Group Blasts City's Plan To Build Brooklyn Waste Transfer Station
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Residents in Bensonhurst were successful once before in closing down a garbage facility in their neighborhood and now they're trying to do it again, though this time they're trying to do it before it's even built. NY1's Polly Kreisman filed the following report.It's a hidden patch of industrial space in Southern Brooklyn that few people see, but some in Bensonhurst fear greatly.
Protesters gathered along the Bay Parkway Promenade Sunday, calling for a stop to the city's plan to put a garbage station in the area which is where the Southwest Brooklyn incinerator once stood.
State Assemblyman William Colton fought successfully to have the incinerator demolished in 2004 after, he says, it operated for 30 years without a permit.
"On the very site where an incinerator inflicted this community with its pollution, with its toxins, with its dangerous conditions over 30 years," Colton told the crowd.
"It's gonna be harmful, it's gonna be dangerous, it's gonna affect our well being, our health and safety and to me it's not right. It's not acceptable and and we have to fight to stop it," said Priscilla Consolo of the Brooklyn Young Democrats.
"They will have to rep dredge this beautiful bay in order for these large garbage barges to enter and leave this proposed site," said Mark Treyger of the United Progressive Democratic Club.
Dredging the Gravesend Bay is another fear because scientists tell Colton mercury and other toxins lie at the bottom. And because of a recent discovery that a capsized barge from a WWII ship dumped live munitions, says the assemblyman, into the bay which dredging could cause to explode.
The sanitation department tells NY1 it is definitely moving forward with the marine transfer station which will be on the water and that it will actually cut down on pollution because fewer trucks will be moving waste.
Colton has collected thousands of signatures on petitions and has sued to block the city's plan.
City lawyers say the decision to build the new facility was lawful and proper in all respects, and they expect it to be upheld in court.