Jamaica Bay Borrow Pit Evaluation Project
For the past four years the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the New York District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) have researched the environmental restoration of underwater pits in Jamaica Bay using sediments dredged from the New York-New Jersey Harbor. The study stemmed from the 1999 Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) for the Port of New York and New Jersey. The DMMP identified the reclamation of borrow pits as a potential beneficial use of dredged sediment. Borrow pits are depressions on the bay floor that were once mined for fill material to create upland areas such as JFK International Airport.
The study looked at pits in Norton Basin and in Little Bay, two embayments in the southeast corner of Jamaica Bay. Between 2000 and 2003, NYSDEC and USACOE examined the ecological conditions of these areas. This is the first step in a multi-phase program to evaluate the needs and opportunities to bring aquatic life back to these pit areas.
This Phase One study effort has culminated in a series of findings and recommendations, which are presented in a formal Findings Statement. A Technical Evaluation Panel, comprised of experts from City, State, and Federal natural resource agencies, has found that the pits in Little Bay are substantially impaired below approximately 25 feet, and that two pits in Norton Basin are impaired below a depth of approximately 30 feet. Depressed dissolved oxygen levels, low quality bottom sediments, and low numbers of benthic organisms are characteristics of these pits. Additionally, Little Bay was found to support almost no finfish. The Panel has recommended proceeding to an evaluation of alternatives for improving conditions in these pits.
The Findings Statement and the supporting study reports are now available for public viewing. An electronic version is available by clicking the links above. Hard copy and CD versions of the documents are also available for review, by appointment, at the Jamaica Bay Resources Library of the National Park Service. To make an appointment, contact Cathy DeFilippis by email, Cathleen_DeFilippis@nps.gov, or at 718-338-3501.
If you have any questions about these documents (no comments will be accepted at this time), please email us at r2natres@gw.dec.state.ny.us with "JB Borrow Pit" in the subject line.
More about Jamaica Bay Borrow Pit Evaluation Project :
- Jamaica Bay Borrow Pit Project Findings - Between 2000 and 2003, the New York District U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the NYSDEC conducted a series of ecological investigations of subaqueous borrow pits in Norton Basin and Little Bay.
- Jamaica Bay Borrow Pit Project Documents - These reports were reviewed by the Technical Evaluation Panel in development of the Findings Statement.
