What do the Mona Lisa and the Greenpoint waste digesters have in common?

Hervé Descottes, that's what! The French lighting designer, who was in charge of the lighting of the Mona Lisa when the Louvre reinstalled it in 1991, does all of the lighting for NYC landmarks and other large things, including our giant waste-eating domes. The New York Times has a story about him today, in the context of his work on the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, aka the domes, which will eventually have a visitor's center and sculpture garden with work by Vito Acconci. (The project is happening in stages—a nature walk opened in Sept 2007, and the lighting ceremony was in June of this year.)

From the DEP site, some fun digester facts!

The digesters will process up to 1.5 million gallons of sludge everyday. Each egg, clad with low reflectivity stainless steel, is 145 feet high and 80 feet in diameter. The eight eggs were welded on site from pieces that were brought from Texas and fabricated by Chicago Bridge and Iron. It took three months to assemble each one. Although the weight for each egg is around 2 million pounds when empty; it is calculated that they may weigh up to 32 million pounds when processing sludge.

Digesters play a critical role in the wastewater treatment process. During the wastewater treatment process, organic material called sludge is removed from sewage. Sludge is "digested" and processed for beneficial use. Inside of digesters, bacteria break down this sludge into more stable materials. Heat, lack of oxygen, and time are all needed for this to happen. Much of the sludge is converted into water, carbon dioxide and methane gas. The remaining is called digested sludge. Digested sludge is then dewatered to form a cake, which, after additional processing, can be beneficially used as a fertilizer. The eggs are state of the art in digester design as the shape assists in concentrating grit at the bottom of the tank, mixing for improved digestion and the concentration of gas at the top of the tank. Each egg holds 3 million gallons of sludge.

The Newtown Creek plant is the largest of New York City's 14 wastewater treatment plants. The plant serves approximately 1 million residents in a drainage area of more than 15,000 acres (25 square miles). The plant began operation in 1967 and currently treats 18% of the City's wastewater with a capacity of 310 million gallons per day (mgd) during dry weather. Upgrade work began in 1998 and will eventually raise plant capacity to 700 mgd during wet weather storms. The upgraded plant will serve a projected population of 1.33 million residents within the relevant drainage area by 2045.

There is a great, dramatic photo in the Times article, so be sure to click. As Descottes puts it, "Sometimes it doesn't smell so good. But at least it doesn't look so bad." The French are so effusive!

Props for much, if not all of this, go to the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee, which meets with the DEP monthly, and has lobbied for the community tirelessly.

Photo by me.