Hussain sagar

[argadorn]

Cleaning New York's filthy harbor with one billion oysters

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business, 
Video by: Alfredo Alcántara, Bronte Lord, Bryce Urbany, John General, Joe Bagliere

Updated 5:15 PM ET, Thu January 17, 2019

 

New York (CNN Business)The New York Harbor for years has been polluted and depleted of marine life. But one nonprofit is working to clean the murky water and revive its long-lost ecosystem — one oyster at a time.

The Billion Oyster Project has worked since 2014 to rebuild oyster reefs in the waters surrounding New York City. The creatures are natural purifiers: A single adult oyster can cleanse about 50 gallons of water per day. And their reefs can provide a habitat for other marine life and help protect New York's shores against storm surge during rough weather.

The group has so far restored about 30 million oysters to local waters. But that's still a tiny fraction of what used to thrive in the area.

"Without the oyster reefs, the whole shoreline is fundamentally changed," the group's executive director, Pete Malinowski, told CNN Business' Rachel Crane. "We think oyster reefs can be part of an integrated approach to resiliency and proactive planning for climate change."

Malinowski said his team is seeing promising signs. Last year, there was a "dramatic" increase in the number of wild oysters that latched on to Billion Oyster Projects' reefs.

 

"For restoration to be successful, you need the recruitment of wild oysters from the system," Malinowski said. It could help the population grow exponentially.

 

 

Like the group's name implies, it hopes to one day return one billion oysters to New York's waterways.

How it works

 

Billion Oyster Project partners with more than 70 restaurants in New York City. The businesses save up their oyster shells rather than tossing them, and a collection partner for the Billion Oyster Project rounds them up and carts them off to Governors Island, a small island due east of the Statue of Liberty.

The shells are then left outside for at least a year. This allows the elements to naturally cleanse them of organic matter before they are sent to the the New York Harbor School, a maritime-focused public high school on Governors Island, which is heavily involved in the project.

Students grow and hatch baby oysters that are then attached to the cleaned shells. The shells and larvae are grouped together and strategically placed somewhere off New York's coastline.

Billion Oyster Project has started twelve reefs so far, some close to shore, and others out in deeper waters.

Engaging the community — particularly young students — throughout the process is a top priority. The group works with more than 75 public schools across all five New York City boroughs, and students take field trips out to reef sites or research station to learn how to measure water quality and track oyster growth.

"Our work with schools and communities gets people down to the water's edge and starts to reestablish the relationship that New Yorkers used to have with the ecosystem," Malinowski said.

Billion Oyster Project is funded through a variety of grants from state and city backers. The National Science Foundation also recently renewed support for the project, offering a two-year $4.5 million grant.

 

 

The Big Oyster

Hundreds of years ago, New York Harbor teemed with more than 200,000 acres of live oyster reefs. The molluscs cleaned and filtered the water, naturally removing pollutants. Dolphins, seals and other creatures, drawn to the vibrant ecosystem, swam just off the shore of Manhattan.

"When Europeans first arrived in New York Harbor, there were oyster reefs everywhere and there were so many fish that they couldn't physically get out of the way of the boats," Malinowski said. "In about 100 years, we had harvested all the native oysters from the harbor. All those oysters were eaten, consumed locally by New Yorkers, and shipped all over the world as food."

Oysters were a favorite treat among New York City's skyrocketing population in the 19th century. Street vendors and restaurants began to hawk the cheap, salty seafood.

By the 1900s, New York Harbor was polluted and practically lifeless. It wasn't until 1972, with the passage of the Clean Water Act, that the law prohibited dumping waste or raw sewage into the harbor.

Only recently has the water become clean enough to support shellfish like mussels, oysters and clams.

Storm Surge

Water purity is not the only reason New York's waters suffered without oysters. For centuries, their large reefs served as natural breakwaters — underwater barriers that help protect land from storm surge and erosive waves — around New York's coastline.

Those reefs were long gone by the time Hurricane Sandy ripped through the state in 2012, and experts have suggested the lack of oyster reefs and other natural barriers exacerbated the damage.

The Billion Oyster Project's work could slowly rebuild the breakwaters. But,"the oyster reefs that protected New York City before they were removed ... took hundreds of years to grow to the size that they needed to be to protect the shore," Malinowski said.

 

 

Instead of waiting for a full-grown oyster reef to begin mitigating storm surge, The Billion Oyster project is partnering with another group, Living Breakwaters, to create artificial reefs across two miles of Staten Island shoreline. Oysters can then build reefs around the structures, making it larger and sturdier.

The Living Breakwaters initiative, which is due to begin construction this year, is funded in part by a $60 million disaster recovery grant awarded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2013.

Kate Orff, who founded Scape, the design firm that is spearheading the project, said it is past time for New Yorkers to start taking serious steps to combat the impact of climate change — which is expected to bring increasingly volatile weather and higher sea levels.

"We need to drastically look at landscape strategies," she said.

What's ahead for BOP

Billion Oyster Project isn't the first initiative of its kind.

The Oyster Recovery Partnership was launched in 1994 to help reestablish oyster populations off the coast of Virginia and Maryland.

A large chunk of the oyster population there has been restored. And the group encourages other localities to take on similar measures.

Malinowski, the Billion Oyster Project executive director, said he hopes more initiatives will pop up as people begin to realize the crucial role oysters play in keeping oceans healthy.

 

 

But there's still a long way to go before the oyster population near New York is anywhere near pre-industrialization levels.

The project's progress is "exciting and it's validating in a big way — but it's also sobering because there's a long way to go," he said.

Malinowski said he is heartened by the participation of local grade schoolers. He said he hopes the work will inspire younger generations to consider environmental and ecological issues no matter what they do.

"People in New York will become more and more aware that the reason [New York Harbor is] polluted is because it's contaminated with human waste, that's it's full of trash and plastic," he said. "You can just imagine walking to Central Park in the afternoon on a Saturday and having the gates closed because it was full of human waste and trash."

"New Yorkers wouldn't stand for that and it would stop."

[argadorn]

ededho @dalapathi  @KTR  ki cheppachuga oysters vestahy hussain sagar clean ayipothahdi anta .... 

[JollyBoy]

new york chestam ani epudo cheppadu ga. idi andulo part ey ani @ajaybabu tweeted

[Spartan]

5 minutes ago, argadorn said:

ededho @dalapathi  @KTR  ki cheppachuga oysters vestahy hussain sagar clean ayipothahdi anta .... 

andulo unna chemicals and pollutants ki..

1 billion oysters vesina..ganta lo sachipotai....

nobody can cleanse Hussain Sagar ...period...

[Idassamed]

Hussain Sagar is a gone case so is Ganga. No one clean our rivers and lakes.

[PsycoKamarao]

1 hour ago, Idassamed said:

Hussain Sagar is a gone case so is Ganga. No one clean our rivers and lakes.

@DaleSteyn1 said Husain sagar and nakka mouth can never be cleaned. Period 

[Idassamed]

7 minutes ago, PsycoKamarao said:

@DaleSteyn1 said Husain sagar and nakka mouth can never be cleaned. Period 

[snoww]

2 hours ago, Spartan said:

andulo unna chemicals and pollutants ki..

1 billion oysters vesina..ganta lo sachipotai....

nobody can cleanse Hussain Sagar ...period...

[snoww]

సాగర్‌లోకి పైపు ద్వారా సొల్యూషన్స్‌ వేస్తున్న దృశ్యం

హుస్సేన్‌సాగర్‌లో ‘బయో రెమిడేషన్‌’తో తగ్గుతున్న దుర్వాసన

సత్ఫలితాలిస్తున్న నాకాఫ్‌ సంస్థ చర్యలు

చెడు బ్యాక్టీరియాకు చెక్‌ పెడుతున్న ఐఎం రసాయనాలు

సున్నా శాతం నుంచి 7.6 శాతానికి పెరిగిన నీటిలోని ఆక్సిజన్‌ స్థాయి

మరో ఆరు నెలల్లో పూర్తిస్థాయిలో దుర్గంధం దూరం

రాష్ట్ర రాజధానిలో ప్రధాన పర్యాటక కేంద్రమైన హుస్సేన్‌సాగర్‌ ప్రక్షాళన సత్ఫలితాలనిస్తోంది. హైదరాబాద్‌ మహానగరాభివృద్ధి సంస్థ (హెచ్‌ఎండీఏ) పది నెలల క్రితం మొదలుపెట్టిన ‘బయో రెమిడేషన్‌’ ప్రక్రియతో సా‘గరళం’ క్రమంగా తగ్గుముఖం పడుతోంది. డ్రైనేజీ, రసాయన వ్యర్థాలు నిండటంతో సాగర్‌లోంచి వెలువడుతున్న దుర్వాసనను బెంగళూరుకు చెందిన నాకాఫ్‌ సంస్థ కొంతమేర నియంత్రించగలిగింది. అడపాదడపా హుస్సేన్‌సాగర్‌ నుంచి దుర్వాసన వస్తున్నా పూర్తిస్థాయిలో నియంత్రణలోనే ఉండటంతోపాటు నీటిలో ఆక్సిజన్‌ శాతం పెరగడమే కాకుండా వ్యర్థ బ్యాక్టీరియాలు నశించడం సానుకూల సంకేతాలను ఇస్తోంది. హెచ్‌ఎండీఏ అధికారుల మార్గదర్శనంలో మరో ఆరు నెలలపాటు ఈ ప్రక్రియ కొనసాగితే పర్యాటకులు, నగరవాసులను ఉక్కిరిబిక్కిరి చేస్తున్న దుర్వాసన పూర్తిస్థాయిలో దూరం కానుంది.

2దశల్లో..2పనులు
హుస్సేన్‌సాగర్‌ విస్తరిత ప్రాంతంతోపాటు దుర్గంధం అధికంగా వచ్చే ప్రాంతాలపై నాకాఫ్‌ సంస్థ దృష్టి సారించింది. మొదటి దశలో ఐఎం సొల్యూషన్స్‌ను ట్యాంకర్ల ద్వారా హుస్సేన్‌సాగర్‌లో చల్లుతున్నారు. దీనివల్ల జలాశయంలోని వ్యర్థ బ్యాక్టీరియాలు నశించి ఆరోగ్యకరమైన బ్యాక్టీరియా పెరుగుతోంది. రెండో దశలో బొకాషి బాల్స్‌ను జలాశయంలోకి వదలుతున్నారు. దీనివల్ల ఆ రసాయనాలు సాగర్‌ అడుగున ఉన్న బ్యాక్టీరియాలను తినేస్తున్నాయి. ఈ ప్రక్రియ కోసం పర్యాటకశాఖ నుంచి బోటును అద్దెకు తీసుకొని ‘బొకాషి బాల్స్‌’ను జలాల్లో వేస్తున్నారు. దీంతో చెడు బ్యాక్టీరియా తగ్గి నీటి నాణ్యతను పెంచే బ్యాక్టీరియా అభివృద్ధి చెందడమే కాకుండా ఆక్సిజన్‌ శాతం పెరుగుతోంది. తాజా పీసీబీ గణాంకాల ప్రకారం గతంలో శూన్య శాతంలో ఉన్న డిసాల్వ్‌డ్‌ ఆక్సిజన్‌
ఇప్పుడు  7.6 శాతం దాకా చేరుకుంది. ఈ ఏడాది సాగర్‌ పరిసరాల్లో దుర్గంధం అంతగా లేదని పర్యాటకులు చెబుతున్నారు. హెచ్‌ఎండీఏ కమిషనర్‌ డాక్టర్‌ బి.జనార్దన్‌రెడ్డి అమెరికా పర్యటన ఉండటంతో ఇన్‌చార్జి కమిషనర్‌గా బాధ్యతలు స్వీకరించిన మున్సిపల్‌శాఖ ప్రిన్సిపల్‌ సెక్రటరీ అర్వింద్‌ కుమార్‌ హుస్సేన్‌ సాగర్‌లో శనివారం పర్యటించి నాకాఫ్‌ సంస్థ పనితీరును మెచ్చుకున్నారు.

[timmy]

On 1/19/2019 at 12:06 AM, Spartan said:

andulo unna chemicals and pollutants ki..

1 billion oysters vesina..ganta lo sachipotai....

nobody can cleanse Hussain Sagar ...period...

 

On 1/19/2019 at 1:13 AM, Idassamed said:

Hussain Sagar is a gone case so is Ganga. No one clean our rivers and lakes.

i dont think so if govt has clear plan they can do it there are lot of ways but takes 10 to 15 years i think they are implementing this method right now

 

[Idassamed]

6 minutes ago, timmy said:

 

i dont think so if govt has clear plan they can do it there are lot of ways but takes 10 to 15 years i think they are implementing this method right now

 

Amo baa. No hopes

[Spartan]

16 hours ago, timmy said:

 

i dont think so if govt has clear plan they can do it there are lot of ways but takes 10 to 15 years i think they are implementing this method right now

 

cleaning is not the sopultion....stopping the flow pof pollutants and sewage is problem..

akkada kakapote...they should be diverted to something else..like Musi...a panulu chesaru 6 tunnels closed..but there still lot many connections coming into it..

a panulu cheste..roads chetta g avutunnai ani patience undadu manaki...so jargani pani.

[Hector8]

inflow cut chesi ....summer lo  hussain sagar ni empty chesi cheyochu kada....

[Spartan]

2 minutes ago, Hector8 said:

inflow cut chesi ....summer lo  hussain sagar ni empty chesi cheyochu kada....

inflow cut cheste..adanta ekkadiki povali mari...roads lo..himayat nagar apartment parking lots lo na..

[Hector8]

Just now, Spartan said:

inflow cut cheste..adanta ekkadiki povali mari...roads lo..himayat nagar apartment parking lots lo na..

oh aithe ee cleaning eppatiki jarigani muchata annamata