On Saturday October 24 we did a "toxic tour" to highlight the various environmental issues in the district. We visited a number of sites with hazardous contamination and talked about how cleanup efforts could occur with the right leadership.
The Loral site on Story Avenue is a site that is walled off from the street because it is contaminated. Housing and waterfront park space was supposed to be constructed here, but now the site is just sitting there. Why isn't a cleanup being done? Who is advocating for the active use of this site? Brownfield cleanups occur all over the city to make way for development projects. Why not here?
Here is a Department of Sanitation salt pile that has sat here in the open for years. Road salt is supposed to be covered so that rain doesn't wash it away (into Westchester Creek, which is right behind this pile in the picture). Only recently has this pile been covered with plastic sheets. (Except for the pile in the back which you can make out in the right of the pictures). Before that, it was just left out in the open, polluting Westchester Creek every time it rained. Now it will be polluted every time those plastic sheets are pulled back. Plastic sheets are not enough. There should be a structure over this to prevent the pollution of our waterways!
What's behind this fence? Nobody knows for sure, but we know it's contaminated. Why the City is only putting up signs in Spanish is anybody's guess. There are no signs in english anywhere. The City should be getting information out to people and making sure they are not entering contaminated areas. We should also be cleaning up these areas, not just fencing them off.
We also went to Castle Hill which has a great deal of mercury contamination as well as the City-owned compost facility which has a host of problems. Towards the end of the trip we were entertained by Rick Nestler, a professional singer who has also worked on environmental education efforts through groups like the Clearwater.
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