Flushing Bay

Located in north-central Queens, Flushing Bay is bounded by the East River to the north between LaGuardia Airport and the community of College Point. The bay is designated as all the water south of this point to the mouth of Flushing Creek. The Flushing Bay assessment area is composed of 6,423 acres of land in Queens, NY. Combined sewers serve most of this area and discharge to ten CSOs, seven in the Tallman Island service area and three in the Bowery Bay service area. Generally, sewage generated in the area east of Flushing Bay is treated at the Tallman Island Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) and sewage generated in the area west of the bay is treated at the Bowery Bay WRRF.

Urbanization of the Flushing Bay watershed brought increased population, increased pollutants from sewage and industry, construction of sewer systems, and physical changes affecting the surface topography and imperviousness of the watershed. Consequently, the area has experienced a significant increase in the amount of runoff discharged to the waterbody. Runoff transported via roof leaders, street gutters and catch basins into the combined and separate sewer system discharge directly to Flushing Bay since the wetlands surrounding Flushing Bay have been eliminated. Thus, urbanization has simultaneously decreased retention and absorption of runoff during transport and decreased the travel time for runoff to reach the waterbody. When combined with the increased runoff due to increased imperviousness of the watershed, the end result is increased peak discharge rates and higher total discharge volumes to the waterbody during wet weather and lower flow volumes during dry weather periods.

Get Involved

For more information, please email ltcp@dep.nyc.gov and visit our LTCP Program webpage.