Friends of Rockaway is the main voice in Rockaway for natural area preservation and eco-tourism. We are also a citizen's group trying to protect NY City's major wetland and wildlife area, Jamaica Bay. We are currently fighting industrial development, "giant" residential development, JFK Airport noise, air and water pollution. We are sorry to announce our president, Bernie Blum, who was suffering from a heart problems for the last year, died on Sept. 30th. We will continue to carry on his vision of a restored Jamaica Bay. You can contact Bill Mulcahy for more information on Friends of Rockaway.
Friends of Rockaway President Dies On
National Estuary Day!!! read obituary and news articles about him by his bereaved
friends. http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/bernieblum.html
7/20/06 News Story: Stormwater Controls Recommended for New York City's Jamaica Bay:
NEW YORK, New York, (ENS) -
Best management practices to minimize and control soil erosion and
stormwater runoff are at the core of a set of preliminary 
recommendations
for improving the water quality and ecology of Jamaica Bay newly issued by the
Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan Advisory Committee. Adjacent to New York
City, the bay is one of the largest and most productive coastal ecosystems in
the northeastern United States, and includes the largest tidal wetland complex
in the New York metropolitan area. Connecting to the Atlantic Ocean via the
Rockaway Inlet, the bay is an important component of the larger Hudson-Raritan
Estuary, which contains the New York-New Jersey Harbor complex, one of the
world's busiest waterway systems. Jamaica Bay's wetlands serve as flood
protection and shoreline erosion control for the homes and businesses of the encircling
neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, home to more than 500,000 New Yorkers.
The Jamaica Bay watershed, which feeds the freshwater portion of the estuary,
extends deep into Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County. These preliminary
recommendations were submitted on June 29 to the Speaker of the New York City
Council and the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) under Local Law 71, which mandates development of a watershed
protection plan for the "watershed/sewershed" of Jamaica Bay. The
committee, created by Local Law 71, must provide its final recommendations for a
a watershed protection plan by June 1, 2007. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2006/2006-07-20-03.asp
Friends
of Rockaway Objects To Fraudulent FAA "Airspace Redesign" Plan:
The NY/NJ/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign DEIS, although cleverly crafted to look
scientific, is actually designed to maintain many of the unscientific,
politically influenced aircraft routes in the N.Y. City metropolitan area. It demonstrates the deep arrogance and
contempt the FAA has for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and their lack of concern for
environmental and health impacts of aviation on the public, especially the poor
and politically weak. Some of the FAA's routing "maps" (see one on
the left) don't even show airports and even landforms!!! This DEIS can
only be described as a official con job designed to expand aviation at the
expense of those poor and minority communities, least able to defend themselves.
We have requested that this severely flawed DEIS be thrown out and/or redone
using science and fairness as its basis instead of official corruption and
political influence. You can see a listing of our comments on the Aviation
Conspiracy Newsletter web site at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter363.htm
Coastal
Erosion Hazard Lines In Edgemere Are Inadequate: A special impact
statement on coastal erosion is needed for Beach 25th Street and all of Edgemere.
Within coastal erosion hazard lines there is no development approved by state
government. A November11th Rockaway Wave
news story
tells about how Rockaway residents are protesting the massive building that is
going on in the area. Some foundations are even being put in before there are
permits!!! Building are being built very close to the beach. Friends of
Rockaway wonders why this is being allowed now when years ago building along the
beach was stopped because of problem of coastal erosion. Could there be
developer money finding its way into some politician's pockets? N.Y. City
Councilman James Sanders, who believes that the buildings are "being built
by right," says he "needs more information to be either for or against
this."
No
Disposal Of Toxic Dredge Spoils In Jamaica Bay!!! For years some elitists
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been trying to link the Port
Authority's need to dispose of toxic dredge spoils cheaply - from widened and
deepened shipping channels and berths - with the ecological restoration of
Jamaica Bay "borrow pits" (bay bottom dredged for landfill years ago).
Recently the Corps released a study of the ecology of Little Bay and Norton
Basin, complex off Bayswater and Edgemere in Rockaway which claims that Little
Bay's pits bottoms are so degraded that they fit the definition - in the Corps
Dredge Disposal Management Plan (DDMP) for the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey - of 
those borrow pits needing recontouring and restoration using dredge
spoil disposal "shallowing process."
The study is wise in not mentioning the potential use (or
intention to use) toxic
dredge spoils but there is so muc
h available and the Corps has already published
an application (The Castle Astoria) which intended to bring toxic
dredge spoils from Steinway Creek in Astoria, Queens to Norton Basin. It was
dropped when opposition became too intense.
Environmental groups have favored the DDMP industrial recycling option by which the spoils are treated with portland cement and used in construction projects and to fill in Pennsylvania strip mines. Mr. Bernard Blum (pictured on right) has attended many meetings on the spoils disposal issue - even at World Trade Center Port Authority offices- and reports the Jamaica Bay bay disposal plan was at one time dropped given the proximity to Gateway National Park. "Disposal for restoration is still disposal!" says Mr. Blum. So the public should send objections to Len Houston, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacob K. Javits Federal Building 26 Federal Plaza, NY, NY 10278.
John
Baxter, Friends Of Rockaway Member Speaks, Out On Public Access To Beach Areas!!!
In a August 5, 2005 Rockaway Wave
letter to the Editor John Baxter says "In 1982 after the State of New
York joined the federal Coastal Zone Management Program spelled out in the
Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) of 1972, boundary lines were drawn up by
NYS’s Coastal Management Program (CMP) and the federal agency, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Because Rockaway Beach is so
narrow, NOAA recommended that the entire peninsula of Rockaway Beach from the
tip of Breezy Point to the borders of Nassau County from Ocean to Bay, be
declared a Coastal Zone Boundary. At the same time New York
City’s Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP) was approved by NOAA, as was
the State’s CMP. There was a contract drawn up between WRP, CMP and NOAA to
work as partners to enforce the rules set forth in the CZMA in Coastal Zone
Boundaries. The contract gives NOAA oversight and enforcement
powers." Baxter says Rockaway's local Community Board 14 is making
policy that is not conforming to the CZMA. Mr. Baxter can be contacted at:
1718-474-3030.
N.Y.
City Council Member Fights Against Jamaica Bay Marshland Loss!!! The Council
Committee on Environmental Protection believes something needs to be done about
the disappearance of marshland in Jamaica Bay. At present, Jamaica Bay
loses 40 acres of wetland a year. About 1,000 acres are all that remain.
It has been predicted that the bay's marshland may be entirely lost in 20 years.
Scientists and environmental agencies and 
groups are conducting experiments in
the bay to save and renew marshland, but no one is certain why the shrinkage is
happening. The three bills are
all sponsored by committee chairman James Gennaro (pictured upper left). Introduction Number 565 addresses
control of storm runoff, strengthening buffers - and public education. The bills
would create a trinity of preservation and renewal: a bay watershed protection
plan, a task force to study the feasibility of transferring all wetlands to the
responsibility of the city Parks Department, and limits to the total maximum
daily load of nitrogen flushed into the bay. Read N.Y. Daily News
article on his effort at: http://home.hvc.rr.com/mulcahy60/saving_jamaica_bay.htm (March 31, 2005) Jamaica Bay
Eco-Watcher, Dan Munday
Testifies Before City Council Environmental Protection Committee: In
addition to the excellent testimony that we agree with, the following should be
added: 1. The Idlewild Storm Sewer Mitigation Project with a 2.46 BILLION gallon
per day street runoff from 5100 acres of Southeast Queens needs an environmental
impact statement and a retention basin such as the one under Flushing Meadows
Park. It is neglected sewer shed protection. 2. There are reportedly
nearly one hundred acres of wetlands at the head of the bay, east of Rockaway
Turnpike and south of the Idlewild Storm Sewer, if not already they should be
under Parks Department control. There are also wetlands in Rockaway Industrial
Park (Beach 80th and Barbadoes Basin). There are also wetlands on Beach 87th
Street south of the bulkhead. Furthermore, "wet beach or interdune area" between
Beach 69th to Beach 68th Street exists with much high marsh Spartina
Patens grass mixed with dune grass. It's in the Coastal Erosion
Hazard Line zone south of the Arverne Project. It should be giver special
protection although its not true wetlands.
)
From
June 24, 2005 Rockaway Wave article On "Mosquito Buffer On The Way:"
Local environmentalist and President of the Friends of Rockaway (recently
photographed at right), Bernie Blum, believes that surface runoff from concrete
and asphalt is pouring into the Jamaica Bay. Vegetation buffers, however,
protect Jamaica Bay by slowing and metabolizing the chemical pollution (heavy
metals, insecticides, etc.). The Friends of Rockaway pioneered the buffering.
Blum is also excited about the $500,000 secured by City
Councilman James Sanders, Jr., for the restoration of Dubos Point and ecological
mosquito control. “The good news would soon be great news for adjacent
homeowners bother by mosquitoes generated along DeCosta Avenue. Comment
from Bernard Blum: The article reminds that wetlands restoration by tidal flow
restoration of blocked creeks is an end in itself, there also is beneficial
mosquito control impact that avoids using harmful chemicals. So while the
invasive tall reed grass (Phragmites) recedes to be replaced by the Spartinas
the tidal flushing of standing water releases mosquito larvae for baitfish to
devour. This is the ecological mosquito control mentioned in the half a million
dollar allocation. Not mentioned is that more funding will come from the Jamaica
Bay Damages List Account (JBDA). So not clearly stated -but it is so- that the
open marsh water creeks are now buffers to mosquito swarm production that Dubos
is noted for.
Open Marsh Water Management "OMWM" is the technical name for wetlands restoration for mosquito control. Depressions are left in the wetlands for baitfish that eat the mosquito larvae that survive between the tides. In the photo (above left) Bernie Blum is pointing to surface runoff and groundwater in a lot cleaning trench along DeCosta Avenue. It should be filled in completely with sand by the Parks Department which manages Dubos Point. Thus mosquitoes will not breed there.
Futhermore, man made potholes in the wetland park uplands that also needs filling for more effective mosquito control even in the driest weather. http://www.rockawave.com/news/2005/0624/Community/066.html
Dr. Rene Dubos Warned About Pollution's 
Effect
On Jamaica Bay: Dr. Dubos played
a significant role of stopping JFK Airport runway expansion into Jamaica Bay.
Pulitzer Prize Winning author who wrote on the environment: Read a Sept. 10th
1970 New York Times article titled "Though Still Polluted,
Jamaica Bay Is Still Reviving" Unfortunately, Jamaica Bay is no longer, to quote Dr. Dubos in 1970,
"a success story." According to another, recent, N.Y.
Times story http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/jambay.htm
"Thousands of acres of marshy islands in Jamaica Bay, which provide nesting
and feeding areas for vast populations of birds and other wildlife, are rapidly,
mysteriously vanishing."
Rockaway's
"Arverne Project:" Being Built In A Dangerous JFK Airport Noise Pollution Area? Take
city-owned land, on a eroding beach less than a mile from the end of one of the
world's busiest airports and you have the Arverne Project. Just take a look at
the Port Authority map on the right and you will see what the poor people who
buy into this project 
will experience. And these were the NIGHT flights!!!
You can be sure that they won't be told about the planes before they sign on the
dotted line. The map on the lower right is from the NYC Housing Preservation and
Development. It shows the Arverne Project's central and eastern sections. "Central
Park" is a misnomer since the FEIS
says its supposed to be a "wildlife sanctuary park!!!" Note that
this eastern section is highly floodable (see hurricane flooding map below) and
both should be one big wildlife sanctuary park with a beach to the bay running
through the eastern section.. Such an arrangement conforms to watershed /sewershed
protection planning for Jamaica Bay in recent City Council legislation Intro
565.
The Arverne Project:
The
Strange, Recently Removed From Their Web Site, City Map Of Rockaway: This copy
of a a New York City Dept. of Health map was criticized by us for showing
parkland as being "vacant." After we posted the map and our
criticism,
it quickly disappeared from the Dept. of Health West Nile Virus Information
Draft Environmental Impact Statement web site!!! Fortunately we had printed
out the map and we could scan it and restore it to the Friends of Rockaway web
site. Why wonder why the City removed
it and every other reference to the Dept. of Health West Nile Virus and
mosquito control? Does this have something to do with the city's efforts to
promote the massive Arverne Project?
Informational
Presentation On "Terrapin Point" - AKA Vernam Barbadoes Preserve: (Minutes
of Rockaway Community Board 14) Ecological significance of Terrapin Point and
the importance of this area to the Jamaica Bay ecosystem:
Friends of Rockaway President
Bernie Blum Praises And Is Frustrated Over Dubos Point "Cleanup:"
Read the Dec.
14th, 2004 article on the $500,000 Dubos
Point cleanup and with a $6,000,000 dollar" ecological restoration"
restoration "somewhere down the line." President Blum says he
hopes 
"the clogged creeks feeding the wetland are unblocked, allowing
the creeks to flow. This would prevent accumulation of stagnant water that
becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes." He has misgivings as
cleaning up Dubos Point is a bureaucratic way the Park and Sanitation
Departments to send in bulldozers (read letter
to HPD Environmental Projects Coordinator, Helen Gitelson) to destroy natural habitat. The Parks Department
has already been fined $15,000 by N.Y. State DEC for bulldozing in the Dubos
Point wetlands. Dubos Point Gets 500,000 That
Begins Design Plans For Wetlands Restoration: Dubos
Point is an impounded wetlands because its tidal flow is disconnected
sufficiently cut off from Jamaica Bay (to the north) and Summerville Basin
(to the east). Since the N.Y. State Dept. of Environmental Conservation has
already fined the Parks Department $15,000 for operating heavy equipment at
Dubos Point so
the emphasis should be on opening up the creeks and not
sending in bulldozers from the Sanitation Dept. 
that
have been ripping off topsoil nor from the Park's Department. It was
revealed at a April 20, 2005 Jamaica Bay Task Force Meeting by marine scientist
Steve Zahn from NYSDEC Region 2, that the Jamaica Bay Damages List Account (JBDA)
will supply additional substantial funding for Dubos Point when federal funding
comes through. 11/19/2004
Rockaway Wave: Article On Jamaica Bay Sediment Check: Friends of Rockaway
President Bernard Blum would like to thank Councilman James Sanders Jr. for
arranging for $500,000 dollars of councilmanic funds for wetlands restoration
and ecological mosquito control. Friends of Rockaway performed much of the
groundwork that the funding was based upon. Note letter from Councilman
Sanders to Friends of Rockaway in connection with work done on mosquito control
information. The Wave choose to marginalize the story by not printing anything
about it.
Ocean Outfall Route
Preservation: Furthermore the ocean outfall meant to flush
pollutants from Jamaica Bay, proposed by NYDEC water engineer Richard Newman PE
years ago should be situated under the more floodable East Arverne between ocean
Beach 36 and bay Beach 35th Streets. This replaces the Far Rockaway canal, which
was filled-in, in 1912, for real estate development.
The Strange Flooding Danger
Map Of Rockaway: This map shows the flood potential from hurricanes to
Rockaway and surrounding areas. We find it strange that Coney Island is listed
as a "lower" lying area, with greater flood potential, than the
central part of Rockaway. Could it be that Central Rockaway was given a
"Zone B" classification because this is where the city wants to build
a massive housing project?
Rockaway-Once
New York City's Playground, Now The City's Favorite Dumping Ground!!! But the Sanitation Dept. performs site preparation for
development when it strips topsoil and habitat of Jamaica Bay watershed in the
Arverne Proposal! So this preferable needs preservation from future stripping.
HUD, developers and the public need to cooperate for this plan.
But unfortunately HUD has not been ethical! So instead of asking for a completed EIS for its vacant lot cleaning grant from the Dept. of Sanitation - which would protect habitat- it has changed the language of the grant for 2005 from 2004 and previous years. So the grant now permits the transfer of topsoil from lot to lot rather than keeping it on site. So now it is easier to exploit topsoil. So now its easier to exploit topsoil!!! This also violates public and private property rights!!! (see other sections of this web page for more details)
Therefore, Dan Mundy, environmental chair Community Board 14,
Don Riepe, Jamaica Bay guardian and other public interests and media like the
Rockaway Wave, are urged to unify for this East Arverne route which is watershed
preservation by asking for a completed impact statement from the Sanitation
Department OMB and Dept. of City
Planning (agencies that transmit HUD
funds).
Records exist for topsoil recovery/recycling but it is currently denied by the Sanitation Dept. legal affairs, so it is indeed a complicated problem of topsoil and removal is not routine when little is observed returned.
This outfall plan is not meant to draw more pollution from DEP's North Queen's watershed and other sources (see the Klein letter excerpt), diverting pollution that normally enters Western L. I. Sound into Jamaica Bay (natural watershed's too), but a chance to cleanse the bay! But will fishing interests protest "dilution of pollution solution" into marine waters? Would the U.S. EPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA and other NY/NJ HEP agencies approve given concerns with standards for safe consumption of marine life.
Friends
of Rockaway has spearheaded the conservation of over 50 acres of Rockaway's
remaining natural treasures. This includes Dubos Point (we also named it),
Terrapin Point (aka Terra Barbados Peninsula), Brant Point, Seaview Avenue
Wetlands, Duke Kahanamoku Way and Hook Creek in Brookville Park. We also played
important roles in conserving Spring Creek in Howard Beach, Queens and Fresh
Creek in Brooklyn. The outfall route plan needs cooperation from diverse
interests including the Sanitation Dept. and developers for added conservation
of Rockaway's remaining natural resources. Friends of the Puget
Sound Action Team on the West Coast share similar watershed protection
problems and we hope to have further communication.
New
Information On Jamaica Bay Water Pollution: Congratulations
to Brad Sewell, NRDC senior attorney, for alerting the public to the fact
that lax water quality standards for Jamaica Bay are being used in consent
orders between N.Y. State DEC and N.Y.C. Dept. of Environmental Protection such
that Jamaica Bay water quality is on the decline. Hopefully better water quality
standards will be used by DEC in newly renegotiated consent orders. This was
part of his testimony at the October 21st, 2004 meeting of the
N. Y. City
Council Committee on Environment Protection which focused on saving Jamaica
Bay's disappearing wetlands. Read Bernard Blum's article on it here.
According to Mr. Sewell's testimony Jamaica Bay "is visited by 20% of
the continents birds every year and is home to several dozen rare, threatened or
endangered bird, reptile and amphibian species." The map on the left
comes from the Hydroqual water quality testing company website at: http://www.hydroqual.com/projects/usa/jamb_AreaPg.html
New Issues: (June 2004) NOAA Evaluation Of New York State Coastal Management Program (CMP)
No
Replies From NOAA To Our Letters On Lot Cleaning Impact Statement Completion!!! There
is an evaluation of state 
coastal
programs performed by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) of
the US Department of Commerce to determine how well the program works and to
determine whether the federal funding should continue. The NYS program has
obtained over 40 million dollars since 1978-1982 (2.5 million dollars per year)
when the state program and the city program (an insert into the state's)
were drafted. Habitat protection and waterfront access are just a few of the
goals of the federal program that the New York State Program is expected to
follow. The two letters (letter
1 and letter 2)
to Helen Farr Bass, NOAA Coastal Management Specialist, are complaints that the
Program is not working in Rockaway when the NYC Sanitation 
Department
strips away topsoil and habitat and there is no completed
impact statement for lot cleaning under City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR).
In the city program (a local waterfront revitalization program or lwrp)
the City Planning Commission is the Coastal Commission that is supposed to
assure compliance with the management goals. The letters ask that both
NOAA and the Commission obtain a completed lot cleaning impact statement from
the NYC Sanitation Department (the lead agency) in order that habitat be
protected in the 308 acre Arverne Renewal Area and environs. No replies
have been obtained yet! Why isn't the Justice Dept. investigating this since
excavating topsoil is not routine and records have been kept for all the missing
topsoil? NOAA still has not included the above in Friends of Rockaway's
testimony in the evaluation of the N.Y. State Coastal Management Program.
Promises have not been kept!!! The testimony has still not arrived as of March
2005.
Recent Letters From Friends of
Rockaway To Bureaucrats On Arverne Urban Renewal Area And One Reply:
March 12, 2004 letter: New York -New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (NYNJHEP) and NYC Office of Management and Budget (NYCOMB) Links to Arverne Habitat Protection. Letter1 and Letter 1a to Director Nyman (NYNJHEP).
June 2, 2004 Letter to Nancy Welsh, Chair. Habitat Work Group of the NYNJHEP:
March 3, 2000 Letter to Friends of Rockaway from John L. Leonard of N.Y. City Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
NOAA Evaluation Of State Waterfront Programs: Out of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 has come the NOAA evaluation of State Waterfront Revitalization Programs (WRP's) and out of the Clean Water Act comes the National Estuary Program of which the the NYNJ Harbor Estuary is just one. The bi-state program is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency Region II. It is an assemblage of Federal/State/City agencies involved with regulatory functions. Included is the Port Authority of NYNJ. Not included is the Sanitation Department and the NYC Department of Health. NYCOMB is not included nor is HUD. The bi-state program which receives more than a half million dollars per year for administration (reportedly) has its own evaluation process for how it protects habitat and water quality as well as safely disposes of toxic dredge spoils.
Question
Posed To Director Nyman: The question posed to Director Nyman is
how can the program conform to protecting habitat in Arverne (which is Jamaica
Bay watershed) if there is no completed lot cleaning impact statement and the
sanitation department has latitude therefore to strip all the topsoil and living
vegetation it can. So though not a member agency why shouldn't the bi-state
program require such a completion of an impact statement by that agency in the
array of city agencies that manipulate and or regulate the environment (natural
and built)?
Why Hasn't The Habitat Work Group Scheduled A Regulatory Affairs Meeting? Nancy Welsh is the Chair of the Habitat Work Group but is also a Coastal Management Specialist of the NYS Coastal Management Program (CMP) which is administered by the NYS Department of State (NYSDOS).So her presence at NYNJHEP also represents the NYS Program (a WRP) that is funded through the NOAA evaluation process. So why hasn't the Habitat Work Group scheduled a Regulatory Affairs Meeting that discusses all the regulations dealing with the Sanitation Department entering public and private land and strip mining that destroys habitat? In the 'merry month of May' there was no such agenda item at HWG, there was no such an agenda item at the Jamaica Bay Task Force, and the Management Committee of the bi-state program cancelled the meeting such that such discussion about Arverne Habitat Protection and a suggested vote on the lot cleaning impact statement could not take place. Such were my views as unofficial public monitor on program functioning squelched in the meetings game! Nancy Wells has since resigned as chair, so there has been no meeting.
The
reply from OMB, not part of the NYNJHEP, explains that NYCDEP and OMB did not
request of the Sanitation Department completion of the lot cleaning impact
statement. Since OMB transmits federal HUD funds (8-13 million dollars per year
in a Community Development Vacant Lot Cleaning Grant-one of many in a HUD
Consolidated Plan which also targets Arverne development) that it along with the
Consolidated Plan Coordinator of the Department of City Planning (also
transmits) both should be requiring the completion of the impact
statement. HUD places sole responsibility with oversight on these city agencies.
No replies have been received from Mr. Nyman or from Ms. Welsh yet and Mr.
Leonard has been requested by yet another letter to ask Sanitation
Commissioner Doherty to finally complete the impact statement. Why the problem
of completing an impact statement exists is still a big mystery. Any
suggestions out there?
June 2, 2004 Letter To Arverne Developer: This letter (pages 1 and 2) to Mr. Balvin Benjamin, one of the Arverne developers, asks for support of a number of issues including a beach to bay park at the eastern end of the Arverne proposal (actually in Edgemere). Much of the western part of Arverne (under a mid 1990's review process was clearcut this April into May. The Central Park proposed by HPD is too limited and so for habitat protection there has to be the beach to bay park and for wildlife to migrate as development displaces it.
2004 Update On Mosquito
Wars At Dubos Point And Rockaway: The August 17th 2003 Newsday article
misinforms
about the mosquito problem at Dubos Point. (# 9 in figure 2.6 in the
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Arverne/Edgemere Renewal Areas on
the Rockaway Peninsula. It is also # 9 Table 2.6-5 in this DEIS
for CEQR No. 02 HPD 004Q ). Letter to Parks
Commissioner Benepe. on applying for state funds for wetlands
restoration and mosquito control.
Tidal Flow Diagram: This is a
diagram of tidal flow restoration that is needed for Dubos Point in Rockaway:
N.Y.C.
Sanitation Dept. Digs Rockaway Mosquito Breeding Trenches
This area at Beach 65th Street and
Bayfield Avenue 
and others in Rockaway have been excavated by the Sanitation
Department's Lot Cleaning Unit which frequently uses bulldozers to
"clean" (sometimes they look worse afterwards) lots.
1/13/98 Letter to President Clinton requesting the stopping of federal funding of the N.Y.C. Sanitation Dept. Lot Cleaning Program.
4/2/97 N.Y. City Office of Management and Budget letter to Friends of Rockaway president Blum regarding his citizen complaint about topsoil removal. This description of the Vacant Lot Cleaning Program of the Consolidated Program of HUD Grants was discovered in May 2002 and DEP/SWCD of NYC knew it 3 years ago (personal communication), It clearly indicates that under NYSDEC oversight "soil should not be transferred from one property to another. Yet Commissioner Doherty of the Sanitation Department indicated at a community meeting that stripped topsoil was sifted and was returned but not necessarily to the lots it was removed from. Since this striping happened on a massive scale (pre WNV and later) its hard to figure out why no oversight for compliance with the description took place while people around Dubos Point continued to suffer from the mosquito swarms. The grant is administered by the NYC Department of City Planning and NYC Office of Management and Budget, shouldn't these agencies have recognized the problem of oversight?
Massive Infusion Of Funds Needed To Stop Jamaica Bay Wetland Island Destruction: Read my request letter to Bill Clinton (Page1, Page 2 & Page 3) for an infusion of funds
Rockaway
Surfer King Gets His Own Stamp: Duke
Kamamoku finally has been honored with a stamp. It links the Duke with Rockaway
for promotion of waterfront recreational-economic developments that have been
lacking in plans for our valuable shoreline. So it only took from 1984, when
Duke Kahanamoku Way was dedicated, to the present stamp issuance for any
recognition of the importance of such linkage for Rockaway. Friends of
Rockaway spearheaded the Duke Kahanamoku Way dedication. And
appropriately, Bernard J. Blum, President of Friends of Rockaway, is shown
above the stamp to compensate for the unfortunate omission in the
article's mention of the Way. Its actually between the imagined extension of
Shorefront Parkway at B38th Street and the boardwalk. Read Sept. 1st, 2002
N.Y. Daily News story "Rockaway Surfer Legend Gets Stamped" on it at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/dukestory.gif 
Update
On The Duke Kahanamoku Way Dedication With The Current HPD Draft Environmental
Impact Statement For The Arverne/Edgemere Renewal Areas.
If Ms. (Read Friends of Rockaway letter) Giitelson, HPD Environmental Director,
reportedly worked at HUD years ago would it be so upsetting in the DEIS
process that the consultant ignored the HUD funded stripping of land and living
vegetation at Duke Kahanamoku Way when performing environmental analysis? If
this is not bad enough, the Rockaway Wave headlines and reporting, should have
been screaming about a local government agency, Community Board # 14. This
Community Board advised, for a HPD proposal, that does not need a waterfront
setting with significant waterfront access planning. So the symbol
for surfing and water sports promotion, Duke Kahanamoku Way, is demapped
as was done in a previous proposal. The Department of City Planning, acting as
The Coastal Commission, on request mapped it back in. Hopefully both
Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (member of the Assembly's Tourism
Committee), Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. (Chair of the Parks Committee of
the City Council)-both supportive of the recent Duke Kahanamoku stamp
issuance-along with other Rockaway's elected officials will support the
prominance the dedication deserves in the current HPD proposal. His
wife only wanted his name to be spelled correctly for the dedication and its sad
that NYC is not respectful of "The Duke" nor Rockaway's history.
It has been personally painful that "The System" has chosen to destroy
the meaning of such a dedication (with a
proposal that can just as well be situated in the Gobi Desert) and the
dedication itself. Who could ever imagine that a dedication to Dr. Rene Dubos
(who coined the expression "Think Globally Act Locally") would become
a "Mosquito Point" that imprisons residents in their homes because of
bureaucrats and elected officials without conscience? Its all pathetic and
a result of apathy in Rockaway!
Jamaica Bay and N.Y. Harbor Pollution - 5 N.Y. City area (including ocean) maps showing water pollution. Read below about the 100 million-dollar sewer into Jamaica Bay that the government refused to do a Environmental Impact Study (EIS) on. This pollution study was done BEFORE the Idlewild Park sewer was installed which spews pollution into Jamaica Bay!!! The city and federal government are now saying they don't know why Jamaica Bay is "dying."
Dubos Point Refuge (map): Proposal to reduce mosquitos by open marsh management. Diagram of Open Marsh Water Management.
The
N.Y./N.J "HARBOR HEALTH/HUMAN HEALTH" Report of The Hudson
River Foundation should include as an indicator West Nile Virus Mosquito
standing water sites as well as well as mosquito breeding sites in
general. Cooperation of the NYC Department of Health and that of New Jersey DEP
would be required for information along with other sources. So far the
Management Committee of the Harbor
Estuary Program has refused to proactively obtain this co-operation. But the
Pathogen Work Group should be one approach to add this indicator to the Table 4
in the report. Isn't there one righteous bureaucrat or even journalist to
facilitate this need after all the disappearance of topsoil by Sanitation
Department bulldozing of the Rockaway Waterfront in the New York State
Coastal Zone? By so doing, the removal of impoundments of mosquito breeding
Dubos Point standing water creeks will also be highlighted for
facilitation. After returning to the Harbor Program in 1993, and requesting
assistance, the indifference of the array of agencies has been an unhappy
experience. So "Mosquito Point" (aka Dubos Point) might as well be
called "Indifference Point,"-A Dedication- to all the officialdom and
bureaucrats who have done nothing to help when assistance was needed. Link to
letters to N.Y. City Dept. of Health
Commissioner Friedan and Parks
Commissioner Benepe.
Is
This One Of The Reasons That Jamaica Bay Is Dying?
This new sewer outfall was built
several years ago. "This one sewer dumps more than 25% of
Queens storm water and related
toxic
chemicals into the bay,
It was built in the "once" (it was mysteriously reclassified a few
years ago) hazardous waste site of Idlewild Park. The Pataki-controlled
N.Y.State Dept. of Environmental Conservation has said this will have "NO
SIGNIFICANT IMPACT"
on the bay and
there was no Environmental Impact Statement on the pollution this sewer will
cause.
Many believe this new sewer outfall will be used to divert storm water that
formerly went into long Island Sound into Jamaica Bay!!!
Brooklhaven
Laboratory Shows The Environmental Status of the New York/New Jersey Harbor: The
New York/New Jersey Harbor and its vicinity areas are contaminated by inorganic
and organic contaminants. The environmental status of the Harbor is a
common concern. Contaminant distributions in surficial sediments of New
York/New Jersey Harbor and its vicinity are shown graphically by a series of
images generated by the Brookhaven National
Laboratory.
News Stories On Jamaica Bay: STATE RESOLVES JAMAICA BAY WETLANDS VIOLATION AND CREATES BAYKEEPER POSITION: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2001/jan/jan31a_01.html More web sites and articles on Jamaica Bay being threatened with pollution at: http://eces.org/articles/static/98877960072920.shtml & http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/nitrogen.html
N.Y.
City Sanitation Dept. Letter To Resident On Lot Cleaning Method: This Sanitation
Dept. reply to a landowner in Rockaway, 
Mr.
Frankel, claims his topsoil, and that belonging to others, is carted away,
sifted and then returned. But this landowner explains that the topsoil from his
lot was stolen and never returned. Replies to Friends of Rockaway have been also
been contradictory and insufficient! The substitution of all the bulldozing for
mosquito control by opening up blocked channels has been a fraud since these
insects don't breed in herbage! And whether for lot cleaning or for rat control
the bulldozing has made huge volumes of topsoil disappear without logical and
clear explanation. Investigative Agencies have not been helpful to obtain such
explanation nor to stop the bulldozing. So the public's property rights nor
constitutional protections have not been protected! Read Sanitation Dept. letter
to Mr. Frankel at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/forsanitletter.jpg
1994
Letter To Then Congressman Schumer On Rockaway Lot Cleaning And Mosquito
Control: This reply (VS1010) has two errors. In paragraph 2 it is
expressed that topsoil removal is minimized in the bulldozing operation. Were it
the case there would not have been so many piles of topsoil observed carted away
from B115th St. to the Nassau County line. In paragraph 5 it is explained that
mosquitoes breed in in vegeatation harborage. Since when do mosquitoes breed in
leaves and stems of living plants? http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/for1994schumer.jpg
Page 2 http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/for1994schumer2.jpg
Noise Pollution - from the "Cancer On The Bay" - JFK International Airport
N.Y.
Newsday Does 5/20/2001 Story On Friends of Rockaway President, Bernie Blum: N.Y.
Newsday writer Merle English writes: "Like the Cervantes
character, Blum seems singleminded about his personal quest: to pester
government at every level to protect the natural environment, especially the
waterways, beaches and marshlands of the Rockaways, the strip of land between
the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay that he calls home. Read story at: http://www.hvinet.com/rockaway2/bernienewsdaystory.htm
Help Support Friends Of Rockaway Our President, Bernard Blum can be contacted at 1718-474-4193.
Scientists
Predict That Jamaica Bay Islands Will Disappear:
Court Orders For Dirt. When deerhunters enter private property permission is required. The question is does the Sanitation Department maintain court order records (legal permission) to enter private and even public lands to confiscate dirt ( a valuable commodity). It is a similar situation and there are moral/ethical/legal issues to consider whether the bulldozing confiscation removal along with living vegetation) is presented to the public as lot cleaning/mosquito/weed control/rat control(NYCDOH program). The Sanitation Department refused a second mailing to review such records as their existence is determined. It is a public right under Freedom Of Information Law and the mosquito swarms of zillions are spawned at Dubos Point. The energy expended in all the bulldozing/carting of dirt has been substituted for opening up the impounded(blocked) creeks at Dubos Point park (aka Mosquito Point). So swarms of zillions result from the stagnant water in the creeks that tidal water cannnot enter. So through the treatment of land issue, not handled well, the City has not handled the mosquito control issues well in Rockaway. So the expected energy of expertise to reduce standing water at Dubos Point has not been a priority of NYC as bulldozers tore up dirt environs. No ears listen to pleas for better management by municipal agencies. Why? See June 13, 2000 and August 17, 2000 request letters for court order records and refusal to accept by Sanitation Dept. (letter) (Sanitation Dept. refusal)
Letters
2/13/98 Request letter to Mayor Giuliani to substitute the Parks Department Green Thumb Program for the Sanitation Dept. lot cleaning operation.
We need legal help on these environmental issues.
Most people don't know what a great place Rockaway is. We are a short subway ride from Manhattan. We have the best beach in NY City on one side of the peninsula and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve (in Gateway National Recreation Area) on the other. And we have affordable housing.
Friends of Rockaway has fought to keep the greedy speculators, along with their political partners in crime and their local hacks, from further destroying what still is New York City's largest natural area and premiere bathing beach. We need help.
Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter (edited by Friends of Rockaway, Vice President Bill Mulcahy)
Please send any comments or corrections about this web page to Webmaster: Bill Mulcahy, Vice President, Friends of Rockaway, Inc.
