Nicely this stinks.
The New York Metropolis College Development Authority is contemplating breaking floor on a brand new elementary college in Brooklyn – throughout the road from a state Superfund website with a historical past of carcinogens.
The location on Dupont Road in Greenpoint, the previous location of vinyl and plastic facility NuHart Plastics, was designated in 2010 as a consequence of its twin underground plumes with poisonous phthalates and trichloroethylene, or TCE – the identical carcinogen discovered across the notoriously-toxic Gowanus Canal.
“Being throughout the road [from a Superfund site] seems unhealthy from a notion standpoint, however from an environmental standpoint, that is the cleanest website we present in Greenpoint,” a rep from the SCA advised The Publish.
“None of these [alternative] websites had been possible for varsity development,” the rep added. “Greenpoint as an entire has a protracted historical past of heavy industrial makes use of – the sorts of issues you discover in Greenpoint, you discover throughout Greenpoint.”
Regardless of the location’s proximity to the proposed Franklin Road college, the SCA mentioned it’s going “above and past” code necessities to maintain college students secure ought to the mission transfer ahead – together with final yr’s addition of a hydraulic barrier between the 2 areas to forestall future contaminants.
Whereas the company says there’s no threat of poisonous vapors rising from the soil, the development authority plans to construct a protecting slab over the bottom anyway – and gained’t embrace a basement or cellar within the plans.
The contaminants “won’t ever attain the varsity website” and it’s unattainable for the general public to return into contact with the hazardous materials because it’s 12 ft underground, an SCA rep declared.
“NuHart Plastics has by no means impacted our website, and in our opinion, it by no means will,” the rep added.
Regardless of the arrogance, the proposal isn’t with out its critics — which panned a earlier iteration of the plan in 2019 as a consequence of issues over the varsity’s proximity to the hazardous waste (the Dupont Road website is listed within the state’s registry of inactive hazardous waste websites as a “vital menace to public well being or the surroundings”).
“No little one ought to should go to highschool subsequent to a poisonous waste website, however a technology of Greenpoint kids will until an alternate location for a future college is discovered,” reads a 2019 petition from North Brooklyn Neighbors, which amassed greater than 6,700 signatures on the time.
“Finding the varsity close to these hazards represents a reckless disregard for the bodily and psychological well-being of the long run college’s college students, lecturers, directors, and households,” the petition added.
SCA paperwork additionally present there’s a “potential” presence of asbestos-containing supplies and lead-based paint on the proposed college website, in addition to PFAS-containing supplies.
However no contaminants from the NuHart website had been discovered on the proposed college website throughout two separate investigations, the SCA mentioned.
All “suspect” supplies discovered at 257 Franklin St. shall be examined and abated as obligatory per state Division of Environmental Safety necessities, an SCA rep advised The Publish.
“This proposed college website has been a supply of controversy in Greenpoint for twenty years because of the vital close by contamination,” Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) advised The Publish. “Thankfully, there was vital progress to remediate the NuHart Superfund website.”
A city corridor on the revived plan is slated to happen nearly on Jan. 22.
This isn’t the primary time the company has filed plans to construct on a probably harmful website. In 2011, a North Bronx elementary college closed simply twenty years after opening because of the presence of TCEs. The college had recorded a whole bunch of instances of sick college students, the New York Every day Information reported.
SCA officers advised The Publish the Franklin Road website stays the most secure choice for Greenpoint’s rising scholar inhabitants, which is already seeing kids in “overcrowded” lecture rooms. The under-18 inhabitants in North Greenpoint rose marginally from 11 to 11.6%, in response to US Census knowledge.
The location close to the Greenpoint Touchdown improvement can also be a 20-minute stroll from the closest college, a rep identified.
Areas for the brand new college are restricted, in response to SCA paperwork, and the proposed location of the brand new college – slated to have 450 seats – was chosen because the website is outdoors of a flood zone. It additionally has two avenue frontages for scholar pickup and drop-off.
Remediation on the Dupont Road Superfund website started in 2022 and is now wrapping up, in response to an engineering report filed in November – which discovered TCE dissolved in groundwater at concentrations “considerably exceeding relevant requirements.”
The NuHart Plastics website itself is slated to develop into a 471-unit residential housing improvement with two buildings and a cellar, in response to state paperwork.
If the varsity mission does transfer ahead, officers say it is going to nonetheless take years for college students to fill the halls.
“We urgently want a brand new elementary college in Northern Greenpoint,” Restler, the native council member, added, “however we’re dedicated to soliciting neighborhood suggestions and listening to from younger households about whether or not they consider this website is secure for his or her kids.”