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Ocean Disposal
of Toxic Dredge Material In The New York Bight
by Kerry Sullivan
ITS NOT JUST MUD! I'm sure you have seen the quarter page
propaganda advertisements that have appeared in the local daily
newspapers in New York City in the past few weeks, paid for by an
organization called the Port Commerce whatever declaring that the
Port Authority of NY/NJ plans only to dispose of clean mud out in
Raritan Bay in what are called “Borrow Pits” 2500 feet from
Staten Island's beaches, and other areas of the New York Bight. They
claim in large type “ITS JUST MUD!”. What an insult. What an
insult to the intelligence of the people of Staten Island, New York
State, and the whole Country.
Does the Port Authority of NY/NJ and the Army Corps of Engineers
actually think that the citizens of this city are imbeciles? Do they
think that we are idiots? Do they think that by running ads like
that they sweep the problem of disposing of millions of cubic yds of
toxic MUCK away?
The Corps and the Port Authority have insulted my intelligence, and
yours. They have made my fighting mad, I had been told that Mr. Joe
Seabode has left the Army Corps New York Districts Regulatory Branch
which I had thought was the greatest thing to happen to the Port of
New York in years, But know I find out there is just another
psychopath out there telling the uninformed public to “just trust
us” that the millions of cubic yards of contaminated dredge spoils
that we plan to dump off your beach is JUST MUD! That ladies and
gentlemen is a cold faced lie.
Unfortunately I have been faced with a personal illness for the past
eight months, and I have not been able to write this column, or to
get information out to the citizens of this area on what is going on
in our marine district. But these lies being published in the local
daily have made me angry. If it was just mud we are talking about,
why pay the large sums of money to have the ads placed? Because it
is propaganda that's why. Its not even MUD, its MUCK ladies and
gentlemen, its loaded with Agent Orange, dioxins, mercury, lead,
arsenic, petrochemicals, cadmium, PCBs and some yet unnamed chemical
agents that the Dept. Of Defense contracted the Diamond Shamrock
Corporation, and other chemical giants to do research on during the
Viet Nam War, When the Viet Nam War ended, they just dumped these
chemicals into the waters of Newark Bay.
They just dumped these poisons into the water! That's all they did.
And then they just walked away.
ITS NOT JUST MUD, ITS TOXIC MUCK, And We don't want it polluting our
waterways. We don't want it entering our food chain through the sale
of the fish caught commercially in the New York Bight, and sold
throughout the nation, and we don't want it spraying over our
beaches and homes during one of the raging Nor'easter storms that
hits our shores every Fall and Winter. This plan to dump these
chemicals on us is outrageous. It must be stopped.
This option for the disposal of this toxic muck out in the marine
environment must be eliminated from what is being called the Dredge
Material Management Plan for the Port of NY & NJ (DMMP).
Somebody isn't listening out there. Or somebody just doesn't care.
The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was due out two
weeks ago. The FEIS will have in it what the Port Authority &
The Army Corps hopes is the final solution to their dredging problem
here in the Port of NY, I guess they didn't realize that they were
going to really piss me off with those Ads!
There are about a half dozen different options of decontamination
technologies that they USACE has at their fingertips to utilize as
safe and effective ways to dispose of this TOXIC MUCK, they must
start to utilize these other options as soon as possible. The most
sought after means of disposal, which of course is the cheapest, is
to pick up the muck from Point “A” and disposing of it at Point
“B”, Point “A” being the parts of Newark Bay and along areas
of the Arthur Kill waterfront that large chemical corporations have
had a free reign on dumping into for decades, just dumping toxic
material in to the surrounding waters. Point “B” being the Lower
New York harbor off of South Beach and Midland Beach, and in other
areas under the guise of Restoration Projects.
The Grassy Bay project over in Jamaica Bay is included as a possible
recipient of some of this material under what is being called the
“Jamaica Bay Restoration Project”, Another possible solution for
some of the material is fill for the new “Hudson River Park” on
the West side of Manhattan, being touted as “beneficial uses of
dredge material”. There are no beneficial uses for this material
in a marine environment, it gets into the food chain ladies and
gentlemen. Remember your basic biology in High School, The food
apex? The worms and small animals and insects get their nutrients
from the soil and plants, then they get eaten by larger animals, all
the way up the food chain to humans?
You cannot cover the bottom of any bay or ocean with toxic material,
and not expect it to make it into the food chain. Sea worms, sand
worms, clams, oysters, mussels, plankton, etc., will filter these
poisons out of the MUCK, and in turn be eaten by larger marine
species, that will eventually be served to humans as the main course
in some nice seafood restaurant somewhere, someplace. Is this all
making sense? Governor Pataki, Governor Whitman are you listening?
Governors, we want decontamination of this toxic MUCK, we don't want
any marine disposal of these highly contaminated dredge spoils near
our beaches, near our homes, near our families.
In Section 8, Page 24 of the Corps DMMP it states “Treated
sediment could potentially be a valuable resources, and it would be
preferential to find beneficial uses rather then disposal in the
ocean”, That statement is taken verbatim from the DMMP, so now why
are they saying its just mud? Because its cheaper that's why. Its
cheaper for the Port Authority to dispose of this material in our
backyard then it is to decontaminate it. It will make more profit
for the Port Authority in this century then you could ever believe.
It will keep the low paying sweatshop jobs in Latin America
generating large profits for importers, it will keep the slave labor
camps of the Peoples Republic of China operating at full scale, it
will keep low quality goods on our store shelves well into the 21st
century if only they can dispose of it the cheapest way. It will not
ever show a profit to a brain damaged child.
Another option is to have the federal courts uphold the clean air
act, the clean water act, and numerous other acts designed to
protect us from these corporate polluters, and make them utilize
existing technologies to decontaminate this material, also opening a
new field of research into decontamination technology. I would sweat
out this coming election if I was a politician in office seeking
reelection this November, because based on records of some local
pol’s, We don't need them ‘round here. You can find out some of
our local representatives voting records on the environment by
getting on the Internet and going to www.nrpa.com, and on Political
Contacts page there is a LINK to voting records for politicians, You
should check this one out. You should remember how they voted, and
if they voted in your best interest in November when reelection time
rolls around.
This planned dumping of contaminated dredge spoils in the New York
Bight, The Florida Key's, Rhode Island's, Narrasagett Bay, and
Washington State's, Puget Sound has got to stop, Decontamination
technologies must be utilized for these toxic, and deadly dredge
spoils!
If you want a copy of the Corps Final Environmental Impact Statement
for the New York project which is due out any day now call Bob Kurtz
at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at (212) 264-2230 and ask for a
copy, you will see yourself what they have planned for this MUCK,
the FEIS is free.
For more information call (718) 987-6037.
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