Carolina Leid reports from Tuckahoe, where parents are concerned about a project planned at a toxic waste dump.
By Carolina Leid
Wednesday, August 24, 2016 11:28PM
TUCKAHOE, New York (WABC) -- Dozens of concerned and angry parents marched outside the community center in Tuckahoe Wednesday night, demanding more extensive testing be done before anything is built at the old quarry on Marbledale Road.
"That is going to be in kindergarten at Waverley School, which is just blocks away from this site where they plan to stir up toxic dust and toxic vapors into our air forever," said Eastchester parent Melissa Viviano.
"They cannot answer the what ifs for us, they keep saying we're professionals, we know how to handle it," said PTA co-president Sarah DeRise.
Right now the plan is to build a Marriott Spring Hill Suites hotel and detached restaurant on the site of the contaminated landfill in Tuckahoe, just a couple of blocks away from Waverly School in Eastchester, which houses kindergarten and first-grade students.
The site was a marble quarry until the 1950's and a municipal dump for two decades.
It's classified as a brown field in need of cleanup.
"It's admirable the participation from this community," said Bill Canavan, who works for HydroEnvironmental Solutions, Inc. "I just want to make sure that everyone is well-informed. If this isn't what you do for a living it's complex sometimes, I think there are some misconceptions."
HydroEnvironmental Solutions is a consulting firm hired by the developer to test and monitor the site.
He says the 400-page plan to remediate includes additional ground wells, concrete caps and proper ventilation in the buildings, all in an effort to deter harmful toxins from being released through soil vapors and groundwater.
"There's independent review by multiple agencies that insured that what was proposed protects human health and the environment," said Canavan. The truth is that they will be installing monitoring systems for ever. Furthermore, there is no warranty that the monitoring will detect all pathways of vapor and toxic chemical released from the site. The developer always proposes the absolute minimum to turn a profit on the project. They are known to cut corners at the public's expense.
Residents say they're not against new construction, they just want all the facts first.
"We are hoping that someone is doing their due diligence and really recognize that this is a threat and test it, because if it is in fact safe, prove it," said Eastchester resident Rachel Zolottev.
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HELP PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY FROM TOXIC RELEASE DEMAND TESTING BEFORE DIGGING
Information = SafetyThe DEC has confirmed that the Tuckahoe Marbledale Road Quarry Dump is a Hazardous Waste Dump (Class 2(P) & BCP).
A Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel is proposed in the middle of this hazardous waste dump. Because of the proposed Marriott hotel project, the center 3.43 acres of the 7 acre toxic dump is in the Brownfield Program (BCP).
The DEC has now approved a Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP), without having done a thorough examination of the BCP site. No testing at all has been done on the surrounding ~3.5 acres of the dump.
Any construction on the site will release contaminated vapors and dust. A proper evaluation of the risk has not been performed; therefore the risk posed to our community is unknown.
How can any plan be safe if nobody knows the contaminants that are currently coming off of the dump, and what will be stirred up and released during construction?
The current DEC Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP) DOES NOT:
◆ Understand and analyze the threats of the entire toxic quarry dump
◆ Locate chemical-filled drums before digging
◆ Appropriately test, monitor, and contain toxic soil vapors
◆ Appropriately monitor and analyze off-site ground water
◆ Test and monitor for dioxin, radioactivity, pharmaceuticals, and other toxic contaminants.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: COMPLETE, EXTENSIVE TESTING of the ENTIRE DUMP SITE IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY.
Do Not Allow a rush to Development to Take Precedence over the Health and Safety of our Community!!
YOU HAVE A VOICE
RALLY, MARCH & Speak out
WEDNESDAY, August 24
Take Action! Join us!
Date: This Wednesday, August 24Time: 6:30pm
Location: Tuckahoe Community Center, 71 Columbus Ave, Tuckahoe, NY
Actions: Peaceful March in front of the Community Center starting at Community Center, going to Main st, and then returning to Community Center for the Tuckahoe Community meeting.
Bring: Your signs, your children, your friends, your families, your neighbors, and the news media.
Tell: The Tuckahoe Policy Makers we need MORE TESTING for the MOST PROTECTIVE SAFETY PLAN!
Write to your public officials:
Demand that we have the most sophisticated protections and safety protocols.
We need the DEC to enact all of the testing recommendations, and safety protocols put forth by Dr. Donald Hughes.
These include, but are not limited to:
1) Current Ambient air testing: test the air now.
2) Soil Vapor testing of the entire BCP site, the entire Quarry Dump, and the surrounding buildings. They must identify the specific types of soil vapor contaminants in order to properly protect us.
3) During all construction activities: Specific Soil Vapor monitoring to identify the specific contaminants in the vapors. We need to know our exposure risks.
4) Real time vapor monitoring systems: test in real time what vapors are being released into our air, and at what levels.
5) Real time community alert systems: let us know whenever there have been work stoppages due to contaminated vapor and dust overages in the air.
6) Soil vapor capture systems, during construction, and after the project completion. Capture the vapors, do not vent them into our air.
7) Tenting the area during construction activities; this, with vapor capture, will best protect our community from contaminated vapor and dust exposure.
8) Test for Dioxin, Radioactivity, Pharmaceuticals, and several more contaminants. These contaminants require specific types of community protection protocols.
9) Identify chemical filled drums, tanks, canisters before digging. When a bulldozer hits a ~60 year old chemical filled drum, the drum will probably rupture. And then, the construction crew will have to deal with the exposures and leakages. Encourage the DEC to be pro-active, and more protective of the risks of exposure.
10) A Full Department of Health Risk Assessment of the possible toxic threats to our entire community.
Please see addresses and more information on the Sierra Club Lower Hudson Website https://sierraclub.org/atlantic/lower-hudson/tuckahoes-toxic-trench
We are Pro-Testing & Pro-Safety: because this is where we live.
Tuckahoe hotel plan moving forward at toxic site
Dan Reiner, dreiner@lohud.com 2:44 p.m. EDT August 11, 2016
(Photo: Ernie Garcia / File Photo)
TUCKAHOE - Plans for a hotel and restaurant on the site of a contaminated landfill are moving forward despite public backlash.
More than 100 protesters filled Tuckahoe's Village Hall at Monday's Board of Trustees, spilling into the hallway, meeting to speak against the proposed 5-story, 163-room Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel and detached restaurant at 109-125 Marbledale Road.
The site was a marble quarry until 1958, a municipal dumping ground for more than 20 years and most recently an auto repair lot. Samples at the site spanning two decades have detected at least 21 contaminants of concern across the 3.45 acres, classifying it a brownfield in need of cleanup.
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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation project manager Kevin Carpenter identified the site as a "significant threat."
"In areas that looked like there could be more contamination, we've requested more sampling," Carpenter said in an interview this week.
He noted, however, DEC, in consultation with the state Department of Health, "only approves remedies for sites in the Brownfield Cleanup Program that are protective of public health and the environment, based on the intended future use of the site and its surroundings."
"The approved remedy for this site will be protective for the proposed use, and the site will be monitored following remediation to ensure that it remains protective into the future," he said in a statement.
Developer Bilwin Development Affiliates, LLC, hired consulting firm HydroEnvironmental Solutions (HES) to test and monitor the site. In July, HES released a 400-page remedial action work plan to deter harmful toxins from being released via soil vapors or through groundwater. The plan calls for additional ground wells, concrete caps and proper ventilation in the buildings to be installed.
A rendering of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott proposed at 109-125 Marbledale Road in Tuckahoe. (Photo: Village of Tuckahoe)
With a residential neighborhood and an elementary school just west of the site, village residents are troubled by the possibility of contaminants reaching the air.
“It’s not in the middle of nowhere," said resident Rachel Zolottev, whose husband, Vladimir, owns KI Martial Arts at 125A Marbledale Road. "You’ve got houses, a school, businesses. This is a constantly trafficked street.”
Zolottev marched with more than 100 residents in protest of the project before Monday's board meeting. During the meeting, which lasted nearly four hours, members of the public voiced various concerns.
“I’ve made myself very loud and clear for quite a few months now that this private property owner will be held to the strict requirement standards and oversight that we have at our discretion," Mayor Steve Ecklond said at the meeting. "It is our responsibility to make sure it is done right.”
Groups like Sierra Club and the Marbledale Road Environmental Coalition, of which Zolottev is a member, believe the village needs to do more extensive testing and analyzing for potential threats of exposure to the toxic waste.
“This is like dealing with a person who’s contagious and you don’t acknowledge they’re contagious," Zolottev said. "You don’t do any blood tests and you don’t know how sick they are. Is it Zika? Is it Ebola? Nobody knows how bad it could be.”
Bilwin first made an application to the planning board in June 2014, where the board declared a conditional "negative declaration" on the project, said Village Administrator David Burke. This meant that while there was potentially an adverse environmental impact, it was left to experts at the DEC and the DOH to review.
Over the past year, site plan revisions were at the planning board level while the DEC and DOH reviewed the environmental impact, Burke said. The DEC's decision document, in conjunction with the DOH, was released last month. The proposal is again expected to go in front of the village planning board Sep. 15.
Ecklond said Monday he anticipates a decision to be made "one way or the other" at the September meeting. He added that, depending on which way the board votes, he expects a lawsuit to be filed by the opposing party.
A representative from Bilwin could not be reached for comment.
“At the end of the day, I like to call it as I see it, that this application is going to be probably decided in Westchester County Court at some point,” Ecklond said.
The DEC released a question and answer document which is now available to the public.