Francis Scott Key bridge collapse: Where are NY's worst bridges?
NEWS

The Nature of Things: Hutchinson River an afterthought?

Ned P. Rauch
erauch@lohud.com

You know it as the namesake of a curvy, occasionally flooded, and always busy parkway.

A view of the Hutchinson River from Wilson's Woods Park is photographed March 19, 2014 in Mount Vernon.

But the Hutchinson River itself also flows south (alongside the parkway) through Westchester, then passes underneath Interstate 95, between Co-Op City and the Pelham Bay & Split Rock Golf Courses, around Goose Island and into Eastchester Bay.

In some places, vestiges of its industrial past live on: Mount Vernon still receives barges of fuel delivered on the waterway. In others, when the sunlight hits just right and the parkway traffic is sparse, it's a natural beauty, with egrets stalking its banks and gulls hovering overhead.

It's also a littered, polluted afterthought for many.

Now, environmental regulators are trying to chart its future — and they're asking for the public's help.

"This is a chance for the public to tell New York City how clean they want their waterways, how clean they want the Hutchinson River," said Phillip Musegaas of the environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper.

According to Riverkeeper, 27 billion gallons of stormwater and untreated sewage spill into New York Harbor and the Hudson River estuary every year. Much of that happens during storms and periods of heavy rainfall, when runoff floods storm drains and causes sewer systems to overflow. (In New York City and elsewhere in the region, storm drains and sewer mains are connected.)

Combined sewer overflows, as they're known, afflict the Hutchinson River, Musegaas said.

New York City's Department of Environmental Protection is drafting Long-Term Control Plans aimed at reducing the amount of stormwater and sewage that spills into the city's waterways, part of a $2.4 billion effort to clean up the region's water.

On March 26, the agency will host a meeting in the Bronx billed as a public kick-off to the development of its Hutchinson River control plan.

"How do you want to use the Hutchinson River in the future?" a DEP flier asks. "Do you want to use it for fishing, swimming, boating or some other recreational use?"

Musegaas said through a combination of traditional infrastructure improvements, such as upgrades to the nearby sewer systems, and the implementation of green infrastructure, like permeable parking lots, green roofs and "bioswales," contaminated waterways like the Hutchinson River can be cleaned up.

The hope is that someday, the Hutch might be known as much for its swimming and paddling opportunities as the parkway alongside it is known for traffic jams.

Twitter: @NPRauch

If you go

What: DEP public meeting about Hutchinson River CSO Long Term Control Plan

When: March 26, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Harry S. Truman High School, 750 Baychester Ave., Bronx, first floor