Over the summer, a delegation of SWIM Coalition member organizations met with NYC City Council members, Borough Presidents, and representatives of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to discuss the City’s Combined Sewer Overflow Long Terms Control Plans (CSO LTCP’s) and Green Infrastructure Plans.
As part of our discussions with these City officials, we shared a number of fact sheets that outline the flaws in the City’s plans and our concerns about the City’s missed opportunities to improve water quality in our waterways by 2030. In our meetings, we:
Called for a public hearing convened by the NYC City Council’s Committee for Environmental Protection to review Citizen’s concerns about the end results of the CSO LTCP’s and Green Infrastructure Plan;
Provided a template for a letter to be sent from from City Council members to the Mayor urging him to hold NYC DEP and NY DEC accountable for the development and approval of CSO Long Term Control Plans that will provide real relief for New York City’s polluted waterways and unlock the full potential of our waterways as a vital resource for all New Yorkers;
Asked the City Council Committee for Environmental Protection to draft a City Council Resolution in support of a lawsuit that several SWIM member organizations filed against EPA recently, concerning the state’s outdated water quality standards for sewage pollution in NYC waters.
In addition to the SWIM delegation meetings with City officials, we’ve equipped our members with a series of fact sheets and talking points and encouraged them to organize local initiatives in their districts and neighborhoods in response to the City’s flawed plans for water quality improvements in their local waterways.
We recently released our Principles for Clean Waterways (signed by 29 Coalition members), a set of guidelines for how the city and state can protect our waters from sewage and polluted runoff. We have distributed the Clean Water Principles document to the Mayor, City Council, and Borough Presidents encouraging them to endorse the principles.
Stay tuned for more information about our ongoing initiatives here on the blog, in our e-blasts, and at our quarterly public meetings! Sign up for our E-blasts here.
Photo Courtesy: Korin Tangtrakul 2016