Sunday, September 4, 2011

Bayside LIRR substation contaminated

From the Times Ledger:

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is seeking input from the community on a plan to clean up 210 cubic yards of contaminated soil at the Long Island Rail Road substation in Bayside.

Through its Voluntary Cleanup Program, the DEC collaborated with the LIRR and the state Department of Health to develop the Proposed Decision Document, which the department said would be available to view at the Bayside branch of the Queens Library.

According to the document, the soil in and around the electrical substation, at the corner of 216th Street and 41st Avenue, contains mercury and arsenic left behind when the LIRR removed and replaced mercury rectifiers used to convert alternating current to direct current with non-mercury solid state components in the early 1980s.

Mercury has been found in the shallow soil near the loading dock on the west end of the building, and soil contaminated with arsenic has been found in the transformer yard near the eastern end of the building.

According to the report, the contaminants have affected the shallow soils but not the groundwater.

6 comments:

Joe said...

Same sh*t happened in Manhasset. MTA LIRR work crews upgraded to solid state silicone rectifiers and left a good 2 acres of crap & huge glass mercury vapor rectifiers (large rabbit head shaped tubes filled with mercury pools in the bottom) all along the tracks east if the Manhasset trestle.
People called to complain of the mess for over 3 years
By then vandals smashed the rectifier tubes to bits. Its been 10 years, the tracks along Virginia ave and Manhasset high school are still an MTA debris field today.
.
The LIRR has been allowed to run a muck and unchecked for to long !
-Joe

Anonymous said...

This is truly bizarre. I thought that all mercury ignitrons were in metal cans due to the arc and UV threat.

Don't kid yourself here, the people who did this -knew exactly- what these devices were and the threat they posed.

These are the type of people who have contempt for "tree huggers" and probably took a certain pleasure in getting away with it.

Joe said...

I think single metal can mercury ignitions are post 60s.

The LIRR Port Washington line is ancient. It was originally laid to bring milk into the city.
Its a single track east of Great Neck that was the first to run electric.
Good chance all the ancient substations re-done in the 80's are contaminated. (the LIRR is to many father and son IA slobs & hacks who cover each other)
The Borden dairy factory still sits across from the Manhasset train station however the docks and cobble stone steps on the LIRR ROW were ripped up by the MTA back in 96.
Manhasset bay was originally called "Cow Bay"

Anonymous said...

If this was Long Island City they would put a few inches of top soil on it and the hipsters would be fighting each other to raise their families here.

Joe said...

Hipsters raise families ??

Gary the Agnostic said...

They have children, but they don't raise them. That's what the nannies and babysitters are for.