BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

From the offices of Congressman Michael Grimm:

BROOKLYN, NY – Today, Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R,C-Brooklyn/S.I.) and State Senator Marty Golden (R,C,I – Brooklyn) sent a letter to Community Board 10 Chairwoman Joanne Seminara in support of naming the northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 85th Street “Firefighter Michael G. Behette 9/11 Memorial Way.”  Michael Behette was a Dyker Heights resident and firefighter who died last month from a 9/11-related cancer. His family has requested the street naming in his honor, and Rep. Grimm and Senator Golden are lending their full support.

“Michael Behette was a true American hero who bravely rushed into a dust cloud of danger when others ran away,” said Rep. Grimm. “His selfless love for our city, for others, and for his profession as NYC fire fighter ultimately cost him his life, and that should never be forgotten. It is with great privilege that I join Senator Golden in support of naming this memorial after our hometown hero, Michael Behette, so that we will never forget his inspiring story or the sacrifices he made on our behalf,” said Rep. Grimm.

“Firefighter Michael Behette was an example to us all.  His dedication to the recovery efforts is a reminder of the service and sacrifice of our bravest to help move our city forward after we were attacked.  Michael gave everything for his city, state, and nation, and today I join with Congressman Grimm in calling for our city to remember and honor his ultimate sacrifice by this memorial on 85th Street.  My thoughts and prayers continue to be with his family, and I call on all to remember that while all gave some in those days and months, some, like Michael, gave all,” said Senator Golden.

Michael Behette was assigned to Ladder 172 in Bensonhurst. When the towers were hit, Behette was on vacation in Florida. Unable to get a flight home, he drove straight to Ground Zero where he worked for the next 31 days in rescue and recovery operations.  He stayed on site for six more months. He was diagnosed in 2011 and passed on September 17th, 2012 from lung cancer, which is believed to have been caused from exposure to the toxins at the WTC site.

Rep. Grimm and his staff have met with members of the Behette family who brought the matter to their attention, as well as helped the family obtain the application for the street naming.  Rep. Grimm and Senator Golden have written the attached letter of support to be submitted today with the family’s application.

Waste transfer station protest on August, 5, 2012

Congressman Michael Grimm sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers raising concerns over the proposed waste transfer station at Bay 41st Street.

Grimm joins with Assemblyman William Colton, Andrew Gounardes and a host of other local leaders and concerned citizens in questioning the erection of the station at the edge of Gravesend Bay. It also puts him in the rather odd position of agreeing with his Democratic opponent, Mark Murphy, who seems to go through great pains to show how different from Grimm he is.

But, hey, it doesn’t get more apolitical than garbage, right?

The local representatives have noted a variety of issues pertaining to the station. For one, residents believe that the waste incinerator that was situatied in the same place several years ago is toxic and may cause cancer. Thus, dredging the water would bring up the toxic ash that has long been sitting at the bottom of the bay.

Grimm brings up the dangers surrounding unexploded ammunition that fell to the bottom of the harbor from the USS Bennington in 1954. He is requesting more information pertaining to any possible dangers surrounding the dredging.

“Safety should always remain a top priority when moving forward with any project, and the presence of unexploded munitions certainly raises strong concerns among members of the southwest Brooklyn community.  Before any action begins on the proposed waste transfer station, I am seeking assurance from the Army Corps of Engineers that any dredging will not compromise the safety of the residents, their property, or the bay.  No project is worth jeopardizing public safety, and I look forward to working with the Corps to receive its full assurance that the dredging will be 100 percent safe,” he said in a release.

Source: Hunter O’Eeils via Wikimedia Commons

The fight against the waste transfer station situated in Gravesend Bay has come full circle for neighborhood activist Dorothy Mortman.The 87-year-old Mortman was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 years ago. Given that she has no cancer in her family, she believes it was caused by the smoke and ash from the old incinerator located two blocks from her Bensonhurst home.

“It’s not genetic. Nobody in my family had it and I don’t carry the genes,” said Mortman, 87.

Mortman refuses to allow a new waste transfer site to be built in that location. She is standing alongside other environmental and community activists in suing to block the proposed $87.7 million waste transfer site at the edge of Bay 41st Street near Gravesend Bay.

At a rally attended by approximately 150 area residents, Assemblyman Bill Colton and heads of various local organizations blasted a Department of Sanitation plan to install a waste transfer station in Gravesend Bay, saying they don’t trust the organization and will continue their fight to halt construction.

But the Sanitation Department said it’s moving ahead with their plans, anyway.

The opponents gathered on Sunday at the Bay Parkway Promenade next to Caesar’s Bay, toting signs of opposition. Assemblyman Bill Colton spoke against the plan, as did Congressional candidate Mark Murphy, State Senate Candidate Andrew Gounardes, District Leader candidate Ari Kagan and local environmental and neighborhood activists.

At issue is the Sanitation Department’s proposal to reactivate an old Sanitation facility on Bay 41st Street off Shore Parkway, turning it into a waste transfer station where trucks will bring garbage, formally known as the Southwest Brooklyn Marine Transfer Station, load it onto a barge, and ship it out. But, according to Colton, the plan will require dredging of the waters around it, which will stir up a toxic blend of chemicals laying dormant on the bay’s floor, a mix he’s dubbed “black mayonaisse.”

“Scientists have confirmed what many in the community feared…There were unsafe levels of mercury and other harmful toxins found at the bottom of Gravesend Bay. The samples were taken by just scratching the surface rather than by digging deep below the surface where the dredging will reach. This leads others and me to wonder: What other dangers lie further below Gravesend Bay?” asked Colton. “And how will this toxic material impact the adjacent beaches of Coney Island and Manhattan Beach?”

The toxic stew formed, in part, with the help of the agency itself. The proposed site is the former location of a waste incinerator. Colton said the department has a bad track record in the neighborhood, as the previous facility operated without proper permits, and did not take precautions to contain environmental damage. Colton, who led the fight to shut down the facility in the 1990s, said toxic ash from the incinerator rained down on nearby homes, senior centers and into the water – and the ensuing years have seen increased reports of cancer and related-illnesses.

Adding an additional layer of risk to the proposal, Colton said the discovery of live munitions from a capsized WWII military barge near the Verrazano Bridge means that dredging could lead to an explosion.

Just as in his fight to shut down the incinerator, Colton has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the community to block the agency from going forward with its plans.

But that doesn’t appear to concern the Sanitation Department, which told Bensonhurst Bean that the benefit of getting trucks off the road outweigh any perceived risk of an environmental catastrophe.

“The Department of Sanitation is moving forward with plans to construct this state of the art containerized marine transfer station that will allow waste from south Brooklyn to be shipped by barge to rail centers where it will be moved to landfills out of the state,” a Sanitation spokesperson said. “In doing so, a reliable and environmentally sound system for managing the city’s waste, a fair and equitable distribution of waste management throughout the five boroughs, and a significant reduction in truck traffic through city streets are achieved. The marine transfer station is part of the Mayor’s Solid Waste Management Plan that was overwhelmingly approved by the City Council and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”

The following is a press release from the offices of Assemblyman William Colton:

• Date: Sunday, August, 5, 2012
• Time: 12 p.m.
• Place: Bay Parkway Promenade, near Caesar’s Bay shopping area

A growing chorus of Southern Brooklyn residents and community organizations will take to the streets this Sunday at noon at a rally to support Assemblyman William Colton’s lawsuit against the city’s proposed garbage station for Bensonhurst. The event, located at the Bay Parkway promenade overlooking Gravesend Bay, is expected to draw a coalition of local residents, environmentalists, wildlife preservationists, and representatives from a swath of New York City organizations.

Continued

Source: Arthur Tress via DailyDOCUMERICA

This photograph depicts the old incineration plant and landfill dump at Gravesend Bay. The site is currently at the center of a major Bensonhurst environmental debate.

For over 30 years, the dump burned NYC garbage without a permit. It was finally shut down in the mid-90′s. Now, the city wants to put a waste transfer station there.

While no garbage would be burned at the new site, in order to build it, the waters would have to be dredged. Assemblyman William Colton and several environmental groups state that this would allow for the toxins that are dormant in the water from the previous plant to be released into the atmosphere.

Further, because trucks would be driving from across the city to the transfer station, there would be “hundreds of garbage trucks…barreling down Cropsey Avenue and already-gridlocked Bay Parkway and Shore Parkway every day. Not only will this result in even greater traffic congestion and accidents, but the fumes from the vast increase in dirty diesel-burning tugboats and trucks will jeopardize our health, leading to higher rates of asthma and other diseases,” according to a petition put out several by local environmental groups like NoSpray and Wake Up and Smell the Garbage.

In this 1973 shot, the kids used the dump as a playground. Ignorance really is bliss.

This Saturday, June 23 is the Relay for Life of Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights. It is being held at the Fort Hamilton athletic field at 8301 Shore Road.

Gravesend Bay. Source: Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons

Last week, Assemblyman William Colton announced a lawsuit against the city over plans to build a waste transfer station at Bay 41st Street near Gravesend Bay. The location is on the site of a former incinerator that had been blamed for rising asthma and cancer rates.

Democratic State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes, who is vying for State Senator Marty Golden’s seat, declared his support for Colton’s campaign against the facility.

“I wholeheartedly support Assemblyman Bill Colton’s decision to take his fight over a waste transfer facility near Gravesend Bay to the New York State Supreme Court, and I applaud him for continuing to stand up for what’s right, even when it doesn’t bring in campaign cash. He and concerned residents have been fighting for years to protect protect the bay and surrounding areas from the damage that another trash facility could cause to our environment, our health, and our quality of life,” said Gounardes in a release.

Gounardes goes on to say that he will join Colton and any local residents to protect the park spaces the proposed facility would destroy. He also mentions that he wants to help save the $87 million taxpayer dollars the project would consume.

As for Colton, he has called on the local community to support his efforts “not stand by idly while the City proceeds with its reckless plan to re-introduce these toxins and contaminants, as well as destroy the quality of life in our thriving residential, recreational neighborhood.”

Residents enjoying the scenic Gravesend Bay. Source: Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons

Assemblyman William Colton has been urging lawmakers not to build at the site of a former incinerator at Bay 41st Street off Gravesend Bay for over two years. Now, that site is slated to become a waste transfer station and Colton is having none of it.

“For more than 30 years, that incinerator spewed contaminants into the land, water and air and the affects are still being felt by residents today,” Colton said to the New York Post. “There’s no way we’re going to allow those contaminants to be dug up and pose another threat to the community.”

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Joseph Martens recently agreed to the $87.7 million city project for a transfer site that would process and ship out 4,000 tons of trash.

If the waste transfer site were to be built, Colton and environmental groups believe that the toxic incinerator ash from the former waste site will resurface due to the dredging that is needed to give trash barges to access the site.

Groups say that the ash from the incinerator caused a spike in cancer and asthma rates in the area and negatively affected the flora and fauna in the bay. If the project were to go ahead, the same consequences could be repeated. Also, depending on the wind and tides, newly dug up ash would travel to other waterways in Southern Brooklyn and cause severe damage there too.

The incinerator burned thousands of tons of waste a day when it was in operation. It was torn down in 2005.

Currently, the area is used for family recreation with playgrounds full of kids daily.

Colton plans to file papers in state Supreme Court seeking a court order to block construction of the trash station site.

Source: Tomasz Sienicki via Wikimedia Commons

New York medical advocates have been working to educate the public about colon cancer screenings. This includes getting a colonoscopy, the major evaluative screening procedure for corectal cancer.

The rate of colon cancer screenings with colonoscopy among the various ethnic groups of New York is rising, except for the Russian-speaking population.

New York City currently has a 67 percent screening rate. A significant jump from 2003, when only 42 percent of all patients received the potentially life-saving procedure. The colonoscopy rate among Russian-speaking New Yorkers trails behind the citywide rate, according to a release from The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Now, the Health and Hospitals Corporation is working with community hospitals and partners to better understand why the gap for the Russian speaking community exists. Local politicians, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny and Councilman Domenic Recchia are also on board to spread the word to their Russian constituents.

“Colonoscopy screening is largely unheard of in the Russian-speaking community…Russian-Americans are simply unaware of this beneficial procedure,” said Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny. “The Russian-speaking population in New York needs to be informed of colonoscopy screening and the ability of preventing colon and rectal cancers. With the help of the Department of Health and the local hospitals, we can educate the Russian-speaking community in preventative screenings.”

“Each year, hundreds of New Yorkers die of colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death,” said Councilman and Finance Chair Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. “This does not have to be the case given the accessibility to colon screenings provided by public hospitals throughout our city. I’d like to thank the New York City Health Department and Health, Hospitals Corporation for making it possible that more New Yorkers have access to the best preventive measures that will ensure a long and healthy life.”

Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer, killing approximately 1,400 New Yorkers each year. Colonoscopies detect precancerous polyps—abnormal growths in the colon or rectum— which can then be removed before they turn life-threatening. When found at an early stage, colon cancer is 90 percent curable. Doctors urge anyone 50 years old, or younger if at risk, to ask for the procedure.