NEW YORK—Residents and businesses along the Brooklyn waterfront are concerned about the effect Olafur Eliasson's Waterfalls installation, turned on in June, is having on the wildlife there, reports the Brooklyn Eagle.

Maureen Andraiese, longtime gardener for the waterfront's high-end River Cafe, reports that the salty spray from the 60-to-70-feet-high waterfalls, which also reportedly leaves salty residue on cars parked in Brooklyn Heights, has caused many of the plants in the restaurant's celebrated garden to become prematurely brown and yellow, while others have reported loss of leaves on trees on the Promenade.

The Parks Department determined that the salt content in the water has caused the damage and recommended “flushing the roots, applying compost, and watering the leaves in the morning to slow salt absorption.”

Andraiese says it's a problem they foresaw. "As soon as I found that the waterfalls would be pulling up the salt water, I called and said, 'This is not going to work,'" she says. “The woman on the other end said, “Oh, no, the winds are usually northerly, and if anything goes south, the waterfalls will be turned off.” Andraiese, however, said that the meters that measure the wind power malfunctioned during a recent storm and that the water did, in fact, blow south.

Rochelle Steiner, director of the Public Art Fund, which sponsored the project, said, "An Environmental Assessment Study was done, and it was concluded that there would be no lasting impact from the project.”

The waterfalls are scheduled to be turned off in October.