Skip to main content

+Pool will be a swimmable sanctuary in a sea of sewage, if NYC ever allows it

For the past six years, a group of enterprising New Yorkers has been chasing a simple dream: to transform the city’s dirty rivers into clean, swimmer-friendly waterways. To make this happen, the team has designed a giant floating filter — one that just so happens to double as a swimming pool. They have run thousands of tests, launched a Kickstarter campaign (then a second Kickstarter campaign) to fund it, and even secured a few high-profile sponsorships. But despite all these successes, the team has yet to get the so-called +Pool in the water for one big reason: the law will not allow it, because there is no law for it.

Before we get into all that legal stuff, here’s a quick refresher: +Pool is meant to be a 9,000 square foot water-filtering pool that’s shaped like a plus sign and designed to clean the river it floats in. The pool’s multi-layered filtration system is designed to remove wildlife, debris, trash, bacteria, and viruses from the river before the water becomes swimmable. If/when it’s completed, the +Pool will reportedly be able to hold 5,000 visitors and filter more than 600,000 gallons of river water per day.

Recommended Videos

If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard about the project before. The idea first gained widespread media coverage back in 2011, and has been slowly gaining steam ever since. Now, six years down the road, Heineken is throwing its hat in the pool by pledging to donate $100,000 to the project, as part of the beverage company’s Cities Project — but only if +Pool can get 100,000 signatures from New Yorkers who pledge to swim in the pool once it’s finished. The plan is to show those signatures to the city of New York in order to get permission to put the +Pool in the East River.

Digital Trends spoke with +Pool co-founders Archie Lee Coates IV and Dong-Ping Wong, as well as numerous New Yorkers, at a recent +Pool event in New York City to find out how long New Yorkers will have to wait before they can swim in the pool, what the city of New York has been doing to prepare, and how Brita helped the team build a one-of-a-kind water filtration system.

Murky legal waters

Wong says the idea for a plus-sign-shaped pool came about in 2010 because “it seemed funny.” Once the four founders realized their goofy idea was actually doable, the laughing stopped, and the challenges began. “It’s one of those things that since it’s never actually been done, ever, anywhere. There’s literally no regulations for it; no code that’s written for it,” Wong says. “So, we have to work a long time with the city to rewrite laws basically for a floating, filtering pool.”

“We have to work a long time with the city to rewrite laws basically for a floating, filtering pool.”

The people behind +Pool have been in talks with the city of New York since 2011, and have closely tailored +Pool and its filtration system according to as many pool and beach standard regulations as it can — but it’s been a long and difficult journey. “We’re working with the city now to find the right location, which is hard,” Coates said. “The river changes currents, depths, the amount of sewage that comes out of the pipes at different rates,” Coates said.

Columbia researchers and engineers at design firm Arup have helped the inexperienced group with understanding water filtration, but doing something that’s never done before usually requires a lot of trial and error. “We thought, ‘well, Brita works like this. Could you make that way bigger? Let’s try that. It doesn’t work. Let’s try something else,'” Wong said.

Coates and Wong say the tech-savy mayor Bill DeBlasio’s administration has been cooperative after years of no talks with the city of New York during Michael Bloomberg’s administration. But, getting the city of New York on board will not automatically get New Yorkers in the pool.

When can we swim?

Let’s say the +Pool group comes to the city of New York with 100,000 signatures from New Yorkers saying they’ll take a dip in the East River with +Pool, and the city approves it. Even in a best case scenario, Coates expects +Pool will not be open to the public for at least three to four years.

“If all goes well, we’ve got two years to finish all the construction documents, get this thing built, get this thing in the water,” Wong says. “But, we also know, in between the actual finishing design and building, we have to get it approved, get it permitted, talk to all sorts of community organizations, legal organizations. That process takes a long time.”

Most of the New Yorkers I spoke with at the +Pool event have spent so long with dirty NYC rivers they would wait a few years if necessary. “I would wait 10 years,” said 31-year New York native Will Guy from Greenwich Village. 26-year New York native Ashton Resto said +Pool would probably fall to the back of his mind if he had to wait, but the same excitement and interest would return once the pool opening is announced.

Other New Yorkers are a bit more cynical and expect +Pool to be in NYC waters in a New York minute. “You can’t take three to four years in New York City, baby,” 49-year-old New York native McCrae Young said. “New Yorkers have a fast paced mentality, and when you have the momentum going in a certain direction, if you stop it, it’s going to take 15 times more energy and effort to get that movement started again.”

What’s next?

Raul Esquer, brand manager for Heineken USA, is already anticipating a difficult road ahead, saying that bringing +Pool to NYC rivers will be “attainable yet challenging.” At the time of press, the +Pool’s campaign has garnered just under 7,500 signatures.

To bolster awareness, Heineken produced a mini-doc about +Pool’s story, narrated by Neil-Patrick Harris, and let people walk through Wong’s +Pool designs in a virtual reality experience.

The group behind +Pool have a working prototype of the pool’s filtration system, with the $100,000 from Heineken slated to help finalize it. “Right now it works, but it works in this kind of, like, prototype,” Wong said. “We tested it and we know it works, but to get it to this beautiful level, that $100K will go huge into making that happen.”

There may not be laws in place right now to regulate a floating, water filtering pool, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be soon. Don’t forget that just a few years ago, there also weren’t many laws for drones. When you consider that autonomous flying robots — and the laws that regulate them — are fairly commonplace in the present day, the notion of swimming in clean NYC river water doesn’t seem so out of reach.

Keith Nelson Jr.
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Keith Nelson Jr is a music/tech journalist making big pictures by connecting dots. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY he…
Juiced Bikes sold at auction for $1.2 million, report says
The Juiced Bikes Scorpion X2 adds more power, upgraded tires, and an improved battery to the popular moped style e-bike.

Juiced Bikes, the San Diego-based maker of e-bikes, has been sold on an auction website for $1,225,000, according to a report from Electrek.Digital Trends recently reported how the company was showing signs of being on the brink of bankruptcy. The company and its executives had remained silent, while customer inquiries went unanswered and its website showed all products were out of stock. In addition, there were numerous reports of layoffs at the company.Yet, the most convincing sign was that the company’s assets appeared as listed for sale on an auction website used by companies that go out of business.Now, it appears that Juiced Bikes’ assets, including a dozen patents, multiple URLs, and the company’s inventory in both the U.S. and China, have been sold at auction, according to the report. It is likely that the buyer, who remains unknown, can capitalize on the brand and the overall value of the 15-year old company. Founded in 2009 by Tora Harris, a U.S. high-jump Olympian, Juiced Bikes was one of the early pioneers of the direct-to-consumer e-bike brands in the U.S. market.
The company had quickly built a reputation for the versatility of its e-bikes and the durability of their batteries. Over the years, the popularity of models such as the CrossCurrent, HyperScrambler, and RipCurrent only bolstered the brand’s status.Last year, Digital Trends named the Juiced Bikes Scorpion X2 as the best moped-style e-bike for 2023, citing its versatility, rich feature set, and performance.Juiced Bikes’ getting sold quickly might be a sign of what consulting firm Houlihan Lokey says is a recovery in the North American e-bike market.
The industry has had a roller-coaster ride during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A huge spike in demand for e-bikes had combined with disrupted supply chains to create a supply/demand mismatch of “historic proportions," Houlihan Lokey said.

Read more
Rivian gets Knight Rider spooky for Halloween
Michael Knight sitting on the hood of his car KITT in a scene from Knight Rider.

Rivian vehicles are known for giving drivers the chance to take the party on the road, whether it’s stowing a travel kitchen onboard or using its elaborate software systems to spice things up.With Halloween just around the corner, the automaker based in Plymouth, Michigan, is pulling out some treats from its bag of tricks: Rivian owners are getting a number of options to turn their vehicles into traditional spooky or full-on sci-fi entertainment hubs.A software update available on the Rivian Mobile App until November 4 provides Car Costumes, which take over the vehicle’s screen, lighting, and sound systems while in park to transform it into three different cars.Nostalgic fans of the Knight Rider TV series will be pleased with the option to turn their Rivians into the famous K.I.T.T. crime-fighting car. After choosing the option on the app, the car’s interior display system features K.I.T.T.’s diagnostics on screen while playing the original show intro music. Here's an extra treat for Rivian Gen 2 owners: The exterior light bar will feature K.I.T.T.’s iconic beaming red light while playing its scanner sound effect.No-less nostalgic fans of Back to the Future movies will also get their treat with a chance to turn their vehicle into the DeLorean Time Machine. With this option, the screen turns into the classic time-traveling interface while the audio system plays the movie’s music and acceleration sound effects. Once again, Rivian Gen 2 owners get an extra treat. Hitting the key 88 mph button will engage the car’s lighting and sound effects in the front and back of the car to whizz you through the sound barrier.For a more traditional spooky time, you can opt for the Haunted Rivian car costume, featuring eight different sound effects and three different color themes. Static and ghosts will take over your interior display.Rivian Gen 1 owners get a green animation on the outside of the vehicle. Gen 2 owners can turn the exterior light bar into whichever color option they find most frightful.

Read more
The Nissan Rogue is joining the plug-in hybrid club in 2025
nissan rogue hybrid 2025 2024

It might have taken a while, and slumping sales of its most popular SUV, but Nissan has finally taken the step to offer hybrid vehicles in the U.S. The Japanese automaker will add a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain to the 2026 Rogue compact SUV, which should be available stateside sometime next year, Nissan Americas chief planning officer Ponz Pandikuthira told Automotive News.A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) typically runs on electric power until its battery is almost depleted, at which point it automatically switches over to using a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. The battery can be recharged conventionally from the outside or through regenerative braking.
While Nissan has been offering popular fully electric vehicles (EVs) such as the Leaf and the Ariya for years, it has surprised many by not joining the hybrid bandwagon, especially for the Rogue. Competitors such as the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V, which do provide the part-fuel, part-electric power capacity, have seen their sales surging. Meanwhile, sales of the Rogue have slumped this year.
That’s why Nissan is partnering with Mitsubishi to start offering its first-ever electrically assisted car in the U.S. next year.
According to the Automotive News report, the Rogue will be outfitted with a similar powertrain found in the Mitsubishi Outlander. In that model, a 2.4-liter gas engine powers the front wheels, while two electric motors create an all-wheel drive system that can either work on its own or in conjunction with the gas engine. As the Outlander is able to deliver 248 horsepower, that would make the Rogue PHEV more powerful than the existing model’s 201 hp. The Outlander is also rated for 38 miles of electric driving by the EPA.
In addition, Nissan is planning to bring its non-plug-in, e-Power series hybrid technology to the U.S. in 2026. This technology, already available outside the U.S., also uses electric motors to power the wheels while using the gas engine to charge the battery.

Read more