Greenpoint's Sludge Tank

Almost three quarters of a million gallons of treated sewage passes through the sludge tank near Newtown Creek in Greenpoint, Brooklyn each day. A perfect place, say some, for a swimming pool. Yes, a pool.With the construction of a new force main that will pump sludge directly from the Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant to sludge boats on the East River, the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will no longer need the giant storage tank. The city plans to demolish it and turn the land over to the community, but a growing number of residents now favors keeping the structure and putting it to some community use. A pool is just one?but certainly the most daring?of the suggestions.

"We've seen that some people are turned off by the concept," conceded Keith Rodan, a neighborhood resident and videographer for what has become known as the "Greentank" project. But, he added, after "tearing out the concrete, sandblasting, steam-cleaning and retiling," the tank would be perfectly safe. "It would be as clean as your own bathtub."

Other ideas include a cafe, local history museum, observation deck, community theater, assembly hall, environmental education center or some combination of a few of these concepts.

The cylindrical cement tank occupies a small plot of land at the corner of Dupont and West Sts. Its wide top section, supported by 16 columns, sits atop a narrower base, which is covered over in blue tile. A staircase spirals around the curve of the structure, leading to a slightly domed roof five stories above ground level. It is just the sort of building people fight hard to have built in someone else's neighborhood. But Meta Brunzema, a Manhattan architect who is the prime consultant for a feasibility study currently under way, sees beauty in the monolithic structure. It's a symbol, she argues, of the neighborhood's history as an industrial center.

"It would be such a shame to demolish it," she said. "It is a marvel of engineering. It has an 80-foot diameter. The dome is thin-shell concrete, only four inches thick."

Ron Shiffman, director of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, has long been an advocate of preserving Greenpoint's industrial structures. "Why don't we creatively re-use?" he asked. "It saves the energy that went into producing it. It allows people to have a landmark. It becomes a symbol for the regeneration of the neighborhood."

Although creative re-use is still a novel idea to most Americans, Shiffman and Brunzema were quick to point to successful experiments in Europe. Germany's Emscher River project, in particular, involved turning the mines and factories of a crumbling postindustrial area in the Ruhr Valley into recreational and performance facilities for the community's use. Greentank would be the first such project undertaken in New York, Brunzema said.

Rodan, the videographer, spoke energetically of turning the tank into a museum. "When the schoolkids get there," he said, "not only will they see exhibits on history and the tank, but also a pond and a bamboo grove in the area around the tank. And local fish, from the East River, in an aquarium situation at the cafe level or in the base."

Even if the pool idea doesn't fly, Rodan still hoped to see "a children's wading pool on the top, with beach chairs and a solar collecting device. Bathrooms would be expanded, with the possibility of shower rooms. And a refreshments kiosk." Brunzema proposed a glass-encased elevator that would allow visitors views of the Manhattan skyline and provide access to whatever facilities are installed on each floor.

To the Greentank activists, simply leveling the tank and building a park constitutes a singularly uncreative approach. "The saddest thing I've heard," said Rodan, "is that it would be turned into a rectangle of grass with a tree and a bench."

It would also be wasteful, they argue, as preliminary discussions between Greentank and the city suggest that the cost of the demolition?reported to be about $2 million?could be made available for conversion of the structure.

But before any re-use plan can go forward, the Greentank advocates must convince the community that demolition is not the way to go. While nobody is specifically against preserving the tank, many would gladly sacrifice it in the hopes of trading the plot it rests on for one with waterfront access. Brunzema expects the first phase of the feasibility study?which focuses only on the issue of cleaning the tank for re-use?to be completed by the fall of 2002. The more difficult issue will come in the second phase, in which Brunzema and others will weigh the benefits of reusing the tank versus demolishing it.

Christine Holowacz, chair of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee, a group working under the DEP to study development issues in the area, said the committee would not make a decision on whether the tank should stay or go until it had weighed all the possibilities. "The committee's position," she said, "is that this tank should be reviewed within the whole development of that site."

But Greentank's advocates will also have to sell the idea to a public that may be a bit skeptical about taking a dip or sipping a coffee in what has been, since 1966, essentially a gigantic toilet bowl. Noted Brunzema, "There are a lot of people who associate this thing with all the bad things. Greenpoint has been dumped on. There are some conservative members of the community who say, 'We want to get rid of every plant or tank and replace it with a tree.'" She said that an advisory board including members of the community, city agencies and civic groups is likely to be formed to give the project direction.

But Greenpoint residents seem to be receptive to the plan. "I don't think it's a stupid idea," said José Feliciano, owner of Joe's Deli on nearby Franklin St. "It's better to do something nice with it."

Shelly Bonnelle, a neighborhood resident who spoke while watching her children play in the small park across from the tank, agreed. "There's nothing here for the kids. There's parks, but the kids need something else to do."

"We have nothing in Greenpoint," agreed 12-year-old Rebecca Ochner, from atop her bicycle.

She and her four friends laughed when told what the tank is currently used for, but it didn't seem to distract them from the pool they all agreed they wanted. Thirteen-year-old DeEbony Swindell had one problem with it, though.

"Anyone afraid of heights?" she asked.