State Team Considers Jamaica Bay Losses

Two weeks after the city outlined its plan to address ecological degradation in the imperiled Jamaica Bay, the state announced that it is joining the fight.
A group, composed of eleven staffers with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, formally began meeting this week to consider how to address disappearing marshland and water quality issues in the bay.

Lori O’Connell, a department spokeswoman, said that the group does not yet have a target date for the release of its findings and recommendations. But adding that the group recognizes the haste with which it must work, she said: “The reason they are doing this is to accelerate the process (of saving Jamaica Bay).”
The state oversees the different wastewater treatment plans that release, according to an estimate made by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds of nitrogen into the bay each day. The team will propose new nitrogen output limits for the plants.
“The deteriorating condition of the wetlands calls for us to utilize the expertise and significant research backgrounds of department staff to address this threat,” DEC Pete Grannis said last week.
The bay’s marshlands are currently being lost at a rate of over 40 acres a year and will disappear completely by 2012.
In addition to trying to improve water quality and restoring acres of marshland in the bay, the group will strategize ways to improve its marine environment.
“Understanding the causes of marsh loss in Jamaica Bay, and developing an effective response program, will require consideration of ecological, engineering, political and social issues,” said team member Stephen Zahn, the manager of the department’s Marine Resources program.
Other members of the group also work in the department’s Marine Resources program, as well as in its Division of Water and its legal team.
According to O’Connell, they will review the city’s plan and work to coordinate their efforts with those that the city will soon undertake.
The city’s plan proposed dozens of infrastructure projects, pilot studies and regulatory initiatives to be put in place to address the bay’s issues. They include better monitoring of degradation in Jamaica Bay, increasing Jamaica Bay related educational curriculum for students and better managing stormwater runoff in South Queens.

by Joseph Wendelken

Queens Chronicle