Bath Beach/Bensonhurst Assembly Member William Colton is calling for the removal of the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Regional Director Venetia Lannon from all decision making regarding the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Waste Transfer, alleging she is biased towards the project and is contributing to poisoning fish during their crucial spawning period in the Gravesend Bay.
Lannon, prior to serving as the DEC’s Regional Director for the city, served as the Senior Vice-President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), where she led the Maritime Group.
Colton said in her previous position, Lannon played a vital role in the creation and development of the New York City Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP), including the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Waste Transfer Station proposal. In her current position, she oversees the construction and dredging activities at the Gravesend Bay garbage station, playing an important role in the decision-making process regarding the site of this garbage station plan.
“It is clear that due to her previous role in the New York City Economic Development Corporation, in which Ms. Lannon oversaw and developed the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan, including the proposal for the Gravesend Bay garbage station, that Ms. Lannon now has a bias towards this fast tracking of the implementation of this plan,” said Colton.
Colton, who has been leading the fight to stop the transfer station, alleges that Lannon looked the other way after Colton’s Neighborhood Watch witnessed the alleged polluting of Gravesend Bay while dredging at the marine waste transfer station last Nov. 12.
The dredging is being conducted as part of the construction of the waste transfer station, on the site of a former incinerator, which the NYC Department of Sanitation operated from 1959 to 1989, without ever obtaining a legally required permit.
According to Colton, sediment sampling has shown the bottom of Gravesend Bay has been contaminated with Class C acutely toxic levels of dioxins, lead, mercury, chlordanes, and Mirex (an ant killer insecticide banned by the EPA in 1976). Since prior studies have revealed that the sediment being dredged is contaminated, there were strict permit conditions and requirements as to how the dredging must be conducted.
After studying the complaints the DEC ordered the dredging company to take better precautions and then extended the dredging window another month, until last DEC. 15, which Colton said is a month into fish-spawning season, and further endangers the fish of Gravesend Bay.
Colton continued, “Further, the allowing of the utilization of the old-style, traditional clam-bucket for dredging only leads to additional concerns. The construction company has continuously violated the construction permit for the site, such as by allowing the pooling of storm water throughout and past the construction site. This pooling occurred as a result of the failure of the construction company to place and arrange the appropriate barriers and netting, as required by the permit.
“Considering that the constriction company has continually violated the permit, which we have thoroughly documented, there is no valid reason for DEC to have allowed them to dredge into the fish spawning season, or to allow them to use the less environmentally-sound, traditional-style clam bucket. Hence, I am calling for Ms. Lannon, who clearly has a bias towards fast tracking this project instead of fulfilling the DEC mission to protect the environment, to be removed from the decision-making process for all future judgments that will be made regarding the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Waste Transfer Station.”
