Good news from the DEP! Our short Metropolitan nightmare of feces-filled rivers may be coming to a close. The DEP is starting to turn the engines back on at the North River wastewater treatment plant, which means that the raw sewage dump that has been going on since Wednesday's fire may soon be over.
The DEP's press secretary tells us that "One of the engines at the plant is back online and we hope to have a second engine online shortly as well. Barring any setbacks, we hope to begin pumping sewage into the plant in the next few hours in order to start ending the bypass." And when that happens, we'll let you know.
Even if the DEP gets all of the engines back online today it'll take some time for the the waters to clear. As such the city is highly discouraging anyone from going for a paddle in the Hudson, East or Harlem Rivers. Similarly there are Beach Advisories against swimming at South Beach, Midland Beach, Cedar Grove Beach, and Seagate Beach. As far as the city is concerned, the rest of the city's beaches are good to go.
