To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

The Army Corps of Engineers issued its permit for the construction of the controversial Marine Transfer Station on East 91st Street at the East River.

The city says the New York City Sanitation Department will move recyclables and waste more efficiently by barge instead of trucks.

Opponents have said the station would ruin the quality of life in the neighborhood.

"I'm clearly very disappointed," said Neighborhood Activist Eliza de Sola Mendes.

"No neighborhood would say I want this here, but we have to make sure they are fairly distributed because these are vital services. New York City produces 11,000 tons of garbage everyday," said Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway.

The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance supports Mayor Bloomberg's 20-year solid waste management plan to replace the truck-based transfer system with one that uses barges and trains to haul the trash out of state.

"Forty percent of the city's waste is generated by Manhattan and none of the waste is handled by Manhattan which is why the city's solid waste management plan relies on a system that fairly and equitably distributes the waste handling and export infrastructure," said Eddie Bautista of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.

This is the final hurdle the city needed to clear. The State Department of Environmental Conservation issued its permit three years ago.

The merits of opening a station on the Upper East Side were debated on Inside City Hall in June.

The transfer station should be operational by 2015.