P.U.! (Crain's)
The Upper East Side waterfront is finally setting sale, and plans continue to emerge for what just might be built there. Yet there is one project that continues to miff and tiff the silk-stockinged hordes: a marine waste transfer station set to be reactivated on 91st Street.
Locals argue that the facility is inappropriate, sitting in the middle of a public park as it is. One resident told The Observer last year how his daughter’s softball team was mocked by teams down from the South Bronx, even, so you know this plan is bad. (No offense to the South Bronx, just saying.)
The Bloomberg administration counters, rightfully we might add, that every neighborhood should be responsible for its fair share of the city’s waste management system. In other words, stop dumping on the South Bronx.
The city won the last of a legion of lawsuits filed by Upper East Siders last year, and now the Department of Design and Construction has released a request for proposals to develop the project. Already 55 firms have inquired about the project.
“Moving forward on this project represents historic progress on the mayor’s solid waste management plan, which will greatly improve the sustainability of our waste disposal, help fulfill the goals of PlanNYC and improve fairness across all five boroughs,” a Bloomberg spokesman told Crain’s yesterday.
But the community, including some influential public officials, have vowed to continue their battle against the waste transfer station. “A garbage dump doesn’t belong in a residential neighborhood, and we won’t stop fighting until the city trashes this plan,” local Councilwoman Jessica Lappin told DNAinfo.
mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC
Matt is The Observer's real estate editor. Follow Matt on Twitter or via RSS. mchaban@observer.com
Sadly,
Mayor Bloomberg’s “new” waste management plan, slated to remain in effect for
the next twenty years, is merely a repackaged version of the old Giuliani
plan hastily concocted after the Fresh Kills landfill closing in 2001. It is still
based on exporting New York City’s garbage
- in other words, making our waste somebody
else’s problem. In the new scheme, water (barge) and rail transport
replace long-haul trucking to neighboring states’ landfills.
Unfortunately, barging
will spew carbon fuels into our newly cleaned-up waterways. And barges and trains are at risk for spills and
collisions that would disseminate toxic matter present in waste. On
the money front, dedicated rail transport of waste costs more than truck
transport, studies say. Shrinking landfill capacity in the crowded
Northeast means our garbage may soon be bound for rural western states - with escalating rail fees.
Cities
across the globe are implementing imaginative plans for waste disposal, many centering around waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies such as
combustion, gasification, and anaerobic digestion that recycle solid waste into
usable energy in the form of heat and electricity. Combined
with aggressive, mandatory recycling, WTE is at the forefront of European waste
management policy.
Way
back in December 2001, a Columbia University joint research project titled
“Life After Fresh Kills: Moving Beyond New York City’s Current Waste Management
Plan” proposed a feasible alternative plan that would sidestep environmental and cost risks. In fact, many proposals have emanated from Columbia’s Earth
Institute and its School of International and Public Affairs. Was our
indigenous talent base at Columbia even brought into the Sanitation Department
conversation? Shockingly…no. May we ask why…or should we just “follow the money”?
Taking
ownership of the trash we produce is the only responsible course of action. By owning the
process, we also obviously control more of the costs. When our highest public officials fail to
initiate model programs for infrastructure issues like garbage, we have surely
and willfully abdicated our title as “capital of the world.”