BLUE SILO
New York City’s adaptation to a changing climate must take on the issue of water: shorelines must reintegrate natural ecosystems and landscapes that together can reduce the power of storm surges. Overall, infrastructure has to modernize and eliminate the dumping of raw sewage into the city’s waterways.
Situated on the banks of Gowanus Bay in the Red Hook Grain Terminal, Blue Silo uses natural systems to take on the latter task. While this project alone may be a drop in the bucket in terms of its impact, when implemented at a larger scale it can help cities with CSO systems to restore balance between their civic infrastructure and the landscapes in which they are implemented.
According to the EPA, 772 cities in the United States have combined storm sewer/wastewater systems (CSOs), which collect a combination of stormwater runoff and sewage using the same set of pipes to divert them to treatment plants. When these systems are overwhelmed, which they often are even with little precipitation, overflow is typically diverted to open waterways.
27 billion gallons of raw sewage are emitted from New York City’s 460 CSO outfalls per year. Overflow events occur on average about once a week and up to 70 times per year at certain locations. While the city’s waterways are the cleanest they have been in decades, it is not difficult to imagine how this system hinders progress in terms of ecosystem restoration and improved water quality.
The heights and sprawl of NYC have come at a great cost to the ecosystems that dominated the Hudson Raritan Estuary prior to European colonization. Before shorelines were hardened in order to bolster industry, teeming shallows and extensive marshlands played host to complex ecosystems. Marshes are now recognized as critical to water filtration, carbon sequestration, and even the mitigation of storm surges. Any progressive intervention along the Red Hook waterfront must work with, and not against, these natural systems.
Shorelines hardened with riprap and sheet piling are great for burgeoning economies but they are detrimental to the natural habitats that would otherwise live there. Flooding or tides that exceeds their height can damage them irreparably, whereas natural features like marshes can absorb more water and mitigate high water levels through their shifting topographies and dense plantings.
CSO outfalls are often situated within hardened shorelines. As the riprap and sheet pilings eliminate critical habitat, effluent from the CSO system effects further damage on local waterways.
Softened shorelines with more natural features; raw sewage eliminated from NYC’s waterways—these means of restoration could also serve as the tools for a robust coastal infrastructure that adapts to the changing climate.
Typical wastewater treatment facilities are largely closed off from the populations they serve as well as the natural systems in which they are situated. After repeated rounds of settlement and filtration, treated water is eventually returned to the landscape. Typical largescale wastewater treatment processes are energy intensive and rely on industrial processes.
The number of CSO events in NYC per year indicate that this system is under duress. While a total replacement of this infrastructure is unlikely in the near future, interventions that relieve pressure from existing systems and integrate further into the community and environment could offer a sense of the future of wastewater management, urban infrastructure, and a new relationship between people and the urban landscape.
In the spirit of John Todd’s Living Machine, Blue Silo diverts and treats effluent from local sewer mains in order to reduce new pollution in Gowanus Bay. After trash removal and solids settlement stages, effluent is channeled to a greenhouse located at the top of the former Red Hook Grain Terminal, where plant and microbial communities work in tandem to break down harmful bacteria and other toxins. After several phases of settlement, microbial processing, and clarification, the effluent is safe to return to the landscape: the remediated water is diverted to the restored marshland below, which serves as a starting point for the restoration of the bay’s natural habitats. The relatively low energy required by this natural systems-based intervention makes for a stark contrast to more traditional means of wastewater management in urban centers.
There are many instances of industrially zoned real estate throughout NYC that are located near CSO outfalls. While the above intervention on its own can treat about 1% of the volume handled at a typical waste water treatment plant in a day, it represents a tool that achieves productive redundancy within an overwhelmed system. Strategic implementation across the city could significantly reduce CSO events and therefore speed the rebound of the city’s waterways and their ecosystems. The plant and animal communities that reestablish themselves can be seen as collaborators critical to the strategic adaptation of the city to its increasingly imperiled shoreline.
Centering plants and microbes in wastewater treatment urges one to rethink how such infrastructure can and should reintegrate into civic life. When this process is integrated into the Red Hook Grain Terminal, the site becomes a place for community members to discover the systems that make their city tick. Instead of disappearing, wastewater becomes an important means by which to interrogate life in the city. People who observe how clean water supports a vibrant coastal landscape can begin to imagine an urban landscape that is less disconnected from earth’s natural rhythms and therefore better equipped to adapt to shifting climate realities.
Accompanying the constructed wetland that facilitates wastewater treatment at Blue Silo are spaces meant to accommodate the needs of both specialist workers and the public. Access to the wetlands (where effluent is not yet safe to the touch) is restricted: spiral staircases lead to viewing platforms for the public, whereas specialists working in the treatment operation have more direct access to support maintenance and data collection. The floor directly below the marshland further supports research and maintenance operations, while those further below support public programming aspects of the water treatment operation: a library and research center allow the public to access information on the ongoing project as well as provides facilities in which community members may gather, discuss, and act on pertinent environmental concerns.
Additional programming includes an artist residency, where the artist’s work is exhibited in gallery spaces alongside that of community members. Through their work and public workshops, the artist in residence is responsible for providing an ongoing interpretation of this innovative facility that breaks down the barriers between waste management, urban infrastructure, public park, and environmental stewardship. Over time the artist will have access to the raw materials generated by the nearby kelp farm that is to be integrated in the landscape as environmental conditions improve at the site and in the surrounding waterways.
At ground level the structure opens up to the restored marsh, which wraps through the relentless grid of massive columns left from the original building. With the integration of a sculpture garden Blue Silo ushers the public through this once restricted landscape and offers a new model for occupying the urban waterfront in a way that prioritizes civic and environmental wellbeing.
