[CPEO-BIF] Staten Island's North Shore (NY)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Staten Island's Toxic Stew

by Melissa Checker
Gotham Gazette (NY)
May 26, 2009

This spring, residents of Staten Island's North Shore received news of a 
triple toxic whammy. First, on March 23, 300 gallons of oil spilled 
during a ship-to-ship transfer near the St. George ferry terminal. Then, 
on April 2, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced that 
it found lead levels up to 10 times higher than acceptable on the site 
of a former Sedutto's ice cream factory, just steps away from several 
homes. That same night, the agency stated that it found elevated levels 
of lead and arsenic at nearby Veterans Park.

These events mark only the tip of a highly toxic iceberg threatening 
Staten Island's North Shore. An area of approximately 5.2 square miles, 
the North Shore contains approximately 21 sites that the Environmental 
Protection Agency or residents have identified as contaminated. All of 
them sit within 70 feet of homes and apartment buildings, and residents 
believe that many violate state environmental regulations. For Beryl 
Thurman, president of the North Shore Waterfront Conservancy, the 
industrial zone free-for-all "is like a Girls Gone Wild video."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/environment/20090526/7/2923

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org