OHNY: The Red Hook Sludge Boat

Yesterday we brought you part of the story of what happens when you flush the toilet or run the sink: wastewater gets channeled to facilities like the Newtown Creek sewage plant, where massive digester eggs break down, um, organic matter and separate it from clean water. But you've been dying to know what happens next, right? That's where the sludge boats come in. These massive tankers, like the Red Hook, which we visited as part of openhousenewyork, haul loads of the sludge (the technical term) through the harbor to processing facilities in the Bronx. There, the sludge is refined for use, primarily as agricultural fertilizer, making a nifty little circle of life. It might not be a pretty story, but it's a necessary one, and that's what OHNY is all about --- laying bare the complex and fascinating goings-on of this complex and fascinating city.