By Rachel Tieger, TEAC Co-Chair

On Sunday June 25th, TEAC (Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Council) and SHEAC (Sleepy Hollow Environmental Action Committee) joined forces for our first community compost giveback day at John Paulding School. It was an event to be remembered with kids of all ages getting dirty (digging in the compost heap), speeches from public officials, a plant exchange, games, and demonstrations. The weather gods smiled upon us and there was an overall feeling of community spirit in the air.

We were honored with visits from NY State Senator and Majority Leader Andrea Stuart Cousins, NYS Assemblymember Mary Jane Schimsky, County Executive George Latimer, Sleepy Hollow Major Martin Rutnya, Tarrytown Village Trustee David Kim and the TUFSD Assistant Superintendent Brian Fried among many community members, volunteers and local heroes.

The Villages purchased 10 cubic yards of compost from Sustainable Materials Management Inc in Cortlandt, NY who processes our food scraps, and residents were invited to take 2 buckets per household. Bucket sizes and vessel types varied vastly, so it was interesting to see what people came with. 

Thanks to all of the hard work and collaboration of SHEAC, TEAC, the school district and the Villages, the event was a huge success!

Leaves of a healthy sycamore tree emerge from the top of a tree tube. The planting, at Tarrytown Lakes, is part of a joint project of TEAC, Tarrytown and Trees For Tribs. The trees were planted in October 2022.

Time to check in on the plantation!
 
It’s been nine months since TEAC and the Village teamed with New York DEC's Trees for Tribs program to plant over 100 trees and shrubs at Tarrytown Lakes. In a barren patch of land next to Tarrytown’s lower (larger) lake, volunteers planted and staked a mini-forest of tree tubes, each containing a native shrub or tree sapling.
 

Planting trees at the Tarrytown Lakes site in October, 2022.

With the 2023 growing season well underway and the benefit of a rainy couple of weeks, I wanted to see how the plantation was coming along.
 
Great, it turns out. We did a mini-survey and found only one shrub – a beach plum --to be unviable. Another tree was lost to the toppling of its tube and stake. But the rest were leafed out and growing!

Some trees -- sycamores, willows -- are growing faster than others, already reaching the tops of their tubes. 


Tree saplings growing (see the leaves?) inside protective tree tubes. 

We were also happy to see new plants emerging, naturally and unplanned, from the ground surrounding the tree tubes. Native sassafras was sprouting everywhere. Better yet, strong stalks of milkweed appeared ready to bloom and host monarch caterpillars.
 
Not so good are the invasives, sprouting from long-lived seed banks: the graveyard weed (cypress spurge), poison-to-fish mullein, lots of poison ivy and ground-covering grape which can quickly boost itself up on growing saplings, even inside the tree tubes. Ailanthus is also erupting everywhere.


Beneath the tree tubes, native milkweed (foreground) grows in a patch of frilly cypress spurge ("graveyard weed") and poison ivy.


 Deep in the tube: a healthy, leafy dogwood.

It will be another four years – at least – before the tubes can come off and the shrubs and trees can really show their stuff. When that happens, beach plums and serviceberry trees will bear edible fruit; red oaks, sycamore and sugar maple will provide shade, white pine will offer winter interest. Leaves will cool the area over the lake and give shade and cover to water creatures. And underground and out of sight, plant roots will filter runoff from Neperan Road and phosphorous from nearby lawn fertilizers.
 
Not too much to ask from this one little plot of land just alongside a busy road.
 
The Trees for Tribs plantation at Tarrytown Lakes has succeeded because of the attention given to it by the Village: watering, mulching and re-staking the tree tubes as needed. Thank you!

As summer arrives we all crave beautiful flowers and lush greenery in our gardens and yards. When visiting local nurseries we are confronted with a plethora of plants that will provide great visuals but we need to look a little deeper before we choose plants for our landscapes.

Many of the plants in local nurseries are non native exotics coming from other parts of the world. These plants do not support our local wildlife and ecosystems and many can become invasive.



The Porcelain berry, English ivy and Asian Bittersweet that are smothering trees and crowding out native plants all over our area were sold as decorative ornamentals to homeowners.  Miscanthus and fountain grasses are taking over our wetland areas crowding out cattails and other native grasses.

There are many beautiful underused native plants that will provide beauty and support biodiversity. These low maintenance natives have evolved to live in our region’s soil and climate. Once established they are drought tolerant and require no fertilizing or pesticide use saving time and money. They support pollinators, birds and other wildlife bringing natural beauty to your home. Native plants have deep roots that stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.

Choose natives, it’s a win win!

Ditch the daylilies for blanket flowers, butterfly milkweed or Black Eyed Susans, all tough long blooming natives in an orange and yellow palette that support a variety of wildlife.

Instead of the ubiquitous hosta choose deer resistant wild ginger (photograph above) or Solomon’s Seal, two far more interesting choices.

Please check out this link for a detailed chart of great native choices to replace common exotics.

Don’t Plant These Invasive Exotics

WHERE IT GOES SERIES:
WHERE DOES YOUR FLUSH GO?
______________________
By Dean Gallea, Co-Chair, TEAC

Recently, a handful of folks from our Rivertowns’ environmental councils and committees and I got a special guided tour of the Yonkers Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant (YJWWTP). This surprisingly-complex operation takes the enormous outflow from most of lower Westchester’s municipal sewage lines – including Tarrytown’s – and processes it in an environmentally sustainable way to remove solids, pathogens, and other contaminants, ultimately releasing it into the Hudson River as clear water that’s nearly drinkable.

The sewage comes from our toilets, showers, sinks, dish- and clothes-washers, and in a few municipalities, storm drains. It’s fed down to the plant adjacent to the River through large pipes, by gravity or pumps, arriving into a group of underground tanks. There, large motorized “rakes” first pull out large solid materials, most of which shouldn’t have been flushed in the first place even if labeled “flushable”: baby wipes, hand wipes, diapers, condoms, food wrappers and other debris that is mostly plastic-based and will not decompose in the next stages. This material travels by conveyor belts into truck containers and brought to the trash incinerator in Peekskill.

Next, the mostly liquid sewage flows into a series of wide, shallow tanks where solids drop to the bottom and oils and grease rise to the top. Both are skimmed off and sent to a different part of the process. The remaining liquid is inoculated with beneficial microorganisms – the operators refer to then as “bugs” – that consume the organic material and other harmful pathogens like e.coli in the sewage. This stage can produce odors, but at the Yonkers plant, the tanks are covered and a huge vacuum system collects the odorous fumes, sends them through filters to neutralize them, and diffuses the mostly innocuous air through a stack. There are “sniffer” devices around the area to detect if a problem could cause odors in the nearby residential community.

The cleaner water goes to secondary, aerobic treatment tanks, where other “bugs” convert remaining pathogens to harmless residue that falls to the bottom of the aerated tanks. There are final settling and chlorination/de-chlorination steps before the now-clear water is released into the River.

The solids collected earlier – termed “sludge” – are de-watered and anaerobically “digested” by other microorganisms at near-body-temperatures in batches for several weeks, in large closed tanks. The process releases methane gas that gets collected and used to drive an electric generator, feeding the Yonkers city power grid, as well as some of the plant’s own energy needs. If there’s more gas produced than the generator can use, they burn (or “flare”) the methane, which would otherwise be a much-more potent greenhouse gas than the CO2 resulting from flaring. The digested sludge is used to produce fertilizer for non-food crops like golf courses and ornamental gardens

The Yonkers plant runs 24/7, and the dedicated staff of 50 or so includes lab personnel who monitor the processes to be sure the water released stays as clean as it should. They also test the incoming sewage for viruses like COVID and polio. They can actually alert hospitals when they see a rise in viral presence, to help them prepare for a subsequent rise in clinical cases.

All in all, a fascinating view into a process we hardly think about, but which is essential to keeping our River clean and our living environments healthy.

To learn more about waste processing in general, the NYC DEC's website has some information. The group Flush also has a page with more info about the Yonkers wastewater plant.

By Annie Kravet, TEAC member

Food Storage on the go: Stop packing school/ camp/ picnic lunches in plastic baggies and switch to reusable options! Reuse glass jars with lids to store snacks, or use tupperware, etc. Other ideas: carrot sticks and other non-messy snacks can be wrapped in a cloth napkin. 

Food storage at home: Save money and stop buying single use items like tin foil and plastic wrap, and switch to reusable items like glass jars or tupperware. Cover food in the fridge by placing a plate on top of a bowl, and save and wash your old pasta sauce jars for food storage. 

Say goodbye to paper towels and use your kitchen towels instead, and/or cut up old t-shirts, and have a stack of small rags ready to go in a basket on the counter. These can easily be rinsed out, hung to dry, or tossed in with the laundry and reused. 

Make iced tea using loose leaf tea instead of buying from the store or using a tea bag, which are often made with plastic. To make a cold-brew iced tea, combine tea and cool water in a pitcher (ratio of about 1.5 ounces of tea to 16 cups of water, but you can play around with the amount to get a flavor you like best). Cover the pitcher and let it sit in the fridge overnight (or for around 8 hours). Strain out the tea leaves using a tea strainer or a cheese cloth, and pour over ice to enjoy a refreshing cup of tea! 

Make your own popsicles with reusable molds or wooden sticks! You can freeze home squeezed juice, lemonade, or even smoothies into delicious frozen treats. Making your own at home cuts down on wasteful packaging. 

Get your ice cream in a cone instead of a disposable cup - and no need for the plastic spoon! 

Shop at thrift or consignment shops and swaps instead of buying new. Check out local second hand stores, or shop second hand online. Also worth looking into if your favorite brands have a buy-back/ resell program where you can find nice items that are gently worn. Some companies that have second hand options include Toad & co, REI, Elileen Fisher, and LuLuLemon. Not only is this better for the plant, but it’s more affordable, too.  

Cleaning your reusable metal water bottle: Vaccuum sealed bottles may be negatively affected by dishwashers, so hand washing is the way to go. Use a long handled bottle brush for regular washing and try soaking the bottle with a tablespoon of baking soda and/or vinegar occasionally to kill bacteria and remove odors.

SHOP locally and visit the TaSH to support area farmers and vendors! Did you know the TaSH strives for “zero waste”? That means all vendors have compostable packaging. Make sure you throw food, untreated paper, and compostable cups that you get at the market into the compost bins at the market. Some of the compostable cups look a lot like plastic, and can’t be recycled. Make sure these go into the compost containers at the market. Ready to start composting at home? If you don’t have space for backyard composting, you can bring your household compost down to the bins in the train station parking lot.

And one final tip: sign up for Plastic Free July! Head over to plasticfreejuly.org to find out more. It’s a great way to get inspiration and support on your plastic free journey. Follow TEAC_10591 on instagram for more tips for reducing plastic waste, find out what local business are doing, and share what changes your making by tagging#plasticfreejulytarrytown 
 

Algal bloom in Tarrytown's Lower Lake.

BY Suzy Allman, TEAC Member

Every summer, about this time, it seems the Tarrytown Lakes develop a green sludge. Keeping phosphorus out of the lakes can help keep algal blooms away. 

Tarrytown isn't alone in this; more than 100 water bodies in New York State cannot be used for drinking, fishing or swimming because the contain too much phosphorus.

Algal blooms, with serious impacts to the environmental and public health, are the result of homeowners, developers, golf courses and other public lands applying phosphorus-containing fertilizers to lawns that don't need it and won't use it.

If you fertilize your lawn (a better option is to mow and leave grass clipping in place), make sure you're following New York State law when it comes to phosphorous.

It's against the law to use phosphorus on lawns that do not need it (New York State Environmental Conservation law, article 17, title 21).

So, how do you know if your lawn fertilizer contains phosphorus?

Before buying lawn fertilizer, check the bag for a set of three numbers showing the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Buy a bag with a "0" in the middle.

Better yet: Leave grass clippings on the lawn after mowing for a natural fertilizer, one that adds nitrogen and stimulates biological activity.

By Rachel Tieger, TEAC Co-Chair

Searching in my garden for salad-makings for dinner guests last night, I was inspired to harvest the pop-up purslane and wild arugula. So I cleaned, chopped and arranged them in bowls with some diced watermelon, and then drizzled a light tahini dressing with a generous portion of fresh ground pepper. 

The result was both refreshing and satisfying and offered a lovely balance of flavors and textures: the fresh crunch of the purslane, earthy spiciness of the arugula, refreshing sweetness of the watermelon and a slightly bitter creaminess of the tahini. Pumpkin seeds would make a nice addition, so feel free to adjust the ingredients and be creative! 

Common purslane. Purslane is a highly nutritious edible and medicinal plant that readily grows in most areas. Even purslane flowers are edible, along with their leaves and seeds.