Paerdegat Basin is a channel that connects to

Jamaica Bay Jamaica Bay is an estuary on the southern portion of the western tip of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. The estuary is partially man-made, and partially natural. The bay connects with Lower New York Bay to the west, through Rockaw ...

between the neighborhoods of

Bergen Beach Bergen Beach is a residential neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. It is located on a peninsula abutting Jamaica Bay in the southeastern portion of the borough, and is bordered by Mill Basin and the neighborhood of the sa ...

and

Canarsie Canarsie ( ) is a mostly residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of Brooklyn, New York City. Canarsie is bordered on the east by Fresh Creek Basin and East 108th Street; on the north by Linden Boulevard; on the west by Ralph Ave ...

in southeast

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It connects to Jamaica Bay to the south, and the north end of the basin is adjacent to the intersection of Ralph Avenue and

Flatlands Avenue Flatlands Avenue is a major street in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It runs approximately east-west, from Avenue N and East 35th Street in Flatlands in the west to Forbell Street, east of Fountain Avenue in East New York, near the Bro ...

. "Paerdegat" derives from the old Dutch ''paardengat'', meaning "horse gate".

Formation

Paerdegat Basin came to its present form in the late 1920s. Before then, it was a freshwater-fed tidal creek known at various times as Bestevaar Kill, Bedford Creek, and Paerdegat Creek. It was much longer than the present-day basin, and had several branches. The basin adjoined Brooklyn's last patch of natural forest, which was demolished in 1940.

Jamaica Bay seaport plan

The waterway was an important part of a failed plan to transform

into an alternative port to

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in ...

. Such a plan had been entertained in the 1910s, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1927, the docklands project was revived when a connection to the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average week ...

was announced. Planners wanted to create a spur of the

Bay Ridge Branch The Bay Ridge Branch is a rail line owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway in New York City. It is the longest freight-only line of the LIRR, connecting the Montauk Branch and CSX Transporta ...

south to Flatlands, with two branches to Canarsie and Mill Basin. A connection to

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

would be built via the planned

Staten Island Tunnel The Staten Island Tunnel is an abandoned, incomplete railway/subway tunnel in New York City. It was intended to connect railways on Staten Island (precursors to the modern-day Staten Island Railway) to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York ...

, which would in turn allow freight to be delivered and shipped to the rest of the continental United States. The

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

offered to build the new railroad link for $2 million and lease it to the city. In January 1931, the

New York City Board of Estimate The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...

approved a plan to build railroads on both sides of Paerdegat Basin, connecting the LIRR to

Canarsie Pier Canarsie ( ) is a mostly residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of Brooklyn, New York City. Canarsie is bordered on the east by Fresh Creek Basin and East 108th Street; on the north by Linden Boulevard; on the west by Ralph Ave ...

to the east and to

Floyd Bennett Field Floyd Bennett Field is an airfield in the Marine Park neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn in New York City, along the shore of Jamaica Bay. The airport originally hosted commercial and general aviation traffic before being used as a naval air ...

to the west. However, the plans for rail service to the rest of Brooklyn went unrealized. The only thing that was completed was the dredging of Paerdegat Basin to a depth. In the 1950s and 1960s, much of the city-owned land around the basin was sold off to private developers. The neighborhoods of Georgetown and

were built near its banks.

Sewage treatment plant

The waterway is polluted due to the overflow location of the

combined sewer A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dil ...

system at the basin's northern end. The area's

sanitary sewer A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an ...

(from residential and industrial sources) is carried through the same system as the storm water. Typically, the full volume of that water is drained to the Coney Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) located on Knapp Street. However, during periods of heavy rainfall, the Knapp Street plant does not have the capacity to treat the full volume of the water, so untreated water is forced to flow out into Paerdegat Basin. The

New York City Department of Environmental Protection The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's water supply and works to reduce air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution. Under a 1.3 billion do ...

is working to mitigate the environmental impact of the overflow on the ecosystem. At the same time, the DEP is working with the Parks Department to repair the saltwater wetland area which lines the east and west shores of the basin. NYC Parks and NYCDEP are building a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) facility at that location; the construction contract was awarded to the joint venture of Slattery

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

/ Gottlieb Skanska, which is a subsidiary of the global construction company Skanska. The facility serves as holding tank for the excess water, and whenever the Knapp Street plant can accept additional water, the water is pumped from the holding tank of the CSO facility back to the plant to be treated, preventing the raw untreated sewage from flowing into the Basin. The CSO facility was completed in August 2011.

References

{{authority control Waterways in the United States Ports and harbors of New York (state) Channels of New York (state) Bodies of water of Brooklyn