Overflow Plant Aims to Reduce Sewage Contamination

A new sewage plant has opened in New York that hopes to reduce the amount of sewage overflow when storms overwhelm the city's combined sewage and stormwater system.

1 minute read

May 14, 2011, 11:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

"The new Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow Facility is expected to reduce such discharges by about 70 percent a year, or 1.2 billion gallons.

The plant is the largest yet of several facilities the city has built to deal with a problem that contaminates waterways and create foul odors: during heavy rains, the combined sewer system carrying both wastewater and storm water runoff often overwhelms the capacity of sewage treatment plants, resulting in discharges into surrounding bodies of water."

Located on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, the plant will serve as an overflow storage system in an effort to reduce pollution of the city's waterways.

FULL STORY: Relief for Noses in Brooklyn and Queens

Thursday, May 12, 2011 in The New York Times

Environment Government / Politics Infrastructure New York Stormwater New York City Sewage Sewer Systems View More

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