivated, the plant was moved north to Harlem along the Hudson River from West 137th street to West 145th street. The in-depth study below by Vernice D. Miller, details the siting of this plant as a prime example of environmental racism. It is really worth reading.

PLANNING, POWER AND POLITICS: A CASE STUDY OF THE LAND USE AND SITING HISTORY OF THE NORTH RIVER WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT by Vernice D. Miller (FORDHAM URBAN LAW JOURNAL, VOL. XXI, 1994)

• Construction of foundation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant began in 1971
• Took six years to complete just the foundation.
• Plant was to handle 220 million gallons of raw sewage per day.
• Capacity was cut back to 170 million gallons due to budgetary constraints.
• Plant opened in 1986.
  
• Plant operated continuously above its permit capacity (170 millions gallons per day) until April Fool's Day 1994 (See 24 million gallons) .
  
• Millions of gallons of raw sewage went into the Hudson River every day that the plant operated above its permit.
• The Coalition for a Livable West Side has the documents (in PDF format) that prove the above two statements.
  
• We will make them available to you, just send an email to livablenwyork@erols.com and specify what you want to know.

1986-1993 - Stench and Illness:

Residents living near the Harlem plant suffered from a disgusting, pervading stench that emitted from the plant. The smell sometimes reached as far down as 120th street and all the way up to 157th street -almost a two-mile distance. In addition to the offensive smell, after the opening of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant, many residents complained of itchy eyes, shortness of breath, and other symptoms often related to asthma and other respiratory ailments.

In 1991, the city finally acknowledged the stench. Allotted $53 million to eliminate the stench. However, in 1993, near the completion of the $53 million improvements, Ruth Messinger, then Borough president of Manhattan, released a report stating that the improvements would only eradicate 75% of the odor problems. To eliminate all odor from the sewage plant, for which construction cost over $1 billion, would cost another $100 million, an investment the city was not willing to make.

North River Wastewater Pollution Treatment Plant Lawsuit

December 1991

Sewage Lawsuit : Citizen groups -the Coalition for a Livable West Side, and a group of citizen environmental groups - the Five Borough Alliance, the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, Citizens United Against Riverwalk, the New York City/Queens Environmental Campaign, Soundwatch and the Union Square Community Coalition  - filed a notice to sue the City under the Federal Clean Water Act to halt the City’s violation of the permit issued for the North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the Ward’s Island plant. Charged the city with violating the Clean Water Act by operating two sewage treatment plants, the North River and the Ward’s Island Plants , above their permit capacity. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage, goes into the Hudson River.

July 1, 1992  - Clean Water lawsuit filed in United States Federal Court.

July 30, 1993 -  City asked that the case (Sewage Lawsuit) be dismissed. Judge Pierre P. Laval, United States District Court, Southern District, ruled that the groups had standing under the provisions of the Clean Water Act, to sue the City.

1994 - Judge Leval elevated to the United States District Court, 2nd Circuit (Sewage Lawsuit).

1994 - Case (Sewage Lawsuit) re-assigned to Judge Patterson. He held hearing. City again asked that the case be dismissed. Case not dismissed and a full ruling in the case was expected in the Summer of 1994.

April 1, 1994 - Twenty-four million gallons of sewage flow vanish from the the North River Sewage Plant in two hours. Mystery never solved. Numbers have been low ever since then.

July, 1994 - New judges appointed to the Southern District Court. Case (Sewage Lawsuit) re-assigned again.

August 1994 – New  judge, Judge Deborah Batts, received the case (Sewage Lawsuit).

July 1995 - Almost a year later, the City asked the judge’s permission to submit additional material in the Sewage Lawsuit.

August 16, 1996 – Sewage Lawsuit - Important environmental case law was established when an Amicus Curiae brief was filed by the the United States Attorney, the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, on behalf of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  The brief stated that  “The United States believes that contrary to the position taken by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, flow limits included in permits issued by New York State.... under the Clean Water Act are enforceable through citizen suits.”

January 20, 1998 – Plaintiffs filed a Writ of Mandamus (a petition) in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit asking the court to direct the Federal Judge - who has had the case for over three years - to proceed immediately to adjudicate the case. This Writ was filed very reluctantly. However, there was no choice because the Plaintiffs’ underlying complaint - that the North River and Wards Island Sewage Treatment Plants have exceeded their operating permits - is a matter of significant public policy.

March 1998 - Six years after the sewage lawsuit was filed, Judge Batts ruled for the City. Plaintiffs did not appeal as the City had already granted sewer hook-ups to the North River Sewage Treatment Plant for four of the Riverside South buildings.

All pertinent documents are available as PDF's. Send an email to livablenewyork@erols.com and specify what information you would like to receive.

“Sidestepping 24 Million Gallons of Missing Dung. Ruth and Donald’s Artful Deal” By Wayne Barrett (With special reporting by Denise Kiernan) Village Voice. April 11, 1995.

There was a sudden drop of 24 MGD (million gallons a day) of sewage flow coming into the North River plant -- a mysterious decline that occurred within the space of a two-hour period April Fool's Day 1994.

The city has never offered a credible explanation of why a sudden drop of 24 MGD (million gallons a day) - ‑ the equivalent of sewage from over 60,000 residents ‑  of sewage flow coming into the North River plan occurred within the space of a two-hour period April Fool's Day 1994 .

“As part of an apparent effort to reposition herself as a reliable advocate of supposedly “reasonable” development, Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger has suppressed her top environmental staffs recent technical findings on Donald Trump's 5700-unit Riverside South project, drastically altered a key element of her own prior public posture, and ignored violations; albeit minor ones, of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Trump that she negotiated and signed herself, the Voice has learned.”

To read the full article, click on

Foul Play - Raw Sewage Continues to Pour into the City's Waterways.

By Marcelle Hopkins and Courtney Reimer, Village Voice. December 20, 2005.

Think about snow, but remember the rain. Last October's days of torrential downpour produced dozens of rain-soaked newspaper photos and tons of factoids—if it had been snowfall, there would have been over 110 inches of it. It also resulted in the dumping of thousands of gallons of raw sewage into New York City's many waterways.

But this spillage wasn't a freak accident. Every week, raw sewage pours into the city's rivers, estuaries, and ocean. And those responsible are not going to clean up their act; they are just changing the rules.

A deal between the state and city of New York lowered water quality standards to allow the city to keep dumping an average of 140 million gallons of untreated sewage a day into New York City's waterways, said Brad Sewell, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

That's enough to fill about 280 Olympic- sized swimming pools. Every day.

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Sewage fireball threat in blackout by David Saltonstall, Daily News February 9th, 2006

A sewage treatment plant in Harlem nearly exploded into a "catastrophic" fireball during the 2003 blackout - a disaster only averted by a city worker armed with an old broomstick, new records show.

The dangerous near disaster, never revealed by the city, was detailed this week in federal court documents as part of a plea agreement with the city's Department of Environmental Protection.

"We have been advised," wrote U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in a memo to the court last month, "that this situation created the risk of a catastrophic explosion near a residential neighborhood."

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