These big metallic eggs in Greenpoint draw a lot of curiosity. They are the digester eggs at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility, one of 14 plants run by the city's Department of Environmental Protection.
"These eggs perform just like your stomach. The whole point of this facility here is to take dirty water and make valuable resources from it,” said Pam Elardo, Dep. Commissioner of the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment.
Hanging out here is not everyone's cup of tea, but once again DEP is offering its popular free tours of the plant on Saturday, February 8th, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
"It's a great learning experience. It's a little bit geeky for people, but I tell you it's beautiful, and you will love it. And I have even have people propose or get married at wastewater facilities. So it's a great place to be," said Elardo.
She isn't kidding. The tours include a trip to the top of the digester eggs.
"You have a great view, of the City of New York, you can see the entire facility in front of you, and it's gorgeous," said Elardo.
And while a wastewater treatment tour does not actually scream romance, visitors may leave loving the process, that can treat up to 700 million gallons of the things that we flush down the toilet, go down the drain, or winds up in the sewer system catch basins.
Wastewater is cleansed and released into the East River, solid materials go into the digester eggs resulting in biogas, which has a bunch of uses.
"Either create electricity, create heat, and in this case, the excess gas, we are going to put into the pipeline with a partnership with National Grid and it's going to go right back to your home so you can cook with it," said Elardo.
Elardo wants visitors to know that what they do here is all about protecting public health, and the waterways and environment of the five boroughs.
"One of my goals in life is everybody knows what happens when they flush the toilet," said Elardo.
So if you want to take the tour here at Newtown Creek head straight to NYC.gov/DEP.