Sunday: Colton, Treyger Lead Rally Against Bensonhurst Waste Transfer Station

It’s been a while since we’ve heard an update on the Gravesend Bay Waste Transfer Station, a Department of Sanitation plan to place a facility for trucks to transfer garbage to barges near Ceasar’s Bay.

The plan has been heatedly opposed by local pols and the community, and even the subject of a lawsuit alleging that toxic chemicals from a former garbage incinerator at the site, long-buried in the sea floor, would be dredged up and pose a health risk to residents. The lawsuit was squashed by a State Supreme Court judge, but rallies continued last year until election season passed.

Now the issue is back. This Sunday, June 1, at 1 p.m. on the Bay Parkway Promenade at Ceasar’s Bay, a coalition of elected officials and community groups led by Assemblyman William Colton and Councilman Mark Treyger will gather again to express their opposition. They also say they’ll continue the legal battle.

Their focus has expanded though. The local coalition, called S.T.R.O.N.G. is teaming up with Pledge 2 Protect, a group battling a similar proposal on the Upper East Side. Together they’re raising their opposition to the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan, the city’s long-term vision to “equip the City with an equitable, environmentally sound, operationally efficient and cost-effective barge and rail-based solid waste transfer and export system.” That plan is where the waste transfer stations were first proposed.

The groups say the proposals fail to meet the plan’s mission, and instead waste millions of dollars that could be better spent expanding recycling programs. “Reclycling trash, not dumping or transferring it is the real way to relieve burdens on residential community,” the groups state in a press release.

S.T.R.O.N.G. has put out an eight-point statement of their opposition to the plan. It’s below. The TL;DR version? It’s a threat to quality of life, health, safety and the environment.

1) The operating of the southwest Brooklyn marine waste transfer station will lead to increased vehicle traffic on the surrounding streets of Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and beyond. There will be an increase in the number of sanitation trucks carrying garbage in our community’s streets. There is only one road which leads to the proposed site (Shore Parkway, which can only be accessed by trucks by Bay Parkway), and the site is located next to the Belt Parkway and near a major shopping center. The increase in truck traffic and congestion on these already crowded and busy streets will adversely affect the quality of life for people in our neighborhoods.

2) The proposed site for the southwest Brooklyn garbage station is in the middle of a residential neighborhood, where people live, work, and play. There are several schools nearby to the site, including the Block Institute, located at Bay 44th Street, which services children and adults with disabilities. Additionally, Adventurers Amusement Park & Entertainment Center, Marine Basin Marina, and Calvert Vaux Park is located nearby as well, which is used by many for recreational, boating, and sports activities. There are also two buildings which house large numbers of senior citizens, including the Haym Salomon Home for Nursing & Rehabilitation and Regina Panic Housing. In addition to this large population of elderly people, there are many high-rise apartment and co-op buildings located near the location, including Contello Towers and Waterview Towers across the Belt Parkway, which are seventeen stories tall and serve as the home for thousands of people.

3) The people of Bensonhurst and Bath Beach will not be the only ones who are affected by this garbage station plan. Gravesend Bay is connected to Coney Island Creek, as well as the waters on the shores of the communities Seagate, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach. All of southern Brooklyn and its diverse communities, including minorut communities of African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, will be negatively impacted by this plan. For example, there are several NYCHA developments located in Coney Island, only a mile away from the proposed garbage station site, including Coney Island Houses, Haber Houses, Unity Towers, Carey Gardens Houses, and Gravesend Houses.

4)  The former southwest Brooklyn incinerator was operated at the site for the proposed marine waste transfer station. People near the former incinerator have suffered enough at the hands of the city’s reckless waste management. Residents near the former incinerator have reported increased cases of cancer, asthma, and other serious chronic ailments. They woke up each morning to find ash from incineration on their windows.  As we are still reeling from the aftermath of 30 years of illegal incineration, we cannot allow another dangerous plan to move forward and wreak further havoc on Southwest Brooklyn’s residents and environment.

5) In 1954, a capsized barge from a World War II aircraft carrier named the USS Bennington dispersed 1,500 live munitions at the bottom of Gravesend Bay that the ship was carrying during its tour of duty. Professional divers have confirmed that such a large number of munitions, which can explode upon impact, lie at the bottom of the Bay. These live munitions are scattered across Gravesend Bay leaving many concerned that the repeated dredging of the bay can unleash explosive consequences to the safety of residents and wildlife nearby.

6) There are highly concentrated amounts of extremely toxic chemicals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic, as well as now-outlawed insecticides and pesticides such as Mirex, that are buried at the bottom of Gravesend Bay after being spewed into these waters by the former southwest Brooklyn incinerator. To build this garbage station, the bottom of Gravesend Bay would need to be dredged repeatedly, releasing these toxic chemicals into Gravesend Bay, as well as the surrounding waters of Coney Island Creek, Sheepshead Bay, Mill Basin, as well as Coney Island, Manhattan, and Brighton Beaches.

7) The site of this planned garbage station is landfill and located in a flood zone (“Zone 1” according NYC Hurricane Evacuation Map, and “High risk, Special Flood Hazard Area – Zone A” according to FEMA). FEMA states that this high-risk flood area has a 1 in 4 chance of flooding within the next thirty years. This site was severely flooded with several feet of water by Superstorm Sandy. If this garbage station is built and opened, when there is another large coastal storm like Superstorm Sandy that causes large amounts of flooding from storm surges, the trash from the facility and the toxic chemicals at the bottom of Gravesend Bay will end up in our homes, schools, nursing homes, and shared public spaces. It won’t just be mold people will have to worry about cleaning from their homes and basements, but toxic chemicals and garbage as well.

8) After learning that the bottom of Gravesend Bay is littered with toxins spewed out by the former incinerator, Colton funded a study of the bay’s surface and the results were alarming. “Black mayonnaise,” was the term used by scientists in their analysis of what they observed in the surface samples. Scientists have confirmed what many in the community feared… There were unsafe levels of mercury and other harmful toxins found at the bottom of Gravesend Bay. The samples were taken by just scratching the surface rather than by digging deep below the surface where the dredging will reach.

In addition to Colton and Treyger, the protest will be attended by Congressman Michael Grimm, Council members Vincent Gentile, David Greenfield, and Ben Kallos and Democratic District Leader Ari Kagan.

Correction: The original version of this post mistakenly stated in the headline that the rally was on Saturday. It was on Sunday. Our sincere apologies to the organizers for this error.