Handling over 300 million gallons daily, the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant is New York City’s largest. It is also the last plant in the city left in noncompliance of the Federal Clean Water Act; originally anticipated to have completed expansion and upgrades by 2013, the city has since requested until 2022 to bring the plant within compliance of the 1972 legislature. Roughly 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage are dumped into New York City waterways annually (10% alone into Newtown Creek) through combined sewage overflow (CSO), the result of overloaded sewar systems. CSOs include residential as well as heavy industrial wastes - mercury, pesticides, lead, and pathogenic organisms among the contents.

In the Brooklyn Nights photo essay.