Rich Kassel's Blog
A wish list for 2008
January 8, 2008
Posted by Rich Kassel in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The start of the New Year presents a great opportunity to take stock of the old year and to plan for the new. It's also time to make some wishes.
I live in New York, and much of my work is here too. Even when I’m working with EPA on national fuels and vehicle policies, I’m thinking about how they will play here on Broadway. Today, I posted my wish list on the Gotham Gazette, which Switchboard readers may recognize as my alter-site on the web, since I write a monthly environment column there. (Yes, you can subscribe, and it’s free!)
But it’s worth reprising it here too…
So, as we head into the new year, here is my list of wishes for New York’s environment.
PlaNYC 2030
Mayor Bloomberg ’s incredibly ambitious PlaNYC 2030 proposal of 127 different housing, transportation, energy, open space and other initiatives offers a fine starting point. Most of the goodies in it don’t require state legislative approval to move forward.
But the cornerstone of the plan is congestion pricing -- charging $8 to drive a car into the business district of Manhattan during the workweek. Implementing this system will be important to reduce traffic, improve air quality and raise funds for critical transit infrastructure investments throughout the region.
And, if it works here, congestion pricing is likely to be adopted in other cities that are struggling with increased traffic and unmet infrastructure needs. Congestion pricing, though, does require approval in the State Capitol as well as by the City Council.
My 2008 wish: The city and Albany should make their compromises and enact a congestion pricing plan that raises even more net revenue for transit improvements than the mayor’s original proposal.
Transit Funding
If New York City gains another million residents, as the 2030 plan anticipates, it will need the transit infrastructure to get them around the city. And that means more than the connecting the Long Island Rail Road to the east side’s Grand Central Terminal (the so-called East Side Access plan), building the Second Avenue Subway and the extending the Number 7 line to the soon-to-be-developed far west side of Manhattan—as important as all three projects are.
We need more service for all five boroughs—service that reflects the development patterns of the future, rather than the commuting patterns that existed decades ago when the original IND and IRT subway systems were built. We also need to fix the chronic under-funding of the system from Albany (we have 84 percent of the state’s transit riders, but get only 63 percent of the state transit funding).
My 2008 wish: In addition to implementing the congestion pricing program, the city and the state should find ways to increase their funding contributions to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s five-year, $32 billion capital program that will be presented next March. And I hope that they do it in a way that doesn’t add more burdens to the already taxed (in more ways than one) straphangers.
E-Waste
Old televisions and computers contain a slew of toxins (including lead, mercury and cadmium) that should never get buried in landfills or burned in incinerators. But the city’s current electronic recycling program requires people to lug their electronics to odd locations on random days. No wonder most New Yorkers throw this stuff in the trash.
My 2008 wish: The city should adopt Intro. 104, the “Electronics Collection, Recycling and Reuse Law,” which would require manufacturers to take certain electronic products back for recycling after consumers are done with them. Not only would this help take toxics out our waste stream, but it also will save money for the city by reducing the burden on the City’s Department of Sanitation and keeping some garbage out of landfills.
Stormwater and Sewage Overflows
Every year, roughly 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage gets mixed with stormwater runoff, and ends up bringing pathogens and other pollution into the city’s waterways. These combined sewer overflows (“CSOs”) put the public’s health at risk, damage our marine ecology, and frequently make our waters unsuitable for recreational activities.
Over the long haul, PlaNYC 2030 boldly aims to remake the urban landscape by keeping sewage and polluted stormwater out of our waters. But, in the short run, we need legislation to help us reach this goal.
My 2008 wish: The City Council should pass three bills (Intros. 628, 629 and 630) that, collectively, would help ensure that future administrations follow through on PlaNYC 2030’s ambitions. Together, the bills call for a sustainable stormwater plan for each of the city's waterways; mandate that new city capital projects use environmentally friendly technology and take stormwater issues into account; and require trees to be planted to help absorb stormwater before it goes into the sewage system.
Jamaica Bay
One of the great things about New York is its proximity to amazing outdoor environments. Here’s a great example: Jamaica Bay, home to the only federal wildlife refuge accessible by subway, sits right under the flight path to Kennedy airport. This gem hosts nearly 20 percent of North America’s bird species each year, along with an amazing array of fish and shellfish. But Jamaica Bay is jeopardized by water pollution — most dangerously, nitrogen pollution from four city wastewater treatment plants.
My wish for 2008: Six years ago, the stars aligned to create an ambitious pollution plan for Long Island Sound. The state Department of Environmental Conservation should adopt a comparable plan to protect Jamaica Bay for generations to come.
And one final wish: As environmentalists and other concerned New Yorkers work for these goal, may we all have a safe, happy, and healthy 2008!
(bookmark or email this entry)
Comments are closed for this post.
- Rich Kassel
- Senior Attorney and Director, Clean Fuels and Vehicles Project
- New York City
- I came to NRDC in 1991 on a three-year grant, and never left. Over the...
- more→
Comments
Mary Saunders — Jan 10 2008 03:00 PM
Here is an underground thing happening in Portland, Oregon, to prevent CSO's: urine-saving (dilute and pour on plants; it's a great fertilizer except for the salts which dilution addresses). It is best to empty every day. I also use a bit of thymol mouthwash in the storage vessel. That should not go in sewer either.
Another thing is a move is afoot to recode to allow graywater plumbing directly to yard plants. This has already been done in Arizona I believe. Many people here have wildcatted it already.
If you Google Ole Ersson KBOO, you may be able to hear about a wildcatted above-ground humanure system used by a local M.D. who has a thermometer in his system to keep it at a safe temperature. Above-ground with sufficient duff is better than pit, because pit composting can let nasties in the groundwater. Above-ground worms, fungi, bacteria, etc., do the job of making things safe.
He also has a water-saving system and uses almost no city water, thus saving himself sewer fees, which are outrageous. He is very serious about preventing CSO's and putting the fertilizers where they belong, increasing our already pretty good biomass production in Portland.
His family lives predominantly on the food they grow in the city. Cuba had to go on a backyard system when the Soviets turned off the oil spigot. This conversion is already going on in selected spots on the west coast. Vancouver, B.C., is big into this also, from what I hear.
It is so urgent to protect fish and birds from sewage effluent. A lawsuit would dog a doctor prescribing the mix of pharmaceuticals these innocents are exposed to.
Thanks for your posting.
Mary
philippe — Jan 11 2008 04:41 AM
congratulations for the blogs :) and welcome to the blogosphere,
although I do find the present design a little confusing (read my assessment in French on www.blogvert.org ).
My wish for NRDC would be that it takes the initiative and leadership to create a radio/podcast alliance with other groups so that we can -at least- get a regular (daily would be great) news and information program about the issues we care about and are not substantially reported by the mainstream media.
I was certainly saddened by the end of EcoTalk (www.ecotalk.net was my baby blog) although I never felt like Air America Radio was really supporting the show and it was probably not the best channel.
So, for 2008, I wish you contact me to start this wonderful radio/podcast alliance: don't you think we could hear more on the radio waves about what needs to be done and the good initiatives?
Hope you get in touch and all my best wishes for 2008 :)