EnviroPolitics Blog

What’s the hot ticket in NYC? The wastewater treatment plant

A group of people in yellow vests. — A tour group at the Owls Head Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility.Jean Schwarzwalder / NYC DEP

For a certain breed of New Yorker, the best kind of exclusive access is not to the hottest new restaurant, the most celebrity-filled party or the hardest-to-book experience: It’s inside access to municipal infrastructure. I am this breed of New Yorker.

So when I recently learned Open House New York was distributing $10 tickets by lottery for a tour of Brooklyn’s Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant, I immediately entered. I’d previously toured the Newtown Creek Digester Eggs and enjoyed it greatly and was eager to see inside another wastewater plant.

Owls Head is one of 14 NYC Department of Environmental Protection wastewater resource recovery facilities treating the more than 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater New Yorkers flush down the drain daily. It’s been operating at the watery edge of Bay Ridge since 1952.

Owls Head alone serves close to 800,000 people (more than the population of Seattle), treating a large chunk of southwest Brooklyn’s wastewater through a biological and disinfection process that has it clean enough to be released into New York Harbor in about eight to 10 hours.

I did not know any of this when I entered the lottery. All I knew was that I wanted to see inside the sewage plant and learn more about how NYC works.

Read the full story here

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Trump administration ordered to resume Biden’s enviro funding

The decision, which stated federal agencies lacked authority to pause funding, follows the president’s executive order to freeze the money on his first day in office.

By Kate Magill, WasteDive

A federal judge Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to take “immediate steps” to reinstate already awarded funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, after the president broadly froze the disbursements on his first day in office.

Judge Mary McElroy of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island ordered the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, to release awards previously withheld, after the ruling found the agencies lacked authority to freeze the funding.

The decision applies to all awardees nationwide, and will remain in effect until McElroy rules on the merits of the lawsuit. The agencies must update the court of the status of their compliance by 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” McElroy wrote in her decision.

The decision is a blow to President Donald Trump’s plans to dismantle the Biden administration’s hallmark climate funding law. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, provides hundreds of billions of dollars in direct funding and loan financing. It also offers lucrative tax credits for manufacturers that meet domestic production requirements, incentivizing a host of companies to invest in domestic facilities over the past three years.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also provides billions of dollars in clean energy funding.

Read the full story here

Trump administration ordered to resume Biden’s enviro funding Read More »

New Trump Order: Don’t feed the hungry (if they’re migrants)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency yanked $1.3 million in funds from the Campaign Against Hunger, accusing the group of aiding “illegal aliens.”

A Campaign Against Hunger worker stocks produce at the Ocean, Brooklyn food pantry. — A Campaign Against Hunger worker stocks produce at the Brooklyn food pantry, April 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

By Samantha Maldonado, The City, April 17, 2025, 6:08 p.m.

The Trump administration has cancelled more than $1.3 million in federal emergency grants awarded to a Brooklyn food pantry to feed migrants, after advising the nonprofit it was suspected of violating U.S. law by serving food to “illegal aliens.”

The move leaves the Campaign Against Hunger — which each year serves 17 million meals to over 1.5 million New Yorkers, including thousands of new arrivals — in a lurch.

“To take that much money from any organization that does not have an endowment or a large budget is to take food out of the mouths of those that need it the most,” said Melony Samuels, the CEO and founder of Bedford-Stuyvesant nonprofit. “For those that need food, it’s tough. We are in a sad, tough time.”

The Campaign Against Hunger received a letter on April 1 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency with news that its grants under the Shelter and Services Program were terminated immediately.

Myriam Vargas picks up fresh produce at The Campaign Against Hunger food pantry in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn. — *Myriam Vargas picks up fresh produce at The Campaign Against Hunger food pantry in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn, April 17, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY*

The Shelter and Services Program provides funding to nonprofits and government entities to support “noncitizen migrants” after they are released from Department of Homeland Security custody and while they wait for rulings on immigration proceedings. Congress appropriated $650 million for the program in Fiscal Year 2024, including $512,000 for the Campaign Against Hunger and another $60 million to New York City’s budget office, to reimburse the city for costs related to sheltering new arrivals.

Read the full story here

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Camden settles with recycler EMR for $6.7M after huge February fire

By Alexandra Simon, CBS News

Nearly two months after a massive four-alarm fire broke out at the EMR Metal Recycling facility in Camden, New Jersey, the company has committed to investing millions of dollars back into the community.

“Let’s be clear, EMR is being held accountable,” Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen said.

Carstarphen detailed the new agreement between the city and EMR after the inferno raged out of control, sending toxins into the air. The mayor says EMR will now invest $6.7 million into the community, $4.5 million will be committed this year and $450,000 will be paid annually over the next five years.

“EMR will reimburse the city for losses fighting the fire, they will invest $3 million back into the waterfront south neighborhood,” Carstarphen said.

The fire broke out on Friday, Feb. 21, around 5 p.m. at the EMR scrap metal plant on the 1500 block of South 6th Street in South Camden, and burned for more than six hours before crews from nearly 20 departments brought the blaze under control. Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

EMR says it will now reduce its footprint in the city by nine acres, limit materials and increase inspections at the site. It will also install an aerial fire suppression system that includes heat detection cameras to identify potential hot spots and develop a text notification system for residents.

Read the full story here

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NJ lawmakers to examine food waste reduction and processing

The New Jersey Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee and the Senate Environment and Energy Committee will meet on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 10:00 AM in Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, New Jersey.

The committees will receive testimony from invited guests on the topic of food waste reduction and food waste disposal methods in the State, and how State policy can support sustainable and environmentally friendly food management practices.

NJ lawmakers to examine food waste reduction and processing Read More »

Federal Cuts Shrink Heating and AC Aid Program, Leaving New Yorkers in the Cold

By Samantha Maldonado, The City

Mike Knerr was excited to move into his Washington Heights apartment in September 2023, but coming off a hot summer, he faced a looming problem: his building didn’t have central air conditioning, and he didn’t have an AC unit — or the money to buy one.

Knerr, who is HIV-positive, was out of work as his health took a nosedive. But the 42-year-old receives benefits through the the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration, which is how he found out he might be eligible to receive a free air conditioner from the federally funded Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, which helps New Yorkers pay their heating bills in the winter and provides air conditioning units in the summer.

Knerr applied last April, and became one of the more than 10,000 households in New York City authorized to receive the cooling benefit. With his AC unit installed before summer, he felt relief.

“It would have taken all my expenses for the entire month to try to buy even a small air conditioner that wouldn’t have been able to cool the apartment very well,” said Knerr. “The medications and things cause me to sweat a lot so it’s helpful for me to stay healthy.”

Applications for this season’s HEAP’s cooling assistance opened Tuesday. But the future of the program is uncertain: the Trump administration in early April fired all the federal staff that ran the program as part of wider layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services. And states are millions of dollars short in promised federal funding, having still not received about 10% of the $4.1 billion Congress approved. That means New York has yet to receive about $36 million of its expected $360.2 million for HEAP, which helps over 1.5 million households across the state each year.

With the heat of summer approaching and utility bills mounting, consumer advocates and government officials are sounding the alarm.

Federal Cuts Shrink Heating and AC Aid Program, Leaving New Yorkers in the Cold Read More »

What’s the hot ticket in NYC? The wastewater treatment plant

Trump administration ordered to resume Biden’s enviro funding

The decision, which stated federal agencies lacked authority to pause funding, follows the president’s executive order to freeze the money on his first day in office.

New Trump Order: Don’t feed the hungry (if they’re migrants)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency yanked $1.3 million in funds from the Campaign Against Hunger, accusing the group of aiding “illegal aliens.”

Camden settles with recycler EMR for $6.7M after huge February fire

NJ lawmakers to examine food waste reduction and processing

Federal Cuts Shrink Heating and AC Aid Program, Leaving New Yorkers in the Cold

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