Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

353 Greenpoint Avenue | also 327 Greenpoint Avenue | Greenpoint

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1967

    The Newtown Creek wastewater plant is built; by 2010 it is the city's largest

    The Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant was built in 1967 on the Greenpoint waterfront. By 2010 the city's environmental protection department called it the largest of the city's 14 wastewater plants, serving about 1 million residents across a drainage area of more than 15,000 acres. A $5 billion upgrade, begun in 1998, was then expected to finish in 2014.

    Source: nyc.gov

  2. 1996

    Greenpoint volunteers form the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee to watch over the plant

    In 1996 a group of Greenpoint citizens volunteered to help oversee the coming upgrade of the plant and set up the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee. The city described it in 2010 as one of its longest-standing citizen committees and a model of public involvement in a project lasting decades. The committee also worked with the environmental protection department on the plant's Visitor Center and Nature Walk, from design through building.

    Source: nyc.gov

  3. 2007

    George Trakas's Nature Walk opens beside the plant

    The Newtown Creek Nature Walk, designed by the environmental sculptor George Trakas, opened in 2007. It borders the plant and gives walkers a view of its settling tanks and its digester eggs. In 2010 the city said it was open to the public seven days a week.

    “The Nature Walk was designed by environmental sculpture artist George Trakas and opened in 2007.”

    Source: nyc.gov

  4. 2010

    April 24

    The plant opens a Visitor Center with a Vito Acconci water sculpture

    On April 24, 2010, Commissioner Cas Holloway opened the new Visitor Center at the plant. Inside, exhibits follow New York's water from upstate watersheds to treatment, with a replica of a 96-inch sewer main and a scale model of the plant. The artist Vito Acconci designed a water sculpture for it, commissioned through the city's Percent for Art program. Public visits ran on Fridays and Saturdays.

    “Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway today opened the new Visitor Center at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.”

    Source: nyc.gov

  5. 2023

    April

    The plant begins sending renewable natural gas into the city's gas grid

    Since April 2023, following years of delays, the plant has been turning out renewable natural gas on a regular basis and feeding it back into the city's gas grid. About 60 percent of that gas powers the plant itself, and the rest flows to homes and businesses across New York City.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 63 buildings with stories in Greenpoint