Hunts Point Pollution

Tuesday, October 23, 2007


Hunts Point Residents Raising A Stink About Sewage In Area
June 09, 2007
A South Bronx community group organized a bus ride Saturday through what its members say are environmental trouble spots in their neighborhood.

Residents and environmentalists took a bus to the Department of Environmental Protection's Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant and the New York Organic Fertilizer Company to rally against the foul smell and pollution they say are caused by the two sites.

“I care very much about environmental justice in New York City as a whole so it’s definitely time for us to do our part to support each other, come out and support other communities that are dealing with the same problems,” said one rally attendee.

“[It’s time to do what’s right, to control odors, to do a real audit as to what’s coming out of that plant, and to install odor controls so that we don’t smell that out of the fence line, in the parks and on the greenway that we fought so hard for,” said another.

Advocates say the stench is especially nasty during the warm summer months and that it is contributing to the high asthma rates in city children.

“It’s a horrible smell,” said Jessie McDonald of Mothers on the Move. “And we’ve been trying to negotiate with them for years to come to some kind of conclusion that would benefit them and the community, but nothing ever worked out.”

“Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg has come out and said that he wants a green New York City,” said another Mothers on the Move member, Cerita Parker. “Okay. So, we want the same things he wants. This community is overburdened with so many city or state or whatever projects that are going on and we feel that we need something more positive.”

The group also toured the construction site of the DEP's new waste processors near Barretto Point Park, and the site of a new jail proposed by the mayor.

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