When It Rains, It’s Gross

NYC Storm Sewer

I’m not sure how many of you had seen that video online recently of the surfer swimming through the ocean collecting trash and plastic, but after I saw it I was reminded of something I learned in my last IDC seminar. The NYC sewer system is designed to reroute all contaminated street water run-off and waste-water from homes to waste-water treatment plants. After the water is treated it is then released into larger bodies of water such as the East River. However, during particularly heavy torrential rain, as had happened shortly before I took this photo, the waste water system becomes inundated to capacity. To keep the water flowing, all of that excess un-treated  water is re-routed directly out of an out-fall or tide gate, which is basically an exit connecting the sewer system to a water body. There are 490 such outfalls around New York City, all of which dump this polluted and un-treated water into rivers and inlets that connect to the ocean. The smaller and lighter pieces of plastic you don’t see in this photo were likely already washed down this grate and on their way to the ocean. This NYTimes diagram from 2007 shows this process more clearly. When I saw this trash I immediately thought back to that lesson and the video I had seen. I had always blamed large corporation’s irresponsible waste dumping for the plastic in our oceans, and while they are most certainly not blameless, neither is the person who throws their plastic wrapper on the street instead of in a trash can.