The tree-killing “New York City Waterfalls” project, which has enraged plant-loving Brooklynites by damaging local flora near the River Cafe in DUMBO and along the fabled Brooklyn Heights Promenade, will be turned off half of the time starting next week.
Just three days after The Brooklyn Paper reported that the Brooklyn Heights Association had joined the fight against Olafur Eliasson’s “Waterfalls,” city officials announced that the salt-water-spewing scaffolds would have their hours cut back from 101 to 50 starting on Sept. 8.
The BHA and others have complained that brackish spray from two of the waterfalls — one under the Brooklyn Bridge and another alongside the Promenade — were killing area trees. The group asked for the $15-million project to be completely dried up after Labor Day, but the arborcidal artwork appears likely to continue until its scheduled completion on Oct. 13.
In the days before the decision to cut back on the hours of operation, project organizers had said that they were trying to fix the problem by rinsing the trees and leaves along the Promenade and in the River Café’s garden with fresh water and flush salt from the soil.
