An Incubator for the World
A kayaker in Jamaica Bay | NY TimesIt is said there is a place in New York City where “nature is so dominant that it makes the city a backdrop.” That place is Jamaica Bay and its plight was featured on the front page of Friday’s Metropolitan section in the NY Times, “Jamaica Bay: Wilderness on the Edge.”
Home to over 300 species of birds along with a variety migrating animals, the bay also happens to be the world’s most nitrogen-polluted body of water, according to the NY Times. Prized for its natural beauty, Jamaica Bay will be undergoing a series of improvements to save the bay and restore its natural habitat. Last month, local and national interest groups signed an agreement to cut the area’s nitrogen output in half by 2020. The city will pay $100 Million to upgrade technology at four sewage treatment plants in the area.
In the article, Environmental Lawyer & Blogger Brad Sewell said, “In a sense, the bay is serving as a laboratory for the entire world when it comes to new nitrogen treatments and as a laboratory for the city when it comes to storm-water overflows. It really is an incubator for progressive programs for New York and beyond…It’s actually pretty cool.”Just last year the city allocated $27 Million to acquire and implement pollution elimination technology from ThermoEnergy, Inc. to begin this nitrogen extraction process. Their technology can remove 80% or more of the ammonia (the source of nitrogen from these water treatment centers), and in less than 12 minutes, recycle it into Ammonium Sulfate, a valuable fertilizer.
As an increasing amount of attention is focused on water contamination and growth of the dead zones, eco-conscious solutions like ThermoEnergy’s Ammonia Recovery Process will begin to steer our nitrogen output back to sustainable levels.
When Spencer Trask invested in a company called CASTion several years ago, this is the exact mission and method we supported — taking a problem (in this case, nitrogen-polluted water), applying “tomorrow’s technology” and changing the world for the better. This mission really started to gain traction when the company merged with ThermoEnergy and today, it is about to set a precedent for the rest of the world. Deployment of this technology in Jamaica Bay will reverse the industrial damage it has endured for decades.
