NEW YORK—After close to a decade, the long-awaited South Bronx “swamp” is finally clean, announced Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler and fellow city officials on Wednesday.
The South Bronx “swamp” is a stretch of flooded and abandoned railroad tracks that run from the Bruckner Expressway to St. Mary’s Park in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
Since its abandonment, it had been sending foul smells and pests into the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I’ve lived here for 17 years and the water’s been there just as long,” said Kenny Thomas, whose first floor bedroom faces the previously odorous creek, in ‘Bronx Swamp’ Gets Drained, an Epoch Times article published in August.
“Oh, and there are raccoons,” he said, adding that rainy and hot days added to the swamp’s stinkiness.
Yet beginning in August, the city has been responding to the concerns raised by neighborhood residents about the swamp’s garbage, odor, and stagnant water, which was often a breeding ground for mosquitoes, raccoons, and rats.
“City agencies worked together to put in place a comprehensive solution that has solved an important quality of life problem,” said Skyler in a press release. “It is unfortunate the city had to do work that was the responsibility of the private owners, but we had to go in and fix this neighborhood eyesore and potential hazard.”
Theoretically, the city could not take action on the property, as records showed that it was under the jurisdiction of a private company. Yet when the city investigated, it found that various companies had title of the tracks at one point or another.
Those companies include the MTA, Amtrak, and CSX, none of which took ownership of the plot. Records show that freight transporter CSX officially abandoned the railway in 2004, but residents say trains stopped running there in 1999 or 2000.
In order to clean up the mess left behind, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) used hydraulic pumps to drain more than 625,000 gallons of standing water from the “swamp,” which was more than the initial estimate of 125,000 gallons.
The pumping operation ran from Aug. 17 through Aug. 20 with a follow-up pumping operation on Sept. 2 and 3. After draining was finished, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) cleared the area of 45 tons of garbage, including mattresses, car parts, construction and demolition debris, and bags of residential waste. The Parks Department assisted in removing garbage hanging from trees that line the railway.
DEP also brought in 1,500 cubic yards of stone to stabilize the area, fill in low spots, and direct water to run into the re-graded drainage ditch. Storm water along the track bed will now be forced into the catch basins, through the pipe and into a nearby sewer inlet. The track bed will be actively monitored to prevent conditions from reappearing.
While the city continues to seek to identify the private party legally responsible for maintaining the site, the Department of Finance will place a lien on the property, which will give the city the right to foreclose on the property and obtain compensation for its cleanup efforts. The project cost about $350,000.
The South Bronx “swamp” is a stretch of flooded and abandoned railroad tracks that run from the Bruckner Expressway to St. Mary’s Park in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
Since its abandonment, it had been sending foul smells and pests into the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I’ve lived here for 17 years and the water’s been there just as long,” said Kenny Thomas, whose first floor bedroom faces the previously odorous creek, in ‘Bronx Swamp’ Gets Drained, an Epoch Times article published in August.
“Oh, and there are raccoons,” he said, adding that rainy and hot days added to the swamp’s stinkiness.
Yet beginning in August, the city has been responding to the concerns raised by neighborhood residents about the swamp’s garbage, odor, and stagnant water, which was often a breeding ground for mosquitoes, raccoons, and rats.
“City agencies worked together to put in place a comprehensive solution that has solved an important quality of life problem,” said Skyler in a press release. “It is unfortunate the city had to do work that was the responsibility of the private owners, but we had to go in and fix this neighborhood eyesore and potential hazard.”
Theoretically, the city could not take action on the property, as records showed that it was under the jurisdiction of a private company. Yet when the city investigated, it found that various companies had title of the tracks at one point or another.
Those companies include the MTA, Amtrak, and CSX, none of which took ownership of the plot. Records show that freight transporter CSX officially abandoned the railway in 2004, but residents say trains stopped running there in 1999 or 2000.
In order to clean up the mess left behind, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) used hydraulic pumps to drain more than 625,000 gallons of standing water from the “swamp,” which was more than the initial estimate of 125,000 gallons.
The pumping operation ran from Aug. 17 through Aug. 20 with a follow-up pumping operation on Sept. 2 and 3. After draining was finished, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) cleared the area of 45 tons of garbage, including mattresses, car parts, construction and demolition debris, and bags of residential waste. The Parks Department assisted in removing garbage hanging from trees that line the railway.
DEP also brought in 1,500 cubic yards of stone to stabilize the area, fill in low spots, and direct water to run into the re-graded drainage ditch. Storm water along the track bed will now be forced into the catch basins, through the pipe and into a nearby sewer inlet. The track bed will be actively monitored to prevent conditions from reappearing.
While the city continues to seek to identify the private party legally responsible for maintaining the site, the Department of Finance will place a lien on the property, which will give the city the right to foreclose on the property and obtain compensation for its cleanup efforts. The project cost about $350,000.
