Elected Officials, East Siders Rally Against East River Garbage Station, Citing Threats to Public Safety & Environment
New York, NY - Today, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney; State Senator Liz Krueger; NYS Assembly Members Micah Kellner and Dan Quart; City Council Member Jessica Lappin; Residents for Sane Trash Solutions; tenants from the Stanley Isaacs Houses and John Haynes Holmes Towers public housing developments; supporters of the Asphalt Green recreational facility; members of the Gracie Point Community Council; and other local leaders and residents joined to reiterate their strong opposition to the City's effort to construct a massive garbage marine transfer station (MTS) on the East River waterfront at East 91st Street.
At today’s news conference, Congresswoman Maloney released letters that she and other East Side elected officials are sending today to two federal agencies expressing their concerns over the City’s proposed siting of the garbage transfer station, which poses potential threats to public safety and the environment. The text of both letters follows.
The first letter, to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), cited the E. 91st Street site’s 3-mile proximity to LaGuardia Airport and the City’s violation of FAA guidelines prohibiting the siting of large garbage facilities within five miles of major airports. The regulations were promulgated by the agency to reduce the threat of bird strikes endangering both air passengers and neighborhoods located near airports.
The second letter, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), urged the NOAA to carefully weigh environmental factors before granting federal permits for the City's application to construct a greatly expanded “footprint” in the environmentally sensitive East River. These factors include the recent placement on the endangered species list of the Atlantic Sturgeon, a fish often found in the fragile ecosystem of the East River where the City plans to construct a giant new dock.
“We know that this garbage facility is an expensive boondoggle that will exert a devastating impact on this neighborhood. It will also pose a hazard to aviation and a danger to the fragile marine ecosystem of the East River,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens).
“Today we are urging the federal government to block the City from constructing this facility just three miles from LaGuardia Airport, in violation of federal regulations intended to prevent bird strikes from endangering air passengers and communities near airports; and to consider this site’s impact on the Atlantic Sturgeon, which was recently added to the endangered species list and is known to live in the East River,” said Representative Maloney.
“The City keeps trying to pull a fast one in rushing to force this garbage station on our community,” said Congresswoman Maloney. “Whether it’s seeking bidders when it doesn’t have the necessary permits to begin construction; or relying on outdated 2003 data to assure federal agencies that the project poses no threat to the environment; or issuing cost estimates that begin ballooning immediately upon closer inspection, the City needs to hear our message: go fish!”
“In the words of the great Winston Churchill, ‘We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.’ Hear our rallying cry loud and clear: dump the dump!” she said.
New York State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said, “The City's insistence on opening a marine transfer station here is bizarre. It's a bad idea for a lot of individual reasons – when you take those reasons together, it becomes a no-brainer. A trash site here would create a dizzying array of health and safety problems – from the adjacent playgrounds and surrounding residential neighborhoods, to the LaGuardia Airport flight paths above the site. I appreciate the city's need to modernize waste management – but bad site ideas like this one will just create more problems than they solve.”
“We have several major airports within shouting distance of the proposed marine transfer station, and the Mayor should realize this just is not going to fly,” said New York State Assembly Member Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan, Roosevelt Island). “If the Mayor doesn't care about birds, he should care about the great Atlantic Sturgeon, an endangered species that lives in the East River. So the marine transfer station should sleep with the fishes."
“After the recent bird strikes in the skies over the New York metropolitan area – two last month alone – it’s clear that the FAA’s safety guideline against siting a large garbage station with five miles of a major airport is a sensible, prudent measure to protect public safety,” said New York State Assembly Member Daniel Quart (D-Manhattan). “Here, in the most densely populated urban space in the United States, the City’s proposed location simply flies in the face of common sense,” he said.
New York City Council Member Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan & Roosevelt Island) said, “The city's plan to build a dump on the East River is even more fishy now that we know that the Atlantic Sturgeon living there are an endangered species. The MTS would be a disaster for our air and water, and it doesn't belong in our residential neighborhood.”
Background:
The proposed garbage transfer facility would process as much as 4,290 tons of garbage per day, causing an endless line of garbage trucks to rumble through a densely-populated residential neighborhood to converge on the proposed site. The proposed site is adjacent to two large public housing developments, many high-rise residential buildings, and Asphalt Green, an athletic complex serving thousands of New York City school children every day.
The East River ecosystem has been revitalized as water quality has improved in recent years, and the proposed garbage station facility will exert a significant impact on marine life and fish habitats in the River. According to the City’s own Office of Emergency Management, the proposed site is also located in a “Hurricane Flood Zone A”, considered at highest risk for potential flooding and storm surges. The Army Corps of Engineers is currently considering a permit request and mitigation plan by the NYC Department of Sanitation to build the proposed garbage transfer station at the site.
The Army Corps is required to do two analyses – one regarding the impact on Essential Fish Habitats, and the other under the terms of the Endangered Species Act. It issued a determination on September 16, 2011 that no endangered species would be affected – but on February 6, 2012, after that initial review was completed, the NOAA added Atlantic Sturgeon to the list of endangered species. Atlantic Sturgeon were once plentiful in the waterways around Manhattan, but have suffered a severe decline in recent years. Dredging – such as that proposed by the City at the East River site – serves to displace Atlantic Sturgeon and affects the species’ food supply. A recent study indicated that the loss of only a few adult female Atlantic Sturgeon would exert a negative impact of the ability of the species to recover.
The cost to construct the facility will be more than double the cost of trucking refuse to transfer facilities in New Jersey, according to a 2005 NYC Independent Budget Commission study. On May 14, the New York Daily News reported on a new study commissioned by Residents for Sane Trash Solutions estimating that the eventual cost of constructing the facility may reach as high as $400 million, dwarfing the City’s latest estimate of $226 million. The response period for the City’s “Request for Proposals” was supposed to close May 17, but it has now extended the deadline, again, to a new closing date of June 14.
Copies of the letters sent today by the elected officials to the FAA and the NOAA this week appear below.
May 19, 2012
Roderick D. Hall
Assistant Administrator for Government and Industry Affairs
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 1022
Washington, DC 20591
Dear Mr. Hall,
We are writing to express our concerns about the siting by the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) of a Marine Transfer Station (MTS) at East 91st Street and the East River. DSNY proposes to build an enormous garbage facility that would be authorized to accept up to 4,290 tons per day of municipal solid waste. Located just over three miles from LaGuardia Airport (LGA), we believe that the MTS would be an attraction for birds, exacerbating the danger of bird strikes for planes taking off and landing at LGA. The MTS would be well within 5 statute miles of LGA.
We understand that the number of bird strikes has increased across the United States with more than 1,090 reports this year through March 31. New York is clearly at risk, with two significant events causing emergency landings at New York area airports: 1) a Delta flight from New York to Los Angeles made an emergency landing at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on April 19 after birds were sucked into one of the 757's engines and 2) a JetBlue flight that returned to Westchester County Airport rather than continue to West Palm Beach, Fla. after two geese struck the plane's windshield on April 24. Furthermore, all of New York watched in horror as Captain Chelsey Sullenberger was forced to land US Air Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after both the aircraft engines were disabled by Canada Geese in 2009. It makes no sense to build a giant garbage facility so close to LGA.
DSNY is building an enormous facility that would rise roughly ten stories over the East River, and would process thousands of tons of garbage each day. The MTS would operate three shifts over a 24-hour period to accommodate the anticipated deliveries. DSNY assumes that the MTS would process ten containers per hour using three loading slots with a fourth slot maintained in a “spare mode”. Each container would be loaded with twenty to twenty-two tons of waste. Each barge would be loaded with 48 containers of waste, meaning that the barges would linger for at least five hours while the 48 containers are prepared and loaded.
The concentration of hundreds of tons of municipal solid waste at this site combined with the waterfront location of the facility will create conditions that will undoubtedly attract a large population of birds to the area. In an Advisory Circular “Hazardous Wildlife Attractants On or Near Airports” (AC No: 150/5200-33B) dated August 28, 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “recommends a distance of 5 statute miles between the farthest edge of the airports [air operations area (AOA)] and the hazardous wildlife attractant” (§ 1-4.). As LGA has received Federal grant-in-aid assistance, the FAA mandates that LGA adhere to the standards issued in the aforementioned Advisory Circular. Please note that while the circular exempts “enclosed waste-handling facilities that receive garbage behind closed doors” the exemption does not apply to “Trash transfer facilities that are open on one or more sides; that store uncovered quantities of municipal solid waste outside, even if only for a short time; that use semi-trailers that leak or have trash clinging to the outside” (§ 2-2d.). If the facility is to accommodate the volume of truck traffic expected, the garage door on one side of the facility will have to be open for long periods of time to allow trucks to enter and leave. Further, New York City sanitation trucks generally do have trash residue on the outside or clinging to parts of the truck. Private sanitation trucks that are responsible for commercial garbage would also be accommodated at the 91st Street facility, and they are notoriously open and smelly.
Traffic in the vicinity of the MTS is notoriously slow – it is adjacent to an on-ramp for the FDR Drive, near a bus layover site for the 86th Street Crosstown and near construction for the Second Avenue Subway. Furthermore, since there are several schools and the Asphalt Green sports and fitness center in the area, there are often school buses. Finally, there is the traffic associated with a densely-populated urban community with many large high rises. Accordingly, however well-intentioned the DSNY’s efforts may be to have no truck queuing outside the facility, the community expects that sanitation trucks will be lined up at every stop light in the neighborhood.
Pilots have approached our offices to express their concerns about the MTS. They believe that the MTS does pose a hazard for aviation. Recently, Cpt. Sullenberger made his concerns about MTS’s public on a CBS News Program and specifically mentioned the proposed 91st Street facility.
At this time, we respectfully request that you review our concerns, and those of a growing number of aviation transportation experts, and advise us as to your conclusions, consistent with all applicable rules and regulations. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
CAROLYN B. MALONEY Member of Congress
LIZ KRUEGER State Senator
MICAH KELLNER Member of Assembly
DAN QUART Member of Assembly
DANIEL R. GARODNICK Member of City Council
JESSICA S. LAPPIN Member of City Council
May 19, 2012
Patricia Kurkul
Regional Administrator
Northeast Region
United States Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Marine Fisheries Service
55 Great Republic Drive
Gloucester, MA 01930-2276
Colonel John R. Boulé II
District Commander
New York District
Army Corps of Engineers
26 Federal Plaza, Room 2109
New York, New York 10278-0090
Dear Administrator Kurkul and Colonel Boulé,
We are aware that on September 16, 2011 and previously on October 1, 2008, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advised the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), pursuant to the consultation required under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, that reconstruction activities/operations at the East 91st Street MTS were not likely to adversely affect any listed species under NOAA’s jurisdiction. On February 6th, 2012, NOAA listed the Atlantic Sturgeon population in the New York Bight as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The East River is part of the New York Bight. The East River is a tidal strait between Upper New York Bay and Long Island Sound. In addition, the Harlem River connects the East River to the Hudson River where the Atlantic Sturgeon goes to spawn.
Unlike Shortnose Sturgeon, which was the subject of the early review, Atlantic Sturgeon spend most of their lives in salt water, remaining in fresh water only as juveniles and when they return to spawn. The Atlantic Sturgeon are bottom feeders that tend to be found in dynamic mud habitats where they can use the barbels on the underside of their snouts to find food - chiefly worms, insects, crustaceans, and small fish. They prefer littoral zones, such as the location of the MTS, to deeper areas. Atlantic Sturgeon have been found in the East River. Indeed on May 24, 2011, a 7 foot specimen washed up near the Brooklyn Bridge and was dubbed the East River Monster by onlookers who were unfamiliar with the fish’s scaly, somewhat prehistoric look.
The proposals for the facility at 91st Street call for a significant amount of dredging to create navigable channels for the vessels that would transport the solid municipal waste from the MTS. We are greatly concerned about the effects of this major program of dredging as NOAA has specifically listed dredging as a major threat to this vulnerable population. The potential for negative effects lasts well after the act of dredging is completed due to the alteration of the aquatic habitat. The modification of depth and the removal of aquatic vegetation can lead to the displacement of the Atlantic Sturgeon along with increasing the population’s vulnerability to predation.
With the increased maritime traffic to and from the MTS, there is also an increased risk of Atlantic Sturgeon fatalities by vessel strike; another significant threat to the New York Bight Atlantic Sturgeon population as outlined by NOAA. While these incidences may seem more aberration than routine, it must be noted that NOAA reports the findings of a recent study stating regional recovery of an Atlantic Sturgeon population can be impacted by the loss of only a few female specimens. Finally, the combination of this increased maritime traffic and the nature of the cargo being transported, municipal solid waste, could degrade the water quality in the area to the detriment of the local Atlantic Sturgeon population.
At this time, we respectfully request that you re-open your review pursuant to the Endangered Species Act to evaluate the impact of the MTS on the Atlantic Sturgeon, consistent with all applicable rules and regulations. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
CAROLYN B. MALONEY Member of Congress
LIZ KRUEGER State Senator
MICAH KELLNER Member of Assembly
DAN QUART Member of Assembly
DANIEL R. GARODNICK Member of City Council
JESSICA S. LAPPIN Member of City Council
