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Potential uses for Rikers Island after its closure
2:36:48
ยท
146 sec
Commissioner Aggarwala outlines potential uses for Rikers Island after its closure, focusing on industrial and environmental applications.
- Possibilities include wastewater treatment functions and battery storage
- The site's unique waterfront location with no neighbors makes it suitable for industrial use
- Potential for a network of treatment plants in the Upper East River area
- Options include a large wastewater treatment plant, wet weather only treatment plant, or consolidated space for citywide solids handling
- Emphasis on the site's rarity and importance for waste infrastructure in that part of the city
Lincoln Restler
2:36:48
2 point 7.
2:36:48
Oh, that's oh, that's tremendous.
2:36:54
Alright.
2:36:55
And I think that council member and nurse covered renewable Rikers issues.
2:37:01
I just wanted to ask, kind of at a high level commissioner, if you had a magic wand, what do you think are the best uses of that space that we as a council administration should be collaborating to explore?
Rohit Aggarwala
2:37:19
Well look, as as we said last year, I think that the two studies, the one that DEP did and the one that MOCEJ led around renewable, demonstrated that that there is the possibility of using that space both for wastewater treatment functions and particularly for battery storage and to some of your earlier questions, an interconnection.
2:37:48
Because that kind of unique waterfront space with no neighbors, it's already quite polluted and whatever, those are the right industrial uses.
2:37:58
This is prime space for industrial use.
2:38:01
As I said earlier, two council member nurse, I think we really would like the ability to step back and think about not a very narrow question, could you build a gigantic waste water treatment facility here, but rather how would we use that space as part of a network in the Upper East River where we have those four treatment plants.
2:38:22
And I don't want to prejudice, you know, is it a gigantic wastewater treatment plant?
2:38:29
Is it a wet weather only treatment plant?
2:38:32
Is it a consolidated space for solids handling for the entire city?
2:38:35
There are a bunch of different permutations and and we'd like to explore all of them.
2:38:40
But I think the the main point is that and we have looked, I asked BWT to look into this and there is really no other large scale site in that part of the city that is even remotely available for waste infrastructure.
2:38:58
And so it really is prime territory and again I I think the idea that we could share it and have some colocation of battery storage which as you know is controversial to locate in residential neighborhoods and and that interconnect would be
Lincoln Restler
2:39:14
the Corey, less about the controversy and more about the FDNY approvals.