Sorting through the Hour’s article this morning, it appears rather straightforward. The Norwalk Harbor is contaminated because unfiltered sotrm drains dump directly into the harbor. The state DOT once again is indifferent to Norwalk’s requests.
As the city presses forward with an innovative storm-drain filter program, which public works officials estimate has kept 1,200 gallons of oil from entering Long Island Sound — and as Conservation and Zoning commissioners work to ensure that contaminants from development projects do not seep into groundwater — nothing is being done to protect Norwalk Harbor from I-95.
Harbor commissioners became acutely aware of bridge runoff and its costs during Phase One of the Norwalk Harbor dredging project. That work, which wrapped up in 2006 and cost at least $4.5 million, entailed removing 150,000 cubic yards of sediment from the upper harbor — the area between the Stroffolino Bridge and the Wall Street Bridge at the Head of the Harbor.
“One of the major problems that we have had this past dredging effort, was a swath of territory in the harbor, 1,400 feet and 1,000 feet, fore and aft, of the I-95 bridge,” Pinto said. “The problem that was cited by the (state Department of Environmental Protection) was that we had a very high level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons … combustion products.”
Photo Credit: One of the Miserable 25
Such hydrocarbons come from vehicle emissions, tires, and smoke and soot from furnaces. They bind onto dust and dirt, which are picked up by rainwater and strewn across roadways, Pinto said.According to Pinto, the goals of the harbor commission and the state Department of Transportation aren’t necessarily in concert. Harbor commissioners are concerned with protecting the harbor. The transportation department is concerned with keeping I-95 safe. That means keeping the highway free of water, and the dozens of unfiltered drains along the Yankee Doodle Bridge generally do that job just fine.
Pinto explored the relationship between I-95 runoff, water quality and dredging in the Harbor Management Commission’s spring 2007 newsletter. Geoffrey Steadman, commission planning consultant, continued on the theme in the fall 2007 newsletter.
According to Steadman, the Yankee Doodle Bridge carries 130,000 cars and trucks each day. Sixty-five feet beneath the bridge is “another type of highway — one that predates the turnpike by over a century.” And that earlier highway, Norwalk River and Harbor, require maintenance dredging.
Before Phase One of the latest dredging project began, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found river sediment under the I-95 bridge “so contaminated with highway pollutants that it could not be dredged and safely disposed of in Long Island Sound,” Steadman wrote.
“As a result, the city had to pay over $200,000 for its share of the cost to bury the contaminated material in (Confined Aquatic Disposal) cells excavated by the Corps in the river bottom,” Steadman continued.
Looks like its time to call Congressman Chris Shays, Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Joe Lieberman and get some federal funds to fix the storm drains. Maybe Senator Charles Schumer would be interested in this too.
source: The Hour, Bridge runoff concerns harbor commissioners, by Amanda Pinto, November 9, 2007
