The Difference Between Eliasson's Waterfalls and Roosevelt Island's Delacorte Geyser? East River Fecal Matter, Clean Water Act, 40 Years & $15 Million

What's the difference between Olafur Eliasson's 2008 East River Waterfalls

Image of Brooklyn Waterfall from Time

and Roosevelt Island's 1969 Delacorte Fountain?

Image of Roosevelt Island Delacorte Fountain from Judy Seigel

The answer comes from this NY Times article:

The “Waterfalls” is not the first controversial water element to grace the city’s shores and headlines. The philanthropist George T. Delacorte donated $400,000 to build a 450-foot geyser at the end of Roosevelt Island, then known as Welfare Island, that opened in 1969.

Upon learning that the source of the water was the East River, which then had 160,000 fecal coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters, the city’s health department demanded that the water be chlorinated to reduce the risk to public health. The chlorine spray damaged a stand of 55 pine trees donated by residents of Sutton Place to improve their view. After occasionally failing, being vandalized and turning red from too much chlorine, the fountain fizzled out in 1987.

The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance explains some of the reasons for a cleaner East River:

The water quality of the East River has improved considerably after the Clean Water Act of 1972. The water is well oxygenated, clearer, and the level of coliform bacteria, in dry weather conditions, is low enough to fish and boat. Bathing is not yet recommended.

The New York City Harbor Survey (since 1909) on East 23rd Street monitors the following parameters: Dissolved Oxygen, Fecal Coliform Bacteria, Chlorophyll ‘a’, and Secchi Transparency.

Those results have been achieved because today, industrial discharges are well regulated, and wastewater treatment plants have been improved. Along the East River there are five treatment plans: Newton Creek, Brooklyn; Red Hook, Brooklyn; Wards Island; Hunts Point, Bronx; and Tallman Island. They treat the water from different areas in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx. These areas are highly populated and during wet weather, the storm water will thoroughly wash the hard land surface picking up dirt, chemicals, highway debris, unburned oils from vehicles, animal waste, and other pollutants. Part of the storm water runs off straight into the East River, the other part goes into the combined sewers that mix it with sewage and often discharge the untended overflow in the East River.

At the waterfront you can see the “Combined Sewer Overflow” outfall- the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) marks them with green signs. One is encouraged to report discharge, during dry weather, by calling 311.

Maybe now, the Delacorte Fountain can be turned back on!

Roosevelt Island's Delacorte Water Geyser Was Bigger Than Mayor Bloomberg's East River Waterfalls

Delacorte Geyser Image by Judy Siegel.

Curbed:

didn't think public art installations could get more wacky than Long Island City's Floating Tree (a/k/a/ the Bird Condo) or the spooky tents of Roosevelt Island,...

but the NY Sun reports:

Olafur Eliasson, a Danish–Icelandic artist whose installation "The Weather Project" drew 2 million people to the Tate Modern in 2003 and 2004, has designed what will likely be the city's biggest public art project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates": a series of freestanding waterfalls in the East River.

And:

According to a source whom the mayor told about the project, the waterfalls will rise about 60 to 70 feet above the water — more than half as high as the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. They will be visible from the area around the Seaport, from Brooklyn Heights, and from the Governors Island Ferry.

Roosevelt Islanders know that for many years there was a similar public art installation in the East River just off the southern tip of Southpoint Park on Roosevelt Island. It was the Delacorte Fountain or Geyser that would shoot a stream of water not 60 or 70 feet, but 400 feet into the air. It was stopped in the late 1980's because some Sutton Place residents feared "liquid wastes" would be thrown in their faces from the spray. Oh my!
I guess it does not matter what gets thrown in the faces of tourists at the South Street Seaport!

Below is NY Sun's version of East River waterfall.


Here is artist Olafur Eliasson 2004 Waterfall project.


And Eliasson's 1998 Reverse Waterfall.


Thanks to Curbed reader Jazz Age for providing links to Olafur Eliasson's work.

UPDATE: 1/16- From Bloomberg News:

The New York City Waterfalls,'' created by artist Olafur Eliasson, will cascade from heights of 90 to 120 feet (27 to 37 meters), illuminated at night and visible from Manhattan's South Street Seaport.

And:

Constructed on scaffolding intended to mimic the look of buildings under construction, its design will be environmentally protective of fish that inhabit the river, and its pumps will be powered from the water current, Eliasson said.

``They are as real as any waterfalls; it is real water falling,'' Eliasson said of the project. ``The scaffolding supports are clearly visible and may be recognized as the same kind that has been used to build New York over the past century.''

With a 400 foot spray, Roosevelt Island's Delacorte Geyser was still bigger than the 120 feet New York City Waterfall cascade!

Also, watch out for the Waterfall spray from liquid waste that is dumped into the East River, particularly after a heavy rain storm. From blogger No Impact Man:

What happens is that both the household sewage from our homes and the storm water drainage from the streets and rooftops of the buildings come together in underground drainage pipes that take it all to wastewater treatment plants (click on the above diagram for a larger version). During a hard rain, however, those underground sewage pipes get overwhelmed and, to keep the sewage from backing up into our sinks and toilets, it gets dumped, untreated, through the CSOs into the rivers and waterways.

Images are from Bloomberg News.

1987 Historical Flashback - Sutton Place Residents Fear Liquid Waste from Roosevelt Island's Delacorte Geyser

Image by Judy Seigel

NYC10044

The Columbia Spectator (Columbia University's student newspaper) has an article today on one of Columbia's and New York City's most generous philanthropists, George T. Delacorte. Among his contributions to New York City Parks are Central Park's Alice in Wonderland Statue, the Central Park Zoo's Delacorte Clock and the Delacorte Theater, the site of the Shakespeare in the Park summer series.

His favorite contribution though was not in Central Park but in the East River just off the tip of Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park, the Delacorte Geyser pictured above. According to his 1991 obituary in the NY Times:

But of all his contributions, his own favorite remained the Delacorte geyser at the tip of Roosevelt Island. He and his wife called it "Delacorte's Folly." In 1969, Mr. Delacorte conceived the idea that New York should have a geyser equal to the Jet D'Eau in Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

His geyser, at 400 feet, was to be the highest fountain in the world, but many New Yorkers were outraged that, when built, the $350,000 jet spewed polluted East River water into the air. He was forced to chlorinate the fountain. Then the chlorination withered trees that Sutton Place residents had placed on the island to improve their view. Mr. Delacorte was more annoyed than moved by the complaints. He said his fountain was there before the trees.

In an editorial when the fountain was installed, The New York Times, citing the city's crucial needs and noting that the money might have been put to better use instead of being thrown "literally down the drain," called him "the wrong-way Corrigan of New York philanthropy."

As reported by the NY Times, from 1969 through 1987:

the Delacorte geyser pumped a graceful plume of East River water hundreds of feet skyward from Roosevelt Island four times a day.

What happened to the Delacorte Geyser? Why was it shut down and still not now working? The answer is that the Delacorte Fountain caused some to fear that:

''liquid waste was being flung 400 feet in the eyes and faces of people who lived on Sutton Place.'' The water was subsequently chlorinated (and, if it's any comfort, whatever was flung by the fountain more recently only reached about 240 feet high because of equipment problems).

Later, during the drought years, city officials expressed concern the geyser might be regarded as a symbol of conspicuous consumption - even though the water, most of which fell back into the East River, was unlikely to be consumed by anybody. The fountain was turned off. (Similar concerns were expressed when energy conservation was in vogue; the electric bill, some $10,000 a month, was paid by the city).

The Geyser finally stopped working in 1987 because of a faulty valve and never repaired.

Delacorte was ahead of his time in seeing the beauty of Water Geysers in an urban or city setting. Take a look at this You Tube video of the Water Fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Pretty Neat! Wouldn't a similar show in the East River be spectacular.




Top image of Delacorte Geyser is by artist Judy Seigel from ArtNet.
Bottom image is from Timeline of Roosevelt Island History.