Participants on a tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant march towards the digester eggs. (Photo: Megan Penmann)
Registration opens tomorrow Thursday, Jan. 31 at 12 p.m., for the annual Valentines Day tour of the futuristic digester eggs at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The tour will be on Saturday, Feb. 9, with four different sessions at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.; more info is available here.
Participants on a tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, inside the digester eggs. Photo: Megan Penmann
From the NYC Department of Environmental Protection:
The Digester Egg Tour starts with an overview of the wastewater treatment process—an essential part of protecting public health and NYC’s waterways. After, we treat guests to unobstructed views of the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens skylines from the observation deck, a glass-enclosed walkway built atop our state-of-the art digester eggs. Learn more about the Newtown Creek Digester Eggs.
The Digester Egg Tour starts at the Visitor Center at Newtown Creek, located in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. We are easy to spot—just look for the bright orange building. The entrance is near the intersection of Greenpoint Avenue and Humboldt Street at 329 Greenpoint Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11222.
Looking out a rainy window at the digester eggs and catwalks. The digester eggs were lit up red for Valentine’s Day 2018. (Photo: Lucie Levine)
Tours take place 3 times a year, in February, April and October, and are free and open to the public, ages 12 and older. Close-toed shoes are a must, and cameras are allowed!
Here at Greenpointers, we love getting down and dirty with the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. On Tuesday, that complex kicked it up a notch further when the Department of Environmental protection unveiled 4 brand new “Newtown Creek Litter Capture Devices.” These underground garbage grabbers are designed to trap pollutants in the waterway and direct them towards the plant, where they can then be hauled to landfills. The project required three years of construction and cost the City 42 million dollars. Continue reading →
Participants on a night tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant wear safety vests and march towards the digester eggs. All photos by Megan Penmann
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection is in Love! The municipal organization hosted a Valentines Day tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on Saturday, and the complex’s iconic Digester Eggs (more or less affectionately known as Shit Tits) were all decked out in red for the occasion. Donning hard hats and reflective vests, we got a rare look at the inner workings of New York City’s largest wastewater treatment plant. From fascinating facts (did you know the DEP has its own Fleet!?) to stunning views from the glass-enclosed pedestrian walkways that connect each egg, we picked up some exciting intel as well as some dope swag: I proudly display my NYC Sewer Manhole Cover pin.
Participants on a tour of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, inside the digester eggs.
That pride and passion are evident at Newtown Creek! DEP personnel at the Treatment Plant brought a contagious enthusiasm to highlighting the Plant’s elegant engineering and environmental equity that made the tour’s amorous theme appropriate: for Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment Pam Elardo, this is a labor of love.
Elardo told us that her lifelong goal is to make sure people know what happens when they flush the toilet. Read on to find out for yourself! Continue reading →
Nothing says I love you quite like sewage. This valentines day, you could go the traditional route, candy, flowers, etc… Or, you do something truly special: A tour of the Newtown Creek Digester Eggs!
The Digester Eggs are an elegant marriage of form and function. While they are part of the largest wastewater treatment plant in New York City, they are also award-winning landmarks of industrial design. The complex’s dramatic lighting scheme sets the eggs shimmering against the surrounding city, and highlights both functional and pedestrian areas within the plant.
According to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the hour and a half tour “starts with an overview of the wastewater treatment process—an essential part of protecting public health and NYC’s waterways. After, we treat guests to unobstructed views of the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens skylines from the observation deck, a glass-enclosed walkway built atop our state-of-the art digester eggs.”Continue reading →
WEDNESDAY 10/4 ♫ Momentum-Rite of Wednesdays w/ Viviana Toscanini / Chris Cross@ TBA Brooklyn (395 Wythe Ave), 6pm, FREE, Buy tix * Trash Free NYC Waters Public Meeting @ Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant – Visitor Center (327 Greenpoint Ave), 6pm, FREE, A meeting on the City’s MS4 Program and the development of a comprehensive Stormwater Management Program (SWMP), More info ♫ RockBitchCity! Loosh/Maria Neckam/May Cheung @ Terra Firma (119 Ingraham St), 7:30pm, FREE, More info ♫ The Grateful Ball: The Travelin’ McCourys + Jeff Austin Band @ Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Ave), 8pm, $15, Buy tix
THURSDAY 10/5 * Ketamine: The Musical @ House of YES (2 Wyckoff Ave), 7pm, $20, Profound and numbing, time will stand still as circus, dance, balloons, horses, clowns, sugar and music, so much music, swallow you whole. Enter the hole, Buy tix * 3rd Annual SSKCA Oktoberfest Celebration @ Brooklyn Brewery (79 N 11th St), 7:30pm, $60, Unlimited brews, German food, & prizes! Proceeds will support St. Stanislaus Kostka’s new chess curriculum! Buy tix ♫ Karma Kids Presents – Hip Hop on a School Night @ Muchmore’s (2 Havemeyer St), 9pm, $7, Cody Cody Jones (Pitt/Philly), Fuerrilla Warfare (NYC), Ialive (Philly), Blastmaster Baker (BK via Youngstown), Mic Lanny (Albany), & Duncecap, More info ♦ High Tension with a Live Score @ Videology (308 Bedford Ave), 9pm, $16, Featuring a new, electronic score performed by Adrianna “Gooddroid” Moschides! The film will be presented without sound, Buy tix Continue reading →
Hey, it gets lonely on the G Track. (Via ReThink Studios)
Though full-size G Trains are very much on the agenda for the coming L Train shutdown, here’s another thought: extending the E to run along the G track to take the pressure off all of us out here.
Because the L Train shutdown is consuming all our thoughts lately, senator Daniel Squadron (plus 32 other officials) are calling on Cuomo, de Blasio, and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast to start working on better solutions now.
One more G Train thing and then we’ll stop. Apparently a small number of G Trains are being used as a test group for those futuristic digital display screens you see on other trains from the modern era.
Things are changing at Five Leaves and Nights and Weekends — but hopefully only in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. Chef Ken Addington is leaving his post there, but he’s apparently got something else up his sleeve.
If sewage-related podcasts are your thing, check out this DNAinfo reporter’s chat with Zainool Ali, the manager of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
What about urban hikes? Are those your thing? On August 6, Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman will be taking interested parties through our industrial borderlands.
Investors Bank recently cut the ribbon at its new location on Manhattan Ave. However, it’s already made moves in the community by getting in with local advocacy groups like the Greenpoint YMCA and the North Brooklyn Development Corporation.
There’s still time for CitiStorage owner Norm Brodsky to accept the city’s offer of $100 million, but his public auction of the land recently closed, and he’s been playing his cards close to his chest.
The Greenpoint entrepreneurs behind spice savant Greenpoint Trading Company are laying on the heat with an expansion into South Bushwick.
Site location of the future project on North Henry Street in Greenpoint via Newtown Creek Alliance
If you walk along Greenpoint Avenue toward Queens, you will eventually approach North Henry Street, which appears to be a private road for the Wastewater Treatment Plant. A little-known fact is that the street is open to the public and leads to a city-owned Newtown Creek access point.
This access point — and the plans to revitalize once-thriving marshlands — were discussed last week at Sunview Luncheonette in Greenpoint. Willis Elkins, program manager at the Newtown Creek Alliance, presented his team’s “18 months of historic analysis” and forward-looking vision for the decrepit shoreline. While the plans are still in their early stages, NCA’s goal is to reintroduce an ecosystem that can also provide natural protection against rising waters. Continue reading →
You might not think about the sewers or quite frankly POOP when you think of Valentine’s Day – but if you LOVE NYC then you have to love all of NYC, which means loving the amazing system that takes care of our water waste. Consider a tour of the digester in Greenpoint this Friday! I am taking Gina there on a girls date – see you there!
