Elena Gallard

The Bronx River is one of 10 waterways for which DEP is drafting long-term pollution reduction plans.

How clean should the Bronx River be? What should be done to get it there?

Those are the questions that will be raised as New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection drafts a “long-term control plan,” or LTCP for the waterway.

A key step in that process is a meeting next Thursday, February 12, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, 928 Simpson Street, 6th floor.

Right now, mainly because of overflows from the city’s antiquated sewage system, some New York City waterbodies aren’t even safe to touch.

Under both PlaNYC and federal law the city is supposed to get all its waterways—its bays, canals, creeks, ponds and rivers—as clean as it can. The goal is to make more of the blue stuff safe for boating, fishing and even swimming. The constraint is engineering feasibility and cost.

As City Limits reported in December, some advocacy groups are disappointed with the city’s first LTCPs for waterways outside the Bronx, claiming they were vague or too limited in ambition.

For more information on the Bronx River LTCP process, click here.