(Bensonhurst, Brooklyn)(WPIX11) – Brooklyn leaders are calling for the Department of Sanitation to trash its plans for a new garbage transfer station in Gravesend Bay.
It’s a battle that’s been composting since 2006 when the City Council overwhelmingly approved a plan to build the new facility right behind the Caesar’s Bay Shopping Center in Bensonhurst.
Sunday the groups rallied to try to stop the project after a federal study found high concentrations of toxins at the bottom of the bay.
Neighbors say they’re worried those chemicals will be dredged up, putting everyone in South Brooklyn at risk.
Assemblyman Bill Colton filed a lawsuit to stop construction on the project, but a judge ruled in favor of the Department of Sanitation despite issues with the environmental study.
Now Colton is worried the chemicals left behind by an incinerator that operated in the area for more than 30 years could wash into the homes of people who live along the shoreline.
The battle is not unique to Brooklyn. Manhattan residents are protesting the development of a similar waste management plant on the Upper East Side.
That plant, which has garnered much of the media attention, would be located right next to a park.
But protesters of the Brooklyn station say garbage facilities should simply not be placed in neighborhoods where people live in any borough.
But a spokesperson for DSNY says every phase of the project thus far has been reviewed and approved.
In a statement they issued to PIX 11 News:
“At the Marine Transfer Station, the waste will be compacted, containerized, and shipped out by barge avoiding truck traffic on local roads and enhancing the quality of life. The MTS won overwhelming support from the City Council and has received the environmental permits necessary to proceed with construction.”
Sanitation says it’s getting ready to award construction contracts for the facility.
If its completed opponents say more than 2000 pounds of garbage will be moved in and out of their neighborhoods each week..
