Description and Details

Res­i­dents of Mount Ver­non, New York, a major­i­ty-Black sub­urb north of New York City, have con­tend­ed with floods of raw sewage in their base­ments and streets for decades. The fail­ing waste­water infra­struc­ture, com­prised of 100-year-old clay pipes, rou­tine­ly over­flows dur­ing rain­fall, pri­mar­i­ly on the dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed south side of the city. City sew­er crews address up to 400 back­up events year­ly, impact­ing an esti­mat­ed 1,000 house­holds in a city of 68,000. Due to bud­get defi­cien­cies, city and state offi­cials’ neglect of sew­er replace­ment for over 20 years has led to an annu­al increase in the num­ber of over­flows. How­ev­er, there may be relief in sight as of 2022, with the City, Westch­ester Coun­ty, and Gov­er­nor Kathy Hochul announc­ing $150 mil­lion in fund­ing to repair Mount Ver­non’s waste­water system.

The chal­lenge of rec­ti­fy­ing the sewage cri­sis has been enor­mous for Mount Ver­non. The exten­sive and dete­ri­o­rat­ing sew­er sys­tem stretch­es hun­dreds of miles and reach­es depths of over 100 feet. Faced with insuf­fi­cient funds for cleanup costs from fre­quent over­flows, the city has expe­ri­enced wors­en­ing infra­struc­ture dam­age and esca­lat­ing fines—the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment impos­es a $10,000 dai­ly fine for Clean Water Act vio­la­tions due to over­flow into the Bronx and Hutchin­son rivers, fur­ther exac­er­bat­ing the city’s finan­cial struggles.

For two decades, Mount Ver­non’s inhab­i­tants have endured the brunt of the hard­ship. Sewage back­ups have stolen their time, finances, home com­fort, and health. Res­i­dents report chron­ic headaches, appetite loss, sleep dis­tur­bances, and increas­ing anx­i­ety and depres­sion due to sewage fumes exposure—tangible effects of envi­ron­men­tal injus­tice affect­ing over 1,000 fam­i­lies. A pow­er­ful ques­tion was posed by an affect­ed res­i­dent in a 2021 New York Times op-ed piece linked below, he asked city offi­cials “Does any­one gen­uine­ly believe what’s hap­pen­ing in Mount Ver­non would be hap­pen­ing in one of the rich­er, pre­dom­i­nant­ly white com­mu­ni­ties also in Westch­ester County?”

Nonethe­less, hope is emerg­ing for Mount Ver­non. With a $150 mil­lion invest­ment from the city, coun­ty, and state, exten­sive sew­er sys­tem upgrades are planned. The lengthy over­haul is expect­ed to span sev­en years or more, with an urgent $18 mil­lion allo­cat­ed for imme­di­ate use: $7 mil­lion for Third Street’s sewage sys­tem restora­tion that is reliant upon emer­gency pumps for oper­a­tion, $8 mil­lion for city-wide emer­gency sew­er pipe repairs, and $3 mil­lion to assist res­i­dents with home repairs due to sewage dam­age. May­or Shawyn Pat­ter­son-Howard, elect­ed in 2019 and the first woman of col­or to serve as a may­or in Westch­ester Coun­ty, has been instru­men­tal in secur­ing the fund­ing need­ed to address this long-over­due issue. She envi­sions the sew­er repairs enhanc­ing the city’s qual­i­ty of life and dri­ving eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty by cre­at­ing jobs and train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for residents.

The $150 mil­lion invest­ment marks a trans­for­ma­tive moment for Mount Ver­non, promis­ing not just the recon­struc­tion of its crit­i­cal sew­er infra­struc­ture but also the restora­tion of envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and pub­lic trust. This ini­tia­tive stands as a tes­ta­ment to the city’s resilience and deter­mi­na­tion to uplift its com­mu­ni­ty, with May­or Patterson-Howard’s admin­is­tra­tion at the fore­front, cham­pi­oning a future of health, equi­ty, and eco­nom­ic growth.

Discussion Questions

  • How has his­tor­i­cal invest­ment or dis­in­vest­ment in infra­struc­ture con­tributed to cur­rent con­di­tions of envi­ron­men­tal injus­tice in com­mu­ni­ties like Mount Ver­non? Fur­ther, what respon­si­bil­i­ties do city and state gov­ern­ments have when address­ing long­stand­ing envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice issues? How can they be held account­able for their action or inaction?
  • In what ways can affect­ed res­i­dents be mean­ing­ful­ly involved in the deci­sion-mak­ing process regard­ing infra­struc­tur­al upgrades in their com­mu­ni­ty? Addi­tion­al­ly, how can diver­si­ty, equi­ty, and inclu­sion prin­ci­ples be bet­ter inte­grat­ed into envi­ron­men­tal pol­i­cy and infra­struc­ture plan­ning to pre­vent future instances of envi­ron­men­tal injustice?
  • What might be the long-term social, eco­nom­ic, and health impacts on a com­mu­ni­ty if issues like those expe­ri­enced in Mount Ver­non are not addressed promptly?

References

Federal/State Briefs:

Unit­ed States Obtains Con­sent Decree Against City Of Mount Ver­non To Address Pol­lut­ing Storm Sewers
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/united-states-obtains-consent-decree-against-city-mount-vernon-address-polluting-storm

Bureau of San­i­tary and Stormwa­ter Sewers
https://cmvny.com/910/Bureau-of-Sanitary-and-Stormwater-Sewers

Pop­u­lar Media/News References:

When Envi­ron­men­tal Racism Caus­es a Hygien­ic Hell
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/opinion/environmental-racism-wastewater-broken.html

Mount Ver­non: Where Envi­ron­men­tal Injus­tice Became a Sewage Nightmare
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/mount-vernon-where-environmental-injustice-became-sewage-nightmare

New York Gov­ern­ments Col­lab­o­rate to Tack­le Envi­ron­men­tal Injustice
https://www.nrdc.org/bio/sahana-rao/new-york-governments-collaborate-tackle-environmental-injustice

Post Views: 146