Biking on the Creek

On a recent bike tour of Newtown Creek, ten locals caroused along the edge of Greenpoint, guided by Ryan Kuonen of the community outreach organization NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth) in conjunction with the environmental group Times Up! A comprehensive history of the use and abuse of the four-mile estuary preceded the two-hour tour, ending with an ironical nature walk nestled in one of the nations most polluted waterways.

The tour group met at East River State Park in Williamsburg and sat around a picnic table flipping through referential images while listening to Kuonen relay the history of Greenpoint and Newtown Creek. The ride started on Kent Ave heading north along Franklin Ave and looping around to Manhattan Ave. Along the way the tour group witnessed the industrial history of the neighborhood, where farmers and shipbuilders were replaced by over fifty oil refineries and an array of manufacturing headquarters by the turn of the century.

“It was really ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ experience,” says Kuonen. Greenpoint was once a geographical point for ship captains after colonizers like Dirck de Noorman made way for roads and delivery routes after the Revolutionary War. It wasn’t until industrialization hit that working class population built and expanded the factories, living and working in the area until the tail end hike when factories searched for space Midwest or out of the country in the ‘70s. Riding down the streets now, it wasn’t difficult to picture the past as piles of debris and layers of shipping containers, not to mention the stench of waste and pollution greeted the tour group with insistence.

From Manhattan Ave the group rode to the end of Maspeth Avenue, a barren industrial haven on the weekend where trucks are parked along the sides for blocks on end and old brick buildings house pipes that rumbled with passive activity. The group was then led up Vandervoort Ave to Meeker Ave and Kingsland Ave where the infamous Newtown Creek Oil Spill occurred in 1950, which wasn’t discovered until 1978 where water testing revealed bacteria, chemicals and diseases such as Chlamydia, deeming the creek polluted and incapable of sustaining livestock in only half the creek.
“I would never want to fall into it and if you get splashed, as long as it doesn’t land in your eyes, ears or mouth, you’re ok,” warns Kuonen. The pollution streaming rampant through the creek is contributed not only by the oil spill, a layer of sludge deemed “black mayonnaise”, and industrial waste but storm runoff and sewage overflows. Five minutes of heavy rain overloads the sewer system. “The 1880 technology dumps sewage into waterways and if we don’t improve the infrastructure and keep increasing in population without considering these environmental concerns, soon we won’t be able to use our water.”
Such foreboding considerations have encouraged both city and state representatives to have the creek chosen as a Superfund site, where federal initiatives are taken to clean up the waterway funded either by the company at fault, in this case Exxon/Mobil or with government funding.
The route ended at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, designed by artist George Trakas in 2007. A walk through a long “vessel” leads to an open loop around the creek with a pathway laden with sand and shrubbery. The anti-climactic scenery of cement blocks, factories, cranes and a sewage plant integrates the nuances of Greenpoint’s industrial history with possibilities of natural vibrancy. The project was funded as a result of the retrofitting project of the wastewater plant in 1996, where one percent of all city-funded projects are spent on public art projects throughout the city.
Newtown Creek Bike Tour succeeded in educating the group about Newtown Creek but more steps will need to be taken to bring awareness and encourage the community to take initiative to improving the local environment. Organizations such as Newtown Creek Alliance, Riverkeeper and NAG hope to stir awareness and exploration and a sense of ownership of their neighborhood. “It would be amazing to reclaim the waterways and get rid of pollution. I think our neighborhood has a progressive population and there’s potential in stirring a movement to clean up Newtown Creek.” says Kuonen. Until then, Kuonen encourages locals to flush the toilet and shower less during heavy rain to keep sewage from streaming into the river.