Our recent field trip to Randall’s Island proved to be extremely educational and eye-opening to the environmental issues that specifically affect New York City. Most concerning to learn was the reality of the city’s sewer system, which combines our waste with rainwater in such a way that heavy precipitation events result in an overflow of the system and thus dumping raw sewage into our waterways instead of the designated treatment plants. About 25 million gallons of sewage are dumped into the NYC waterways every year from 490 combined sewage overflow canals, most of which are situated on the East River. As a New Yorker, it is immensely discouraging to find that one of the biggest and most prominent cities in the world can have such an outdated and inefficient sewage system. With over 7500 miles of sewer pipes, replumbing the entire city is not a feasible project; instead, the city is concerned with increasing greenery to store rainwater so the runoff doesn’t overflow the sewers. This includes rain gardens, which are planted areas that collect runoff from streets, and infiltration basins, which store rainwater below ground. After contacting Christopher Girgenti, the Director of Environmental Programs at Randall’s Island, I learned that Randall’s Island is special in the fact that there are no direct CSOs on the island, and instead the island has a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. In this system, sewage goes directly to wastewater treatment plants while stormwater is directly released into surrounding waterways instead of combining with sewage. Girgenti also highlighted the island’s freshwater wetland which “absorbs about 40 acres of runoff from the Island’s center and catchment basins, reducing the impact of flooding and capturing water on the island.” The island also has a vegetated path with a dry well underneath the soil that absorbs runoff to reduce flooding during wet weather events. In these ways, Randall’s Island helps manage rainfall during storm events without contributing to NYC’s CSO system.