Kayak polo player Nancy Brous didn’t hesitate to jump into the Hudson River off Pier 66 during practice with 15 other members of her team on July 20th, 2011, just hours after an explosion at Harlem’s North River Sewage Treatment Plant. She had heard about the accident, but wasn’t worried — any leaked sewage would not have reached them by that time, she thought.
The next morning, Brous learned that sewage was not only released from the uptown accident site, but was also diverted to “outfalls” — pipes that lead directly into the river. One of these outfalls was at the site of the New York City Water Trail Association’s kayak storage area at Pier 66 at West 26th Street.
