Fear over Gravesend waste station plan

BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 4:00 AM

Assemblyman William Colton calls plans for a waste station in Gravesend 'unthinkable.'
A proposed waste-transfer station in Gravesend is dredging up bad memories from the past - and maybe a whole lot more.

"Putting a waste station at this site would dredge up 30 years of toxins to the surface," said Assemblyman William Colton (D-Bensonhurst). "To take such a blatantly hazardous path is unthinkable."

Many residents agree that it is a bad idea to stir up the mud.

"This is going to screw up my fishing," said James Carbonarow, 65, a war veteran and life-long Gravesend resident. "That spot was spewing out all kinds of awful gook."

But the Sanitation Department, which would operate the new facility, has said the construction would be safe and that any impact from dredging up the dirt would be immediately handled before it could be released into the community.

Like many things Brooklyn, this one is all about location.

To construct the marine transfer station, which would be on Shore Parkway at the foot of 26th Ave., Gravesend Bay would have to be dredged to permit bigger barges. Such dredging would release lead, PCBs, mercury, toxic ash and other contaminants into the water, spoiling boating and fishing in the bay and creating a health risk, Colton charged.

That's because it's also the same site as the former Southwest Brooklyn incinerator, which operated at the spot for more than 30 years.

The incinerator's debris has been blamed for everything from cancer to asthma, allegedly caused by the numerous pollutants still deep within the mud, according to Colton.

"It's only common sense to say that this could be a disaster," said Michael Picarello, who has owned La Casa Bella pizzeria, which is two blocks away from the site, for 14 years. "I am worried that the smells could cause people to move out and hurt my business."

But the proposed waste station, which is one of several included in Mayor Bloomberg's waste-management plan, was approved by the City Council - and Sanitation Department officials said the site has already passed all the environmental tests.

"The Department has conducted a thorough environmental review of the proposed facility and found that there are no significant impacts that cannot be mitigated," said Sanitation Department spokesman Matthew Lipani.

For one life-long resident, it was a practical matter.

"We live in a city and unfortunately people make a lot of garbage," said Gravesend resident Louis Santa, 71.

"It has to go somewhere."