FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 17, 2005

Contact: Ben Allen (202) 225-4361

Letter to Councilman Miller on Waste Management Proposal

 

Washington, DC, June 17, 2005—Today, Congressman José E. Serrano (D-NY) sent the following letter to New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller:

 

 

            June 17, 2005

 

 

 

The Honorable Gifford Miller

 

Speaker of the City Council

 

250 Broadway, 30th Floor

 

New York, New York 10007

 

 

 

Dear Councilman Miller:

 

 

 

I am writing to you to express my profound concern over your revised proposal for managing municipal waste—a proposal that threatens to undo many years of painstaking work and negotiation by community organizations and environmental groups in my district and throughout the boroughs of our city.  I believe that any plan that does not directly address the reactivation of dormant Manhattan transfer stations to handle locally-generated residential waste does this city a great disservice.  As you may know, for far too long certain communities have been unfairly burdened with garbage from other boroughs or with the public health impacts of high volumes of waste-related diesel truck traffic.  Under the present system, the trucks are invariably bound for outer borough and out-of-state processing and disposal sites and disproportionately pass through neighborhoods of color, particularly East Harlem, the South Bronx, and Williamsburg.

 

I believe that the Pier 76 scenario you have presented is illusory and another attempt at delaying the implementation of a just, desperately needed, and environmentally sound solution to our waste crisis.  Further, I understand that your plan will actually result in the reduction of Manhattan’s projected commercial waste capacity by 780 tons per day.  My constituents and I are naturally concerned about how this capacity shortfall would be handled.

 

On the other hand, the Department of Sanitation's Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) is a sensible and equitable plan that would greatly reduce past inequities by ensuring that garbage is handled locally and trucked minimally.  While not perfect, this plan would have a positive impact on the health of low-income communities currently confronted with high volumes of truck traffic and clusters of waste transfer stations.  Clearly, utilizing pre-existing Marine Transfer Stations to barge residential waste out of Manhattan offers the greatest opportunity to reduce diesel vehicle miles traveled through asthma-plagued communities. 

 

While I strongly endorse the re-use and re-opening of the proposed marine transfer stations, I firmly oppose any attempt to use these marine transfer stations to move trash from one borough to another.  The Bronx does not want, nor does it need, more trash from other boroughs, and neighborhoods like Upper Manhattan do not need any more outbound waste-hauling trucks rumbling through their streets.  As such, we fully support the SWMP's goal of equity and borough self-sufficiency in the handling of solid waste and the full utilization of marine transfer stations, valuable public assets that hold a solution to our waste crisis.  However, without every element of the plan in place, including a re-opened Marine Transfer Station at E. 91st Street to handle residential waste, the concept of borough self-sufficiency would fail and Manhattan would continue to produce far more waste than it could possibly handle.  I strongly encourage you as Speaker of the City Council to speak for all of the citizens of New York and support the proposed Solid Waste Management Plan, a plan that furthers the goals of environmental justice, borough self-sufficiency, and waste reduction.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

                          

                                             

 

José E. Serrano

Member of Congress