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!

Hipsters Coming to Roosevelt Island, Our Version of the Brooklyn Flea, Waterfalls and Other Things To Do This Weekend

You Tube Video of Vampire Weekend at 2007 Accoustic BBQ on Roosevelt Island

Hipsters will be converging on Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park this Sunday, assuming weather holds up, for the annual Todd P's Springtime Accoustic BBQ. What is the Accoustic BBQ? Impose Magazine describes it as

... one of the most informal, esoteric, and unpredictable of the outdoor show circuit, Todd P’s Springtime Unamplified Accoustic BBQ.

The spectacle unfolded on a broad expanse of grassy public parkland the southern terminus of Roosevelt Island, against (pivoting in a slow circle) the highrises of the Upper East Side, the U.N., the East River sweeping out and under the Williamsburg Bridge, the giant Queens Pepsi sign, or the Queensborough Bridge, arcing over the weather-and-time-gutted shell of an 1850s-era smallpox hospital. A communal grill was running all day, fed by donated charcoal and hot dogs, and drinks surreptitiously circulated in plastic cups. As public space, the park required no booking, and was secluded enough for any amount of racket without anyone nearby to disturb. And, facing the constraints imposed by having no electrical outlets in sight, more than 20 bands and performers stepped up onto one of several impromptu “stages” (”beach blankets”) to play a quick set.

A Roosevelt Island hipster blogger (an oxymoron if ever there was one) Roman Games Diary says of last year's event:

I had a great time just listening to music, sunbathing and taking a couple of pictures and videos.

Maybe they can help save magnificent Southpoint Park waterfront and skyline views from what some call the Louis Kahn death box. (also incorrectly known as the FDR Memorial)

Other things to do include visiting Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls

You Tube video of Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls

And Brownstoner's Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. I've been there several times. It's lots of fun with interesting things to see and buy as well as some good eats.

Brooklyn Flea video from NY Magazine

Or Roosevelt Island's version of the Flea Market from our Seniors.


Also, Newyorkology and the NY Post have weekend listings of things to do as well.

UPDATE - 6/29 The hipster's will not be coming to Roosevelt Island today. The accoustic bbbq was canceled because of projected heavy rain. From toddpnyc:

ACOUSTIC-BBQ-WEATHER-UPDATE------> ---- BBQ CANCELLED ----- sorry, it will be rescheduled! Though the sun is out now, a quick look at the weather websites and the hour-by-hour forecasts and the radar shows there are hella storms coming our way this afternoon. Please feel free to go down the park on the island (or any park, anywhere!) and have your own picnic and strum some acoustic guitars, but the official acoustic bbq is going to be postponed. apologies!!!!!

UPDATE - 6/30: Not everybody got the word in time that the Accoustic BBQ was cancelled due to projected bad weather although the few who did show up seemed to have a good time. From Impose Magazine:

I missed the memo that the BBQ had been postponed, just like I missed the impending clouds clutching at the city Sunday morning on my way to the F-train. And the sign at the gate of Roosevelt Island’s southernmost park, after all that travel, could not deter me. And so I was one of the handful watching the storm hunch in over Manhattan to whatever last, desperately excited strains of music could be tossed into rising wind before we were all swept away. Todd P’s yearly Roosevelt Island Unamplified Accoustic Summer BBQ will still happen some time in the coming weeks. This felt more like one of those rooftop hurricane parties.

Just missing, I’m told, a surprise performance by Arcade Fire to a crowd of approximately ten people, I wandered into the park to see an impromptu uptempo joint effort of the Eskalators and the Vultures, rolling on guitar, harmonica, and saxophone. I think seven people were playing, and three besides myself watching, two of whom were seated against the far fence. Soon, though, Todd P reappeared on bike, bringing drinks for the few who remained and — maintaining Roosevelt tradition — playing the single song he knows, favorite Neutral Milk Hotel b-side “Engine”, of which all recordings seem tantalizingly insufficient....

Image of Acoustic BBQ rain out from Impose Magazine

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.