Office of Borough President James P. Molinaro
Staten Island, New York
B.P. Molinaro to Governor Paterson: “Lift remediation paralysis at Brookfield Avenue landfill!”
Sudden lack of State and City funding sources freezes remediation contract award
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Borough President James P. Molinaro today urged Governor David Paterson to break the funding impasse between State and City environmental agencies that is preventing a remediation contract from being awarded for the cleanup of the Brookfield Avenue landfill.
The 272-acre landfill is a former municipal solid waste dump located on Arthur Kill Road in Great Kills that operated from 1966 to 1980. During its last six years of operation, tens of thousands of gallons of industrial hazardous waste, including oil, sludge, metal plating, lacquers and solvents were illegally dumped at the site.
In a letter to the Governor, Molinaro wrote, “I am writing to request your direct intervention in resolving the regulatory paralysis between the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that is preventing remediation of a 30-year-old environmental blight located in the middle of a thriving Staten Island neighborhood.”
Starting in 1993, the Borough President’s Office has been at the lead with the DEP and DEC on the remediation efforts, starting with the formation of the still-active Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC), a volunteer group of residents who work with the environmental agencies to determine how to get and implement the best remedial design to finally close the landfill under State environmental conservation laws.
After years of public meetings, design approval delays, project manager replacements, and bid process difficulties, the DEP, with the DEC in attendance, informed the Borough President’s office at a January 2008 CAC meeting that the contractor notice to proceed cannot be given due to the funding gap created when the final bid came in at 50% higher than the DEP estimates. In addition, since the State reimburses the City for 75% of the remediation costs and there is no longer any money in the original reimbursement program, the DEP must now apply yearly for the monies under a new DEC program.
“Once again a delay,” wrote Molinaro to the Governor. “But now not over technical issues, but over money – an item that we were told, every single year for 15 years, was something Staten Islanders did not need to worry about.” The Borough President also pointed to the remediations of the other four New York City inactive hazardous waste landfills that are either complete or nearly complete, and accomplished with no funding problems.
“Governor, this indefensible delay must end,” Molinaro concluded. “With your assistance and intervention, I am hopeful that the remediation paralysis finally can be lifted. I would like to be able to report to the CAC at their June meeting that the impasse has been broken, and that remediation will commence by July 1.”
April 30, 2008