The MAY 2013
Red Hook StarªRevue SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
FREE
GOWANUS CANAL SLUDGE HEADED ELSEWHERE
While the official result of the public comment period, which ended April 27th, will not be known for several months, Mugdan stated over and over and over again that the EPA understands the Red Hook community is not in favor of depositing the Gowanus’ residue in the neighborhood. This option was always subject to community approval, as well as the approval of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Ironically, this all took place at a meeting orchestrated by Reg Flowers, who has made his name recently as a community facilitator in forums as diverse as Occupy Red Hook and the NYC Housing Authority. While ostensibly assuming a neutral position, he has been linked with John Quadrozzi Jr., whose private company would be the main beneficiary if the Red Hook Option were to be approved.
Public comment period over The end of the public comment period represents the end of what became a painful process, because the forces in
On one side stood Red Hook residents who in the wake of Superstorm Sandy were fearful of encased toxic sludge escaping and adding to the contamination of Red Hook’s soil and air. On the other side was a landowner who would be the recipient of a gift of 450,000 square feet of new land - a gift worth upwards of $1 billion, according to Brooklyn Greenway Initiative co-founder Brian McCormick. Despite a slew of public meetings, newspaper articles and an informative EPA website, much misinformation and lack of information has clouded the argument, pro and con, in the mind of the average Red Hooker. Mugdan worked hard at the April 16th meeting to frame the issues correctly. Currently, what was open for public comReg Flowers chatting it up with Lillie Marshall, John ment was the proposal to bury Quadrozzi and Phaedra Thomas in the background. the sludge on the property of (photo by Fiala) Quadrozzi, owner of the Erie favor of private gain sought to divide Grain Terminal and the land the Red Hook community, pitting jobs around it, called Gowanus GBX. Furagainst pollution. ther issues will be decided in the future,
including something called de-watering of the sludge. The $500 million dollar plan to clean up the Gowanus is still in the early planning stages. Dewatering and other issues will be part of the continuing public monitoring process - but what was asked initially has been only whether the sludge will become part of the Gowanus GBX. It’s approval has nothing at all to do with cleaning up - a job tasked the EPA in 2010, when the Gowanus was designated a Federal Superfund site. Much to the chagrin of the Bloomberg administration, which was keen on a quick local cleanup that would benefit the Toll Brother’s plan to build luxury housing adjacent to the canal, the Gowanus received the designation in March of 2010. Following initial testing, a Remedial Investigation Report was issued in January 2011. The Feasibility Study was issued in January 2011, and the Proposed Plan in December, 2012. Christos Tsiamis, a chemical engineer with a masters from Columbia University was named the project director in March 2010. The idea of creating the Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) as an alternative to shipping the sludge out(continued on page 5)
The vultures after LICH by Kimberly Gail Price
“Follow the money,” says Dr. John Romanelli. Romanelli was the final president of the medical staff at Long Island College Hospital (LICH) before the merger with the State University of New York Downstate (SUNY). He has been a doctor with LICH for more than 30 years. His entire family has been treated at LICH. And like so many others, he is concerned about the future of his hospital. LICH originally sought a suitor in the late 1990’s to prevent their hospital
The Red Hook Star-Revue 101 Union Street Brooklyn, NY 11231
A
t a public meeting held April 16th at the South Brooklyn Community High School, Regional Superfund Director Walter Mugdan repeated multiple times that the proposed plan to bury toxic sludge from the Gowanus in Red Hook would never happen. “How many times do you want me to say it? If we don’t have your acceptance - and it seems evident that we do not - as I’ve said, the disposal of the facility in a CDF ain’t gonna happen. Because we asked for the community’s reaction. And we’re hearing it,” he insisted.
by George Fiala
from accruing massive debt. Ironically, once under Continuum Health Partner’s leadership, money began leaking through the cracks of the 155 year old hospital. Between the stripping of their real estate assets and eradicating endowments, LICH has watched much of their value slip away. The lack of resources, funding and attention by their governing partners over the past 15 years has left LICH vulnerable to a potential shutdown. But the communities that rely on this hospital have fought for - and averted - the closure, at least for now.
Dr. Toomas Sorra, President of Concerned Citizens of LICH. (photo by Price)
Last week on Wednesday, April 24, the NY City Council Health Committee voted unanimously to support a resolution presented by Councilmen Brad Lander (D-39) and Stephen Levin (D33).
Levin followed by saying that SUNY has not “shown any interest in operating [LICH] successfully,” but “that should not overshadow the vital need for healthcare services in the Cobble Hill/Brooklyn Heights area.”
In his opening remarks, Lander commented that “We’re not insisting that SUNY Downstate continue to operate LICH. They’ve made it clear that that doesn’t work for them.”
On Thursday the following afternoon around 3 pm, the full NY City Council approved the resolution with a second unanimous vote. The bill called on SUNY and the Department of Health (continued on page 3)
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