The Facts
Opened: 1886 - Screening facility, 1935 - Temporary, 1936 - Permanent 60 MGD.
Upgrades/Additions: 1942 - 70 MGD - sedimentation and chemical treatment, 1963 - Modified aeration - 110 MG, 1995 - Step aeration.
Design Capacity: 110 MGD
Drainage Area: 15,087 acres, south and central sections of Brooklyn
Receiving Waterbody: Jamaica Bay
Population Served: 596,326 (est.)
Pumping Stations: 2 - Sanitary / Combined.
Dewatering: No on-site dewatering facility. Digested sludge pumped to the 26th Ward facility for dewatering.
The Plant
The Coney Island Water Pollution Control Plant serves an area of approximately 15,000 arces in South-Central Brooklyn, including the communities of Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Mill Basin Park, Flatlands, Canarsie, Flatbush and East Flatbush. The predominantly residential service area consists primarily of low density housing, with a total population of about 600,000.
The Coney Island Water Pollution Control Plant is located in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn adjacent to Shell Bank Creek. The first wastewater treatment plant on this site was built in 1892 and was equipped with a chemical treatment process. Four additional chemical treatment plants were subsequently built in the Coney Island drainage area during the first quarter of this century. In 1935, the five plants were replaced with a single new facility constructed on the present site with a capacity of 60 MGD. The plant was upgraded in 1958 from plain sedimentation with chemical treatment to biological treatment by modified aeration. The plant capacity was also increased to 110 MGD by 1963. By 1994, the Coney Island plant was upgraded to full secondary treatment to meet federal guidelines for wastewater treatment.