Our colleagues at the Billion Oyster Project invited SWIM to join a review panel and discussion of oral presentations and recommendations made by students of the New York Harbor School's Marine Policy and Environmental Advocacy Program on how the State should distribute grant funding for the Coney Island Creek Environmental Benefit Fund.
The Harbor School and Billion Oyster Project asked students to research and develop presentations based on the Beach Haven Apartment Complex's 2016 illegal sewer connection violation which resulted in the New York Department of Environmental Conservation issuing the largest fine in state history for an illegal sewer connection by a residential building complex. See more information here about the violation.
The student teams presented recommendations to the review panel (consisting of representatives from New York State Trust for Public Land, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Waterfront Alliance, Billion Oyster Project, and SWIM) for potential projects that the Coney Island Environmental Benefit Fund might support. Student teams provided their rationale for how their projects/recommendations would yield environmental restoration of the Creek and the surrounding community.
Based on the student presentations it was clear that the Harbor School's Marine Policy and Environmental Advocacy program is equipping the next generation of clean water advocates with all the tools they need to ensure that NYC waterways will be be safe and healthy for many generations to come!