Public Employee Press

ON THE JOB FOR NYC
Sludge boat Sailors keep our rivers clean

The MV Red Hook is a $19 million computerized vessel designed by
Local 2906 Marine Workers to keep New York City waterways pristine.

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Each day 8 million New Yorkers take for granted that when they turn on their faucets, clean water will run. The Sailors of Marine Workers Local 2906 play a vital role in that ordinary miracle — and in what happens when that water goes down the drain.

Last January at a ceremony on the icy docks off the Ward’s Island Waste Water Treatment Plant, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts joined the crew of the Red Hook, New York City’s newest and largest sludge vessel, and Dept. of Environmental Protection managers to christen the state-of-the-art tanker.

The Red Hook is the first motor vessel added to DEP’s fleet in more than a quarter century. The computerized ship is 350 feet from bow to stern, longer than a football field, and transports 150,000 cubic feet or 2 million gallons of waste each day. The ship was built over three years in Brownsville, Texas, at a cost of $19 million. Local 2906 members shared their expertise on the ship’s design and function and spent seven days sailing the tanker from the Gulf of Mexico to New York Harbor last October in the rough seas of hurricane season.

A crew of six — Captain, Engineer, Assistant Engineer, Mate, and two Sailors — make 14 trips daily. They work around the clock in shifts that run as long as 16 hours. Currently all Local 2906 members are being trained to work on the Red Hook, but local leaders say the ship’s size, capacity and state-of-the-art technology call for a much larger crew. The MV Red Hook is twice as big as other sludge boats in the DEP fleet.

The Captain and Mate guide the Red Hook through the East River at 14 knots, or about 12.5 miles an hour, easily parting the treacherous currents and avoiding the rocky shores at Hell Gate. Smaller boats that appear like stars in a constellation on the computerized navigation system clear the way as the tanker sails along the East River beneath the RFK/Triborough, “Willie B” and other great bridges that span the river. The Captain communicates via computer and walkie-talkie with the two engineers, who are three decks below in the deafening din of the ship’s pristine engine room.

Protecting New York waters

The Red Hook’s cargo is the thick, dark liquid sludge that remains after Sewage Treatment Workers in Local 1320 remove pollutants from the rest. Sailors moor the vessel to docks at the city’s six pollution control plants that cannot “dewater” the sludge, and STWs pump it through giant hoses onto the 21-foot-deep tanker for the mariners to haul it to the eight dewatering plants.

In decades past, the city’s sludge was hauled out to sea and dumped, but since the 1980s stronger federal and local environmental protection laws have prohibited the practice. Once the sludge is treated and dehydrated, it’s recycled into fertilizer.

The members of DC 37 Locals 2906 and 1320 are critical to keeping waterways safe for New Yorkers and protecting the ecosystems of the harbor, rivers and inlets surrounding the 38 islands that comprise the archipelago of New York City.