Southern Brooklyn Assemblyman Bill Colton, with the backing of several local lawmakers, yesterday turned up the heat on the de Blasio Administration to halt the dredging of Gravesend Bay after releasing what they say is a video showing how the work is stirring up toxic waste.
But the administration struck back today saying the video shows nothing, but standard operating procedure.
“The contractor was operating under US Army Corp of Engineers permit and obeying all permit conditions–including turbidity curtain, environmental bucket and other required environmental controls. [The] Contractor has encountered debris, but nothing out of the ordinary. [The] Video shows no violations of any sort,” wrote de Blasio spokeswoman Ishanee Parikh in an email.
Here is the video so viewers can judge for themselves:
[youtube id=”aDFlEeIrEPg”]
The dredging is being conducted as part of the construction of the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Transfer Station on the site of a former incinerator, which the city’s Department of Sanitation operated from 1959 to 1989. The site is located off Shore Parkway service road along Bay 41st Street.
Construction of the transfer station, like a similar facility on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was first proposed under the Bloomberg Administration with fierce local opposition from both communities. However, De Blasio has continued to champion both with a new plan to stop sending waste to landfills by 2030 as part of his eco-friendly One New York program.
At yesterday’s press conference Colton along with Coney Island City Council Member Mark Treyger, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, State Senator Diane Savino, Assembly Member Pam Harris, and Council Member Vincent Gentile, met with community activists at the construction site to call on the city to put an immediate stop to the dredging.
The officials also demanded that the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation – the agency responsible for the permit – refrain from making any changes to the permit’s conditions before presenting them before a public review hearing.
The officials also noted sediment samplings at the site and the surrounding water confirmed that Class C acutely toxic levels of dioxins, lead, mercury, chlordanes, and Mirex (an ant killer insecticide banned by the EPA in 1976) had contaminated the area. They fear that dredging would result in the stirring up of these toxins as well as possibly disturbing World War II-era metals and explosives buried at the bottom of Gravesend Bay.
“How long before the construction equipment being used in the building of this station inadvertently sets off a piece of explosive material from the days of the Second World War?” asked Treyger rhetorically. “The residents of this community are already dealing with the aftermath of decades of illegal incineration at this site, suffering through elevated levels of cancer and other medical conditions. Now, not only does this project blatantly ignore the conditions put in place to protect the health of this community’s residents, but we find out that the DEC is surreptitiously altering the parameters of the permit while failing to include the members of this community in any way. This dredging must be stopped immediately, and DEC must hold a hearing so that any changes to the permit are vetted through a public review process.”
Adams said regardless of the project’s merits, the health and safety of the residents surrounding Gravesend Bay must come first.
“At a minimum, dredging for the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Waste Transfer Station needs to be halted until the public has its rightful opportunity to review the modifications that DEC has made to the project’s permit,” said Adams.
But Parikh said the administration is okay with the DEC permit modifications. “DEC has approved revised permit, allowing us to use a new bucket that is more appropriate for compacted material and allowing dredging to be completed through 12/5,” wrote Parikh.
To which Colton said the community will hold de Blasio accountable for whatever damage the garbage station causes to the local residents and the environment of Southern Brooklyn waters.
“The way our community is ignored is the mayor’s way of saying for us to drop dead!” said Colton.
