Time to take off your hazmat suit and put on your swimsuit. <\/p>\n
The state has declared that the notoriously polluted Harlem River is now officially a \u201cswimmable\u201d waterway<\/a> \u2014 but activists say the river is still marred by sewage and storm water and the new declaration will prevent further efforts to fully clean it.<\/p>\n The river between Manhattan and The Bronx near Yankee Stadium got the questionable upgrade last week, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation <\/a>reclassified 30 bodies of water. <\/p>\n The Harlem River is now considered as a swimmable waterway under new DEC classifications. LP Media<\/p>\n But rather than celebrating the announcement as a win for cleaner water, activists blasted the decision, claiming that the waterway still gets enormous amounts of dirty storm runoff \u2014 and that the situation will not get any better because the new designation means no further remedial efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Harlem River currently receives more than two billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater every year,\u201d Mike Dulong, the legal program director for Riverkeeper, explained to The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will unfortunately be the case for the foreseeable future. So what the next generation can expect is: the same water quality today is going to be the same water quality in 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n With the new ruling, the Harlem River is now considered a \u201cwet weather (WW) limited use\u201d waterway<\/a> \u2014 meaning swimming is allowed only when it hasn\u2019t rained.<\/p>\n More than two billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater are dumped into the Harlem River every year. REUTERS<\/p>\n Previously, the river was a \u201cClass I,\u201d meaning only \u201csecondary contact recreation,\u201d like boating and fishing, was allowed.<\/p>\n While the change does not mean bathers can immediately jump into the Harlem River, the DEC says it will pave the way for swimming to become more commonplace as the agency ramps up cleanup efforts.<\/p>\n The similarly disgusting Gowanus Canal<\/a> was also on the list of waterways that received an upgraded classification, now being listed as a fishable\u201d area, though with warnings that there are hazards like fecal coliform still present in the water. <\/p>\n The difference between the two waterways, explains Dulong, is that the Brooklyn canal is currently undergoing slow remediation to reverse its status as a superfund site.<\/p>\n The Gowanus Canal was also reclassified to best support fishing. REUTERS<\/p>\n Dulong argued that the Harlem River is already clean enough to support swimming on dry days, but that \u201call bets are off\u201d when the rain overflows the sewage systems and sends a deluge of pollution and toxins into the water.<\/p>\n The only way to clean up the Harlem River is to overhaul the Bronx\u2019s outdated sewage systems \u2014 a move that would cost around $9 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing in this rulemaking that will improve sewage and stormwater infrastructure that could improve water quality. The people who are kayaking in the Harlem River as part of the Harlem River rowing community they\u2019re going to see no improvements at all,\u201d Dulong said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the next generation can expect is: the same water quality today is going to be the same water quality in 20 years,\u201d said Mike Dulong. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n Riverkeeper is asking that the DEC reconsider the infrastructure upgrades, and is pursuing long-term litigation with the US Environmental Protection Agency over the water quality classifications.<\/p>\n The state, however, is celebrating the reclassifications, saying the changes \u201craise the bar and allow \u2014 for the first time \u2014 the potential for safe fishing, boating, or swimming in some of the city\u2019s resurgent waterways.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese landmark regulatory changes are a result of decades of progress in reducing pollution and a clear sign that New York City\u2019s waterways are the cleanest they\u2019ve been in more than a generation,\u201d\u00a0DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time to take off your hazmat suit and put on your swimsuit. The state has declared that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6746,469,57,9,24,55,197,54,56,11104,129,58],"class_list":["post-15165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-activism","tag-harlem","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rowing","tag-the-bronx","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}