One major source of pollution was the Westchester Lighting Company, which discharged large quantities of gas, tar, and oil onto its yards. After heavy rainfall, the pollutants washed into Davis Brook and then ran into the Bronx River. Some of the tar and oil settled in the mud in the river bottom. The remainder flowed on the surface of the stream or was carried by high water onto the adjacent riverbanks. The company was served a notice of violation in December 1913. In August 1914, the BPC served notice that it would take legal action if the problem was not corrected. The company installed a filtration plant and also cleaned the mud from the river and its banks. The situation improved, but tests demonstrated that the filters and cleaning were inadequate. Tar and oil still percolated through the filters during the rainy season and flushed out from the ground into Davis Brook. In November, the company took advantage of heavy rains and started dumping again. The commission hired a special counsel and instructed him to take "vigorous legal action." The problem was difficult to control, however, as the property was outside the proposed reservation. Some time later, the company installed a new filtration system with tar and oil separators, settling tanks, and sand filters. Although not perfect, the system filtered "practically all" of the contaminants and was satisfactory to the BPC.(113) This troublesome situation was discussed at length in BPC meeting minutes, but the commission’s 1916 report portrayed the company as eager to cooperate after it had been informed about the purpose of the parkway. Other contamination flowed into the Bronx River from another Davis Brook that was located in Valhalla, where it formed the the headwaters of the Bronx River. This Davis Brook was severely affected by cesspools and sink drains in the Valhalla business district. Downer was uncertain how to solve the problem, but local residents suggested that the town board take action to protect the stream. The Town of Mount Pleasant proposed that the BPC join in acquiring a strip of land on each side of the brook that would be developed as a local park connecting to the BRPR. By mid 1916, the town board and BPC had contracts for all but one of the necessary parcels. This did not completely solve the problem, however. When the BPC was terminated in 1925, the pollution problems at Valhalla were referred to the Westchester County Park Commission for action.(114) The most serious source of contamination and also the most troublesome to remedy was the sewer discharge at East 235th Street in the Bronx. There was no sanitary sewer in the Woodlawn Heights area of the Bronx. Over the years, the city had issued permits for sewer connections with the East 235th Street sewer, which was a 48" trunk sewer that had been built primarily as a storm sewer. By 1915, a considerable amount of raw sewage was being discharged into the Bronx River from this outlet. The BPC was well aware of the situation, but the commission was unable to get city authorities to fix the problem. There was no easy solution, as the nearest trunk sewers were either too distant or impractical to connect with. The BPC and various city agencies met numerous times to discuss the issue. Various means of diverting the sewage discharge were offered in September 1915. These options included a siphon system to connect the present outlet to an existing sewer across the railroad tracks. Three more years passed before this system was approved, financed, and functional. In September 1918, the "last and greatest source of pollution" was finally diverted from the Bronx River by means of an inverted siphon that ran the East 235th Street sewer outlet under the river and railroad tracks to a small sewer on the other side of the Bronx River. Two months later, the BPC reported that if the sewage draining from the East 233rd Street did not diminish, that outlet would require the same solution as the 235th Street outlet.(115) |
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| (113)Bronx
Parkway Commission, Report, 1916, 29-30; Bronx Parkway Commission,
Minutes, August 11, 1914, 281-185; November 19, 1914, 385-393. |
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