Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Officials request inclusion of Queens in Creek study

From the NY Times:

Newtown Creek, the heavily polluted waterway recently chosen for a federal Superfund cleanup, equally burdens Queens and Brooklyn because it straddles both boroughs. But several Queens officials have written to the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure the agency doesn’t play favorites.

The officials, including Representative Carolyn B. Maloney and the Queens borough president, Helen Marshall, assert that the E.P.A. has primarily focused on the Brooklyn side of Newtown Creek in studies and sampling of the waterway. They say that the agency has taken no samples in Newtown Creek’s Queens tributaries, including Dutch Kills, Maspeth Creek and East Branch.

In fact, they complain that the E.P.A. listed Newtown Creek as being only in Brooklyn in a fact sheet.

“While Newtown Creek borders both Brooklyn and Queens, up to now most of the E.P.A.’s attention has been on the Brooklyn side of the creek,” the officials wrote in a letter sent on Friday to the agency’s administrator, Lisa Jackson. “That has to change. Time after time, Queens has simply been forgotten — literally omitted from the studies, the documentation and the E.P.A.’s attention.”

In a statement, E.P.A. officials said that all five tributaries of the creek — Dutch Kills, Whale Creek, Maspeth Creek, East Branch and English Kills — are officially part of the Newtown Creek Superfund site.

“They are all included in the plan for sampling the water and sediment that is currently being developed by the agency,” the E.P.A. said. “Throughout our sampling, investigation and clean-up, we will work closely with the communities along the creek and share information with officials and the public regularly.”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where has Representative Carolyn B. Maloney and the Queens borough president, Helen Marshall been all along in this matter, hiding under a rock?

It's because Carolyn term is up and running for her office again that she is bringing this up to garner attention to this project that both these clowns should have been all over. Carolyn is a Representative in Washington - she should have taken this bull by the horns and steered it to reflect the larger overall impact the polluted waters have on NYC overall and not allow Queens to be excluded. Helen Marshall is just too busy having her picture taken and taking lessons on how to become Donald Manes.

Anonymous said...

What is in Newtown Creek has been there for decades and is well known and documented. Clean up will cost a billions and take decades.

Anonymous said...

Clean up will cost a billions and take decades.
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Agreed, but i also think it should be done. There is huge potential there.

Anonymous said...

The damage is too widespread. It would take billions to clean up. Never will happen. Carolyn Baloney is just blowing hot air out of her ass for all the transplants here that voted her back in. People that are from here know she is a loser from her voting record and didn't vote for her this time around. Too many people are fed up with her but were counter balanced by the newbies who are`clueless.

Just the way she wants it.

Anonymous said...

In Brooklyn doing some good.

Queens?

Another excuse to give money to LaGuardia, developers, and DKCA.