By Jonathan Cronin
"We recognize the people have concerns and do everything we can to provide a comfort level regarding items on site." Bill Cohn, attorney for New York Depot
Officials at the Department of Environmental Conservation said last week that the New York Depot Corporation Recycling site in Inwood may contain hazardous material from a sewage waste site in Queens.
DEC spokesperson Mark Lowry said the potentially contaminated soil came from a clean-out of a sewage site on Fowler Avenue in Queens. He said the material is a type of orange clay and is easy to spot, if it is there at all.
The New York Depot Corporation is a recycling company located at the entrance to Sanitary District One on Johnson Road. Residents have been angered by the corporation's seeming disregard for the community by keeping a soil pile approximately 60 feet in height and several hundred feet long on their property. Inwood Civic Association members have complained that the pile is potentially hazardous to a person's health and that it is blowing dust into the residential area near the site.
Mr. Lowry said there is reason to believe the material from the site in Queens is in the 60-foot high pile located at the start of the property. "If there is any contaminated material, that's where it is," Mr. Lowry said. He added that it would be hard to find the contaminated material because there is 200,000 yards of material on top of it.
Bill Cohn, an attorney for New York Depot, said the DEC is welcome to test at the site, as they have been doing for the past several months. "There's nothing to hide," he said.
The DEC is negotiating a new Order on Consent with New York Depot, which is a list of concerns that the DEC has and New York Depot must agree to. In this consent order the DEC is asking NY Depot to cut down the height of their piles, to make room on their property for emergency vehicles and cut down on the amount of material on the property. Currently there is approximately 200,000-250,000 cubic yards of material and they are being asked to cut it down to 150,000.
Within the past few months, the DEC has cited the company with several violations for operating without a permit and the company was to seek a variance on August 23 from the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals in order to gain the necessary permits from the state.
This was their second appearance in front of the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals, and received an adjournment once again. This time, citing that they had retained a new counsel, they withdrew their previous application for a variance to recycle soil, asphalt, gravel and concrete. After the withdrawal of the application, the board told Mr. Cohn that they will be sending investigators to the site to find out if they do indeed need a variance.
"We filed another application that supersedes it," said Mr. Cohn, who is the new attorney for New York Depot. In this new case he said that they are asking the Board of Zoning Appeals to find that they do not need a variance to operate their site. "At no event will we seek to store impermissible materials," said Mr. Cohn. He said that the violations given to them by the DEC were "paper violations," and not violations stemming from any contaminated material. "We are willing to discuss everything," he said.
"If the Town of Hempstead wants to investigate, they can come but the DEC will be conducting the investigation," said Mr. Cohn. "We will comply, we've never indicated otherwise.
"We are going to be furnishing samples for the DEC," said Mr. Cohn. He also said Sanitary District One will be able to come onto the property and pick the sites from which the DEC will test. "We recognize the people have concerns and do everything we can to provide a comfort level regarding items on site." He also said the company wishes to maintain an open dialogue with the community.
