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Below find archived HiLites from
assorted News Sources, which, taken together, shed light on the recent background issues that
Bronx Environmentalists have had to deal with. For the very latest in Bronx Environmental News click:
The Bronx Building Boom - Too Much?
by Elaine Rivera WNYC Radio News Reporter
NEW YORK, NY May 23, 2007
—All you have to do is look at all the cranes swinging over the city and you know we're in a major building boom.
And The Bronx is getting its share. But activists and residents are afraid that the city's mega development projects will
have an adverse impact on their quality of life, and on the environment. WNYC's Elaine Rivera reports:
REPORTER: The Bronx is booming. Some major developments include a new $800 million Yankee stadium. The overhaul of
The Bronx terminal market which will be turned into a major retail center. The construction of waterfront parks.
But Bronx environmentalists across the borough fear that the growth is coming at a cost. They laud Mayor Michael Bloomberg's
sustainability plan which calls for lowering the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. However, they say
the plan's rhetoric is different from the reality of big development projects.Joyce Hogi, a founder of the ad hoc community
group Save Our Parks who lives near Yankee stadium, points to the destruction of hundreds of trees in their prime and 22 acres
of parkland that have already been taken away to make way for the new stadium.
HOGI: This was the worst kind of a project for a neighborhood of our ilk that it had a high asthma rate and you're
taking down 400 trees that were needed there and you're taking away recreational facilities from that are need in an areas
where it's so lacking - people were so willing to sacrifice everything just to vote for this project - it was rah, rah Yankees
REPORTER: City officials counter that the parkland will be replaced with more parks and state-of-the-art recreational
facilities. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says this is what will eventually come to Hogi's neighborhood:
BENEPE: For example, Yankee stadium, once we open the new Yankee Stadium and tear down the old one and that entire
site will be replaced by a public park with three baseball fields on it...
Bronx residents are skeptical. They say since the days of Robert Moses they have been hit harder than other boroughs when
it comes to development projects that have hurt neighborhoods. In the 1940s, Moses ignored a massive campaign to halt the
Cross Bronx Expressway. Instead, he tore down homes in vibrant communities in the heart of the South Bronx to build the highway
- now considered one of his biggest failures.
At a recent event, Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrion addressed the controversial legacy of the late developer Robert
Moses.
CARRION: Robert Moses was a very controversial figure because he was bullish on growth and planning and growing the
city - we are not without controversy in The Bronx as you heard from some of the hissing shared with us tonight because of
some of the large initiatives that we've undertaken like Yankee Stadium accepting the filtration plant with some resistance,
but the ability to then leverage those large developments and large initiatives into improvements in the neighborhoods...
REPORTER: Carrion acknowledges the resistance big development brings but he says there must be trade-offs. One such
trade-off is the one billion dollar Croton Filtration Plant being built in Van Cortlandt Park which, despite strong community
opposition, was placed in The Bronx. But because of the water treatment plant, the borough received $200 million to improve
and increase parkland, officials say. And parks commissioner Benepe says millions more will be spent on planting thousands
of trees, creating more waterfront parks, esplanades and bike paths.
BENEPE: I really want to put people's fears at rest. Over the next five years you'll see the biggest improvement and
enhancement of parks and green space really in the history of The Bronx.
REPORTER: But Majora Carter, founder of the enivronmental justice group Sustainable South Bronx, argues that The Bronx
pays a huge price for those parks - unsitely facilities plopped in their community that, in order to be built and sustained,
can be damaging to the environment.
CARTER: In order for The Bronx to get anything good, you have to rip something up in it - that - we shouldn't be expecting
that just because we happen to be the poorest borough...
REPORTER: And I.C. Levenberg-Engel, president of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, says the city should
be doing everything possible to preserve natural parks and wetlands rather then take them away to replace them in the future.
LEVENBERG-ENGEL: A real natural wet land is never equal to an artificial wetland, or a real natural park is not equal
to a park or a green roof, or a playground on top of a parking lot. It's quite obvious they're not pulling the wool over anybody's
eyes - we know that is not going to be an equal exchange!
REPORTER: Activists say The Bronx is particularly vulnerable to unpopular projects because of the available land space
and the flexibility in zoning regulations there.
They plan to challenge another controversial facility that the city wants to build on a strip of industrial waterfront
in Hunts Point - a 2,000 bed jail. Carter and other community group representatives say here is a chance for city officials
to practice what they preach - reclaim prime waterfront property with breathtaking views for an industrial park or a clean
technology facility that will bring jobs.
CARTER: The fact is that you have this 28-acre site that has both barge and rail access. If that was developed as an
industrial facility that depended on barge and rail, that immediately would take trucks off the road - trucks add to our pollution
rates to the asthma rate and the fact the city is going to build a jail here is utterly irresponsible.
REPORTER: A Department of Corrections spokesman says they have proposed an environmental impact study. For now, the
city still hopes to construct the jail there. For WNYC, I'm Elaine Rivera
BELOW IS A LETTER SENT BY BCEQ PRESIDENT TO NYC PLANNING
COMMISSION RE: TAKING REAL PARKLAND AND REPLACING IT WITH FAUX PARKLAND
________________________________________
The Bronx Council for Environmental Quality
Post Office Box 265
The Bronx, New York 10464-0265
January 5, 2006
Honorable Amanda Burden, Chairperson
and Members of the NYC Planning Commission
22 Reade Street, Suite 2E
New York, N.Y. 10007
Dear Chairperson Burden and Members of the NYC Planning Commission:
BCEQ (www.bceq.org), founded in 1971, is a local non-for profit organization made up of volunteers,
dedicated to working in The Bronx for "an aesthetic and unpolluted environment, with a natural and historic heritage."
Our members do not support the taking of public parkland for private profit. The earlier Bronx precedent of taking parkland
(in Van Cortlandt Park) for the "public benefit" of clean water, while specious, was (in concept) for some greater good. We
should note that the promise of employment for Bronx residents has not materialized, as only one quarter of the current workers
at the Croton Filter Plant Site live in The Bronx (based on the NYC DEP statistics) – much less than what was promised.
Moreover, that decision was based on the premise (which may turn out to be false) that the parkland would be returned to the
people.
The present case is not at all the same. Taking Public Parkland away in a densely populated,
low income area, with little or no promise of recompense, borders on environmental racism on the part of the public officers
making this decision. It does not matter that the benefit is for the fifty or sixty thousand fans per event attending Yankee
Stadium; for that is no competition when measured against a million or so Bronxites that cannot view the game on public television,
or the hundreds of thousands of children who, each and every day find that they have no place to play, no trees to shelter,
and no clean air to breathe.
If the Yankees weren't making decisions based solely on their bottom-line, then they might have
some empathy with a community numbed by years of having no effective voice in the fate of their own neighborhood. Then the
Yankees would be part of this neighborhood, instead of just carpetbaggers. BCEQ Members think there is a reasonable alternative
to steam-rolling over the interests of those most affected. As environmentalists we believe in the three R’s –
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It's been done before, and should be done again, i.e. renovate the old stadium on that hallowed
ground.
It is bad public policy to ignore other alternatives – especially when there are a plenty
of Brownfields that have been abandoned in this very same neighborhood. Those Brownfields are in need of remediation, would
clean the air, and would be a better use of land. Look at NYC Planning Commission statistics to see that the amount of parkland
per person in this area is deminimus as compared to the rest of the City and even other parts of The Bronx. Why do
you think the asthma rates are so high in this area of highly trafficked highways, and low-to-dwindling parkland (i.e.,
trees)? Clearly, one negative impact of park loss is the increased temperature and the reduced shade resulting from the removal
of trees and/or green space.
To many of us who grew up in The Bronx, Yankee Stadium is special. But so are the surrounding
green open spaces, i.e. Franz Sigel, Joyce Kilmer, Mullaly and Macombs Dam Parks. We were free to explore all these
places, and take advantage of their recreational and educational opportunities. Without open space experiences, our children
will not be able to appreciate baseball, its history and the lessons it can teach us.
It may seem unnecessary to expound upon the value of parkland, but this is much easier when
you have it, than when you don’t. According to the most recent publication of the New Yorkers for Parks, The
Bronx has the lowest, in other words, the best overall residents-per-acre-of-parkland ratio of all the boroughs; the City
ratio is 278; The Bronx ratio is 191. This is because Teddy Roosevelt had the foresight to plan for the whole borough and
City of New York. This kind foresight would not have left this neighborhood without an open vista to the Nature
that makes the rest of the Borough a magnet for families and communities. Yet, statistics here tell the sad story.
The percentage of parkland in the two City Council Districts neighboring Yankee Stadium, added
together, are substantially less than the citywide total of 14%. This means that each person in Council Districts 16 and 17
have a square of green space six feet wide and three to ten feet long, respectively. By way of comparison, if the Yankees
played the Red Sox within the square of the base-path, each player would have more than 400 square feet, or about ten
times as much parkland as their community neighbors. We all know they need space to play baseball.
It just needs to be recognized that all of us need space to lead our lives as fully as we can.
The only urban land that is literally cool-space in summer is green-space, where shade over
soil and plant life may be the only comfortable oasis on a summer evening. In winter, the only place the neighbors of the
Yankees can literally see snowbirds is right in the spare slivers and patches of surrounding parkland. And while the Yankees
may not consider it in their planning process, unlike Stadiums, and Parking facilities, the Parks do not contribute to the
Combined Sewers that discharge pathogens into the Harlem River, one of the only waterways accessible to the local community.
Please respond to these comments, and vote against this proposal.
Sincerely,
I.C. Levenberg-Engel
BCEQ President 2006
BELOW IS THE STATEMENT PRESENTED BY BCEQ PRESIDENT at the BP's Stadium Hearing,
Monday, Dec.12th
Statement by Mr. IC Levenberg-Engel, President of B.C.E.Q.
When it comes to Environmental Protection, no Politician is Perfect.
BP Carrion has a better record than most. The NYLCV gives him high grades for his support of increased Public Access to the Waterfront
& his Groundbreaking Advocacy of Greenroofing The Bronx.
As a Biol.Teacher at BxScience, I was there when BPC came to
the Reservoir and publicly supported our efforts to keep a Filtration Plant out of Jerome Park.
To our dismay (despite the objections of our local assembly &
councilmen) the NYS Assembly voted to alienate ____ acres of Van Cortlandt Park for the Water Filtration Plant, in
this case for Public Use.
Now that same governmental body has again voted to alienate parkland.
Why? Apparently to protect the BottomLine of a Private Commercial Enterprise.
Of course we want Jobs & Economic Development for The Bronx!
Of course we want the Yankees to stay in The Bronx!
Surely an experienced City Planner such as our BxBP can negotiate a better
way, right ?
BCEQ believes
that BPC is on the wrong side of this issue, i.e. Where to build the New Yankee Stadium.
We are headed down a Scary Slippery Slope of Uncontrolled Park
Alienation.
If,
as the Village Voice Newspaper intimates, "it's already a done deal ", then BCEQ asks that ... (a watchdog
group of citizens be empowered to ensure that)
the Environment of the Local Community is fairly compensated
for its loss of Open Space.
A Public Park is not equal to a Parking Lot, even with a Green Roof.
Presented at Hearing - Monday, Dec.12, 2005.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005: Sustainable South Bronx
Executive Director Majora Carter Wins 2005 MacArthur Fellows Award (Majora was a student
of mine @ BxSci.edu***ic***)
These awards, often referred to as the MacArthur "genius" grants, are given each year
to people who, according to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation press release, are ?selected for their creativity,
originality, and potential. By providing resources without stipulations or reporting requirements, the MacArthur Foundation
offers the opportunity for Fellows to accelerate their current activities or take their work in new directions. The unusual
level of independence afforded to the Fellows underscores the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavors.? Click here to read the whole release.
The $500,000. award is tax-free and unrestricted, and is given
out in payments over a five year period. Majora got ?the $500,000. call? from the Foundation on Thursday, September 15th,
but the winners were not officially announced until today. She joins 24 other grantees, including three from New York City.
To say that she is overwhelmed would be an understatement. Click here for more about all the 2005 MacArthur Fellows.
At 38, she is a self-described "child of
the South Bronx" who grew up just a few blocks from the offices of Sustainable South Bronx at 890 Garrison Avenue. She began
working as an environmentalist in the mid 90?s, when a company proposed putting a municipal waste transfer station along the
Bronx River. With the Bronx already handling 40% of New York City?s commercial waste, she felt the community had to take a
stand against taking even more.
In 1997, her activism grew into a job at The Point Community Development Corporation,
running their environmental department. One of the first tasks she took on was reducing the diesel pollution from truck traffic
at the huge Hunts Point Cooperative Market. She helped create the market's first electrical truck bays, which allow parked
trucks to have power without idling their engines.
Next came a grant from the Partnership for Parks of $10,000, which
she used to turn a trash-strewn parcel of land along the Bronx River into a new waterfront park that supports canoe rides
and environmental training classes for students.
She was named one of the "50 New Yorkers to Watch in 2001" by the NY
Daily News and in the summer of that year, Majora toured three European countries ? the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy.
speaking to environmental organizations about the grassroots environmental work being done in the South Bronx. In August 2001,
Federal EPA Secretary Christie Whitman came to the South Bronx to spend 45 minutes at Majora?s storefront with local environmental
advocates. She pressed Whitman on support for grassroots environmental efforts.
That winter, Majora founded Sustainable
South Bronx, which has been doing pioneering work in the Bronx ever since. Today, the organization has a number of initiatives
to develop sustainable and environmentally-friendly building practices, including green roofs and cool roofs, which are designed
to make hot city summers more bearable. Sustainable South Bronx will publicly unveil its own green roof one week from today,
on Tuesday, September 27th. More information on the SSB green roof project can be found here.
Her other achievements include writing the successful proposal for $1.25M in Federal planning
funds to design the South Bronx Greenway Feasibility Study; designing the strategy for Market / Mercado, the Hunts Point Community
Market which will allow local entrepreneurs to develop a mentored business relationship with major wholesale distributors
at the Hunts Point Market, and sell quality food directly to the public; and creating a free public summer music and movie
program called, ?RiverStage,? among others.
Majora, one of seven children, was inspired by her grandfather, who was born
into slavery but won his freedom at the age of 12. She attended the Bronx
High School of Science and then Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She is
a 2005 Drum Major Institute Fellow, a 2002 Open Society Institute Community Fellow and was named one of 10 "Women of Substance"
by Organic Style magazine in
2004. She was born and raised in the South Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point, and still lives there, in the house across the
street from the one in which she grew up.
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August 14, 2005
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Big golf mess suits mob to tee |
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Costs soar as charges & dirt fly in the Bronx Daily News Exclusive |
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By GREG B. SMITH and BRIAN KATES
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS |
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Secret recordings reveal Gambino capo Gregory Depalma boasting of mob's take in unloading of trucks.
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Developer Pierre Gagne insists the tons of fill are needed. |
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It's a boondoggle in the Bronx but a potential gold mine for the mob.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani envisioned Ferry Point Park golf course, 222 acres of Scottish-style links
designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus, as a surefire site for future PGA tournaments.
He promised that the course would open in 2001, transforming a former city dump under the Whitestone
Bridge into a pristine greensward.
But the site is still under construction and the projected cost for the developer has skyrocketed from
$22.5 million to $75 million.
And so far the city has spent $6.9 million for environmental cleanup, with the costs expected to double
before the project is finished.
Nary a blade of cultivated grass grows there to hint at Rudy Giuliani's vision, and the developer now
says the course won't be complete until the end of 2007.
Day after day, dozens of trucks rumble into Ferry Point, dumping dirt and stone, ostensibly to sculpt
a beautiful and challenging course.
Some of those trucks allegedly are run by the mob.
New York Dirt, said by the FBI to be controlled by Gambino capo Gregory DePalma and his soldier Robert
Vaccaro, and JustUs Recycling Corp., reputedly under the thumb of Gambino associate Anthony D'Onofrio, have dumped hundreds
of thousands of cubic yards of fill at Ferry Point, records show.
In phone calls secretly taped by the feds, DePalma boasted that the mob takes as much as $5 for every
cubic yard of fill their trucks unload.
"I want $2 a yard, maybe more ...," DePalma said at one sitdown. "We may end up getting $5 a yard."
In May 2004, while the FBI was recording DePalma's calls, New York Dirt dumped 8,400 cubic yards of
fill at Ferry Point. By the capo's own crooked calculations, that adds up to as much as $42,000. For just one month. New York
Dirt has been raking it in at Ferry Point every month since 2001.
Legitimate trucking companies are paid to take debris from construction sites and then pay tipping
fees to dump it at landfills like the one at Ferry Point.
But the syndicate receives payments at both ends - when one of its companies removes dirt and again
when it dumps it, according to government investigators.
"If you got the hole, you got the gold," DePalma joked as agents eavesdropped.
DePalma, 73, was arrested in March, and is awaiting trial on federal racketeering charges. But New
York Dirt continues to profit from Ferry Point. In the first quarter of this year, it added 20,520 cubic yards of fill to
the site.
Developer Pierre Gagne says that ever-increasing amounts of fill are necessary to create contours because
workers can't safely dig into the contaminated soil.
But to critics, Ferry Point is just an excuse to open a new, highly profitable landfill on the site
of a dump that was closed in the 1960s.
"They're running a landfill with a golf course as closure," said environmental lawyer Leslie Lowe.
Gagne insists the developers are not profiting from tipping fees, which have been reported at between
$7 and $15 a cubic yard.
"It's paying for the grading," Gagne said. "If we had to bring in material to the site and pay for
it, it would make the project more costly."
Speaking of cost, greens fees at Ferry Point are expected to be more than double the $30 charged at
other city golf courses. But the site, half the size of Central Park, offers stunning vistas of Long Island Sound and is located
near highways, providing easy access for well-heeled golfers from Westchester County and Long Island.
In 1990, then-Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer proposed building a 75,000-seat stadium there
as the new home for the Yankees. He called it "the Bronx's Meadowlands." George Steinbrenner quickly dismissed the idea.
Three years later, the city sought golf course developers for the site, an idea percolating since it
was suggested by powerbroker Robert Moses more than half a century ago.
Gagne's Ferry Point Partners was accepted in 1998. Shortly afterward, Giuliani proudly announced that
his administration was negotiating with the Professional Golfers' Association to bring a major tournament there.
"Such a world-class facility deserves a world-class tournament," Giuliani crowed.
In 2000, when the developers signed a contract with the city, it was said to be the largest license
deal ever handled by the Parks Department. It allows Ferry Point Partners to operate the course for 35 years, paying the city
$1.25 million the first year and up to $3 million after 30 years.
The development won support from Ferrer, the community board, the neighborhood council member and the
area homeowners association.
In addition to the championship golf course, the plan calls for a driving range, a 7,500-square-foot
clubhouse, a 13,000-square-foot boathouse/restaurant, a 25,000-square foot banquet hall, a manager's residence and parking
for 950 vehicles. The project also includes two small public parks.
It's an ideal site. Except for one thing: The old landfill oozes potentially deadly methane gas.
The developers have had to dig trenches to control potential methane leaks into adjacent Throgs Neck
Houses and more than 20 monitoring wells to keep track of leaks. They are required to submit regular reports to the state
Department of Environmental Conservation.
Environmentalists have sued - none successfully - citing everything from the threat to the housing
project's 3,500 residents to the fate of endangered peregrine falcons.
Gagne concedes the project is wrapped in "a lot of red tape," and city records show his company has
paid politically connected operatives a staggering $1.3 million to cut through it.
Lobbyists on the project include John Mascialino - a former member of the city's Finance Concession
Review Board, an agency whose approval was needed for the project - and Robert Harding, former Giuliani administration deputy
mayor for economic development.
Bolstering their efforts was Rudy Washington, a member of Giuliani's inner circle.
Washington says that while he was deputy mayor he served "as a traffic cop" to help the developers
through the maze of city bureaucracy. After he left government, he said, he continued to help as an "informal adviser." But,
he added, "They never paid me a nickel."
The lobbying has paid off.
In March 1999, without any formal environmental study, the city signed a memorandum of understanding
with Ferry Point Partners ensuring that the city, not the developers, would be held liable for any adverse environmental consequences
arising from the former landfill.
The city Parks Department, the official sponsor of the project, repeatedly checked "No" on state Department
of Environmental Conservation forms asking whether the project would have any significant environmental impacts.
The DEC accepted the assessment without requiring a full-blown environmental impact statement - which
would have required public hearings.
Six months later, test borings found "high methane concentrations" 2 to 3 feet below the surface as
well as the presence of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic and lead "at levels exceeding risk-based criteria."
"We live with our windows closed because of all the debris - and you breathe that," said Lehra Brooks,
a longtime resident of Throgs Neck Houses. "The trucks are there at 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning."
Solutions have been worked out behind closed doors.
One example: When the developers were caught mishandling material excavated from a methane gas venting
trench, the DEC forgave $25,000 of a $30,000 fine, noting that "the parties desire to settle this matter amicably."
And, when developers said they needed more fill, the DEC granted permit modifications - again, without
public hearings - increasing the amount of fill allowed on the site from 1 million cubic yards to 1.5 million cubic yards,
nearly doubling the number of trucks entering and leaving the site.
And now the DEC is reviewing yet another plea to allow 726,300 more cubic yards of fill.
"I don't like to think it will be denied," Gagne said. "There is no environmental impact. This will
only allow us to create a better golf course."
But forget about the PGA. It ran out of patience a long time ago.
"We haven't given any further thought [to Ferry Point] and would not until probably many years after
the golf course is completed," said PGA Tour operations chief Henry Hughes, who participated in talks with the Giuliani administration.
But the trucks keep coming.
Originally published on August 14, 2005 |
HENRY J. STERNS'S NYCIVIC WEBLOG - "City is Planning
Redevelopment of Bronx Terminal Market."
"Should the Project Be the Subject of Competitive Bidding?"
"What to Do With
Remaining Merchants Who Face Eviction?"
"This is 2005. I hope the city has learned from its experience in 1972, and will not be influenced by those, however
well-intentioned, who are not fully committed to economic development on the best possible terms that can be secured for the
City of New York through the democratic and capitalist process of free and open competition. Is that too much to ask?"
FOR FULL TEXT OF HENRY J STERN'S WEBLOG Go To: www.nycivic.org
Norwood News
PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION
CORPORATION
Vol. 17, No. 23 Nov. 18
- Dec. 1, 2004
X Marks the Spot
Site preparation work at
the Mosholu Golf Course for the Croton filtration
plant has already begun. Archaeologists have begun to identify areas
to look for
historic artifacts at hundreds of points around the golf course (marked by
tiny red flags), and it appears
that the red Xs pictured here
identify trees
that will be cut down to make way for the facility.
Charles Sturcken, a DEP Dep.com, said he was not sure if the Xs
relate to the filtration plant project, he did say
the trees would eventually be
removed. The first trees to go, however, would be those along the 233rd Street
exit
off the Major Deegan Expressway, so that the DEP can make way for a new
entrance to the construction site in the park.
Meanwhile, three lawsuits
are making their way through the courts. The latest
one, brought by the town of Eastchester, argues that because the town
will have to
filter its water if the plant is built in The Bronx
(rather than further
upstream in Westchester), that fact should have been considered
in the
environmental impact statement.
The DEP disagrees. "We
believe this claim is baseless," Sturcken said.
EDITORIAL COMMENT:Chuck's the Man, if U know what I mean?
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Eastchester sues NYC By KEN VALENTI
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: November 17, 2004)The town is suing to block New York City from building
a water treatment plant in The Bronx, arguing that if the city chose to build its plant in Mount Pleasant - an option
that was considered - the need for a treatment facility on Eastchester's residential streets would be reduced.
Using the state's environmental review law, the town argues that New York City did not fully examine the effects of its decision,
as required. The town argues that, with a treatment plant farther north, United Water New Rochelle would not need to build
a planned 7,600-square-foot treatment plant on California Road, replacing a small pump station. If the city's plant were
built in Mount Pleasant, "it would not be necessary for United Water to expand its treatment plant to the size that they are
proposing," said Eastchester town attorney John Sarcone. Lawyers for Eastchester, New York City and United Water appeared
yesterday before state Supreme Court Justice Francis Nicolai in White Plains. Susan Amron, an attorney for New York
City, said the city's plans for a plant in The Bronx, at Van Cortlandt Park, are not connected to United Water's plans for
a 7,600-square-foot treatment facility in Eastchester. "We think the two are really unrelated," she said. Indeed, United
Water spokesman Richard Henning said yesterday that the company would need to build the Eastchester plant, at the size planned,
even if New York City did build its plant in Mount Pleasant. But Eastchester opponents of the plant believe they could
avoid the United Water plant at California Road and Route 22, at least as it is planned now, by moving the city's facility
farther north. "I don't think people understand what takes place on what appears to be an innocent corner of this town,"
Judy Blau, a member of the citizens group Safety Always First For Eastchester, or SAFFE. She said the organization has joined
with groups in New York City to fight The Bronx plan. "We are not yet tying ourselves to trees,
although that has been
discussed," said I.C. Levenberg-Engel, president of the Bronx Council
for Environmental Quality.
He said the construction would disrupt a
crowded neighborhood and, as one effect, would raise dust that would
worsen
asthma suffered by children in the area.
Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental
Protection, said the construction of the $1 billion filtration plant would include methods to control noise, dust and odors.
The city chose the site because the plant there would cost less to build and operate, and would sit closer to the main lines
and distribution system, making the overall system more flexible, and making it easier to keep the water clean, according
to a July 16 report by the city. In the brief appearance before Nicolai, Michael Zarin, a lawyer for Eastchester, told
the judge that the town was willing to agree to the city's request to change venue for the trial to either Manhattan or Queens,
where other cases against the city are pending, with the final decision to be reached with the other attorneys. Nicolai
is also considering the latest lawsuit brought by Eastchester against the water company. To Comment: Send e-mail
to kvalenti@thejournalnews.com
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Filtration plant faces new round of lawsuits By Alejandro Lazo For the full article, Riverdale Press
November 18, 2004
"The
city's Department of Environmental Protection has been hit with two
new lawsuits challenging its decision to build
a controversial water
filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park.
A group of Norwood residents has raised the issue
of environmental racism in charging that the city manipulated its comparison of building in the park and in
Westchester in favor of choosing the Bronx site. In a second lawsuit, a Westchester town charges that the plant will
force it to make a costly investment it could have been spared if the DEP had
chosen to build the plant in Westchester,
and that its concerns were ignored when the sites were studied...." If you would like to support the Norwood lawsuit,
either financially or through research and/or expert testimony, please contact: <gwynnsmalls@aol.com>
MY COMMENTS: There should be a GroundSwell of Voices demanding that the chosen site be the WestChester!
It's so obvious that bribes and disrespect for nature's greenspaces won the day... for the 1st time in a lowincome area whose
NYSAssemblyman spoke out against the passage of alienation legislation.
HECTOR M. APONTE APPOINTED NEW BX PKS COMM. * by Anne-Marie Runfola
Bronx River Alliance Bi-Weekly - ThanksGiving Issue'004
We are pleased to
announce that Hector M. Aponte has been named Bronx
Borough Commissioner. Hector was a student at Morris H.S in
the SBx while Mr IC Levenberg was a teacher there, i.e. the rebellious sixties.
Commissioner Aponte has worked for the last 17 years in City
and State park management, including serving as Assistant
Regional
Director for N.Y. State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic
Preservation in Manhattan and most recently
as Chief of Operations in
Staten Island. Hector was raised in the Bronx, and swam in the Bronx
River as a small child.
He trained as a civil engineer at the
University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez and spent the first six years of
his career
working as a structural designer/engineer for architectural
and engineering firms. Hector brings vast experience in non-profit
management,
civic leadership, and City and State parks to the borough
commissioner position. His personal knowledge of the borough
from his
youth will allow him continue the renaissance of that borough's parks.
EDITORIAL
COMMENT: I spoke briefly with Comm.Aponte, and XBX-Comm.William Castro recently. Mr.Castro said we can count on him to
advocate for the O.U.E.L. promised to us during the StarQuest Years. While speaking to Chuck Sturcken, who said
the OUEL was a concept "from previous administrations", Dr.Valerie Reidy said, "A Promise is A Promise". Time William Tell, right?
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Water Agency Accused of Silencing Workers
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: November 19, 2004
WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 18 - A court-appointed monitor told a federal judge Thursday that officials of New York City's Department
of Environmental Protection, which runs the city's vast water supply system, recently tried to impede investigations of possible
violations of federal health, safety and environmental laws.
The monitor, who made his presentation in United States District Court here, said that in one instance this past September,
an employee who had previously voiced concerns about inadequate equipment and emergency response procedures was ordered by
managers to leave a site just as inspectors were arriving to conduct interviews about compliance.
In another case, the monitor said, he was told recently that confidential questionnaires that had been distributed to employees
to obtain information about the location and use of hazardous materials were instead collected by supervisors, some of whom
then reviewed the documents and criticized employees for their entries. In a third instance, the monitor said, the agency
had retaliated against an employee who had advised investigators of safety violations by trying to fire him for a workplace
accident that typically would not lead to such severe discipline. The monitor, A. Patrick
Nucciarone, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in environmental cases, was appointed by the court in 2001 after the
agency pleaded guilty to violating federal environmental laws.
In the court hearing, Mr. Nucciarone asked the judge, Charles L. Brieant, to consider imposing sanctions on the agency,
and to order that it take action against those supervisors who were responsible for hindering the investigation of potential
problems. He also asked that Judge Brieant order agency managers to take ethics courses, as "a way to introduce to those who
don't seem to be getting the message that this behavior is not only unacceptable, but will also have a negative impact on
the department's efforts to put in place an effective compliance program." The monitor's latest findings come as department
officials say they have been striving to eradicate a culture that sometimes placed compliance with the health, safety and
environmental laws behind their mission of delivering water. In 2001, when the agency pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors
described what they called "longstanding, systemic problems" within the agency. Despite the lapses, federal officials have
said that the city's water has been found to be safe. Judge Brieant, who indicated Thursday that he was deeply concerned about
the allegations of retaliation and attempts to impede the monitor's work, nonetheless
made it clear that he sympathized with the challenge confronted by the pitied agency, which has 6,000 employees and operates
a huge network of aqueducts, reservoirs and tunnels to supply more than a billion gallons of water to the city each day.
"Some of these things are like trying to turn the Titanic around in mid-ocean," Judge Brieant said. "It can't always be accomplished
in the time expected to do it." Mr. Nucciarone also credited the agency with "trying very hard" to implement its
compliance program. A lawyer representing the department, Paul Shechtman, told the judge that a letter
would be sent to the entire work force in a few days that would make clear that there were to be no reprisals, and that no
one was to be blocked from communicating with the monitor. The agency's acting commissioner,
David B. Tweedy, who attended the hearing, said afterward that any retaliation against employees who raise
issues about compliance "will be unacceptable." He stressed how much work had been done to put in a compliance program that
was sustainable. "We have to have an open culture," Mr. Tweedy said, "where folks realize that's part of their duty, and do
not feel threatened when in fact they're doing stuff that helps us." Mr. Shechtman noted in court that while the monitor's
allegations were viewed as serious, they were unproven. There was discussion about having the allegations investigated by
an outside lawyer or the city's Department of Investigation, but in the end, it was decided to follow a suggestion by Mr.
Nucciarone that the department investigate the incidents on its own. "I need to evaluate how well the department responds
to instances like this," Mr. Nucciarone told the judge. Anne C. Ryan, an assistant United States attorney, and Mr. Shechtman
both said they concurred. The judge said it was important that the department's work force have confidence that
the agency could develop impartial and fair processes that would remain in place after the period of court supervision ended,
probably sometime next year. "What we're trying to do," he said, was change a culture.
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