Posts Tagged ‘Sludge Boat’
delighted astonishment
A short trip off of a Long Island to… Staten Island.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over at the St. George Ferry terminal, on the… Staten Island… side of the harbor, one is treated to magnificent views of Lower Manhattan and it’s a pretty sure bet that you’ll see some maritime traffic. Pictured above is the Vane Brothers Sassafras towing a fuel barge, for instance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself is always eager to witness a DEP Sludge Boat splashing by. That’s the MV North River heading towards the Port Richmond sewer plant found a mile or so up the Kill Van Kull.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Marjorie B. McAllister also happened by, and the bright red tug was towing a fuel barge. Even when it seems that a tug is pushing a barge, it’s still called “towing.”
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considerable extent
Just a short one today, but… Sludge Boat, baby, Sludge Boat!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, while on a ferry to Red Hook, (long story) the Port Richmond Sludge Boat was spotted. You might recall a recent post which described the christening and official launch of the three new exemplars of the NYC DEP’s sludge collection vessels, but if you don’t – here’s a link to a 2014 Newtown Pentacle post that discusses it. Long time readers know that I’m a bit obsessed with sludge boats, for some reason.
These boats are “MV’s” or municipal vehicles, which means that you and I own them. They are ours. Now if only DEP would lend me the keys.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All three examples of this new class were designed with Newtown Creek in mind, as this kind of MV’s can pass under the Pulaski Bridge at high tide, without requiring the drawbridge to open. Gross tonnage is 2,772 on these vessels, they’re 290 feet long with a draught of 4.3m. There’s three of them operating in NY Harbor now – Hunts Point, Rockaway, and as pictured above Port Richmond.
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faint draft
Sludge Boats, baby, Sludge Boats…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For those two weeks which formed the end of November, a humble narrator was enjoying a vacation from all things with the Missus. In fact, for about half of our vacation time, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself weren’t even on the North American continent. The week of Thanksgiving, we were back, but maintained a low profile.
One thing which drew me and the camera out of our splendid seclusion, however, was the news that the NYC DEP would be holding a ceremony to christen the fleet of three new sludge boats over at their Wards Island facility. How could I resist… I mean… Sludge Boats.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
MV’s (municipal vehicles) Rockaway, Port Richmond, and Hunts Point have been shaking down in NY Harbor all year. Remember, back in the beginning of 2014, when a humble narrator braved the chill climes of a polar vortex at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to bring you images of Hunts Point?
You’ll say “jump” and I’ll say “how high” when the subject of Sludge Boats is at hand. Height is what these boats are designed around, incidentally. This new class of MV’s can pass under the Pulaski Bridge, spanning my beloved Newtown Creek at high tide, without requiring the drawbridge to open.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The lady in the center of the shot is DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd, incidentally, with Deputy Commissioner Angella Locata to her left. I don’t know who the lady on the right is, but I led this post off with her christening the Hunts Point, so there you are.
There were lots and lots of important folks at Wards Island – brass from DEP and City Hall, Press, even a press Helicopter – as well as a whole gaggle of us from the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee. NCMC is a community group that performs citizen oversight on the multi billion dollar construction efforts at the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant over in Greenpoint, and the delivery of these three new Sludge Boats are a sign that the decades long project is nearing completion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the ceremonial events were accomplished, the DEP welcomed all onboard the Hunts Point, allowing an opportunity for inspection and observation.
The Port Richmond peeled out of the dock early, probably because it had “shit to do.” Get it? Shit to do? Sludge Boat… Shit… Ahhh, nevermind. Port Richmond headed south toward the Triborough Bridge through the Hells Gate section of the estimable East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exploration of the boat brought me to the big chair up on the bridge, and although no one would have let me start the engine and put Hunts Point through her paces, I did stand there murmuring “vroom vroom” until such time as I was asked to stop doing so. I did manage to say “make it so” and “ahead warp factor 3, Mr. Sulu” as well. One thinks that being so close to the very locus of Robert Moses’s power base on Wards Island causes odd concatenations in the thought process.
Alternatively, actually getting on a Sludge Boat after all these years simply made me giddy with delight. A big Mazel Tov goes out to the NYC DEP on the occasion of the birth of their new triplets.
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a New Sludge Boat, baby, a new sludge boat
It’s called a Boat because it can’t launch a boat, that’s what Ships can do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First – here’s what a Sludge Boat is.
This Sludge Boat’s contract was completed on June 12 of 2013, and she splashed into the world a scant 290 feet long. That boat you’re looking at in the shot above is the NYC DEP’s M/V Hunts Point, and she cost $28 million to build down in Louisiana’s Bollinger Shipyards.
Word went out that it had arrived at the Navy Yard, so a humble narrator set off for Brooklyn.
from nyc.gov
The M/V Hunts Point, the newest addition to the DEP marine fleet, recently completed its sea trials and left its dock in Louisiana for the trip around the tip of Florida and up the East Coast. It is expected to arrive in New York City next week. You can follow its progress here. The Hunts Point is the first of three new sludge vessels that DEP has commissioned and it will replace the 1967-vintage M/V Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
NYC DEP is a good choice if you need to confess a secret to someone who will never reveal it, by the way, and other than a few nuggets on nyc.gov there has been very little official discussion of this new boat. In some ways, it’s a bit mysterious, but there’s a whole contingent over at DEP who don’t understand the enthusiasm some show for their toys. The MTA on the other hand, actually encourages railfans.
With all the mystery vessels that have been presented at this, your Newtown Pentacle, over the years – I’ve developed some small aptitude for discovery. M/V Hunts Point uses call sign WDH2432, has a gross tonnage of 2,772 and is – as mentioned- 290 feet long. Her draught is 4.3m, and the reason that her stature is so reduced as compared to the less modern vessels of DEP’s fleet – it’s so that she can pass under the Pulaski Bridge on Newtown Creek rather than requiring it to open.
from nywea.org
Municipal sludge vessels have been a part of New York City’s sludge disposal system since the late 1930s. The Federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) funded and built the first three Motorized Vessels(M/V): M/V Wards Island, M/V Tallman Island, and the M/V Coney Island. Before these vessels were available, sludge was routinely discarded into the surrounding waters from the few sludge facilities operating at that time. As a result, the harbor waters became so polluted that incoming traffic would find their hulls cleaned of any marine life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This change in behavior, the current sludge boats dock at the East River in Greenpoint to siphon off the product of the sewer plants’ operation, is predicated upon the scheme of these boats sailing up Newtown Creek from the East River and into the Whale Creek tributary which adjoins it. The boat will attach to a specially designed dock at Whale Creek. M/V Hunts Point is the first of three such vessels.
Need for the hated sludge tank and dock at the corner of Commercial Street will be eliminated, satisfying a key complaint of the community, by this operation.
Bollinger Shipyards provides new construction, repair and conversion products and services to the commercial offshore energy and marine transportation markets around the world, and to the U.S. Government and naval shipbuilding marketplace from our U.S. Gulf of Mexico facilities. Family owned and operated since 1946, Bollinger maintains ten ISO 9001:2008 certified shipyards and a fleet of twenty-eight dry-docks for shallow draft and deepwater vessels. Bollinger has earned a premier reputation for superior quality, value, timely service and delivery to its customers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A friend who is associated with the Brooklyn Navy Yard brought me in to the place with him yesterday, graciously allowing me to capture these and other shots at the location. Please welcome, Lords and Ladies, to your service – the M/V Hunts Point, NYC’s latest and greatest Sludge Boat.
from wikipedia
The United States Navy Yard, New York, also known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY), is a shipyard located in Brooklyn, New York, 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear’s Hook in Manhattan. It was bounded by Navy Street, Flushing and Kent Avenues, and at the height of its production of warships for the United States Navy, it covered over 200 acres (0.81 km2).
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abrupt command
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spending so much time around the Newtown Creek, despite its myriad charms, one often desires to visit other locales. Accordingly, a recent afternoon was spent wandering about the shorelines of Astoria, specifically the legend haunted Hells Gate. Astoria Park adjoins the waterway, and it’s unique elevation over the strait affords one a lovely opportunity to witness not just the rail lines which exploit the Hellsgate Bridge, but to spot and photograph a disturbingly heterogenous number of commercial ships.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My desire to escape the creeklands for a moment is merely a passing whimsy, an attempt at normalcy. One often fears that this, your Newtown Pentacle, might strike a single note too often and accordingly efforts are made to explore an ever expanding series of sites and situations around the harbor. This is what was on my mind, when a DEP Sludge Boat came into view.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My goal in coming here was to avoid all mention of the world normally occupied, and to enjoy an afternoon with “Our Lady of the Pentacle” while perambulating about beneath the autumnal thermonuclear burning eye of god itself. To merely experience a day absent from conversations about municipal waste handling, titanic industrial combines, and speculation about “all there is, that might be buried down there”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Paranoid and stupefyingly pedantic, my world view is decidedly determinist. Nothing “just happens” and causation often indicates correlation as far as I am concerned. Newtown Creek will not allow me to escape its company, even for a short while. The Newtown Creek has actually begun to follow me about.
Also- Upcoming tours…
for an expanded description of the October 13th Kill Van Kull tour, please click here
for an expanded description of the October 20th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
The Newtown Pentacle 