The NYSDEC has opened a 30 day public comment period on the renewal of the State Air Facility Permit for the East 91^st Street Marine Transfer Station through July 24, 2015.  This comment period provides an opportunity for the community to submit written testimony in opposition to the renewal of the Air Permit and state our concerns over air quality and traffic safety. These letters of opposition are necessary to apply pressure on the NYSDEC to hold a public hearing, and this is an integral next step in our fight against the MTS.

Send letters of opposition to:

Iver M Anderson
, NYSDEC Region 2 Headquarters
, 47-40 21st St, 
Long Island City, NY 11101-5407

Or email to DEP.R2@dec.ny.gov and please be sure to include “Comments on proposed renewal of NYC-DOS East 91^st Street MTS” in the subject line of the email.

Comments should be substantive and specific complaints pertaining to the negative impacts on Air Quality and changed conditions since the permits were first issued.

You can review a list of changed conditions and negative impacts on Air Quality at

http://pledge2protectnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/E.-91st-Change-Conditions.pdf

Even if you have already submitted previous letters, please take the time to do so again directly to the NYSDEC during this most important 30 day comment period.

Dear Members and Friends of the East 93rd Street Block Association,

The East 93^rd Street Block Association is proud to be partnering with a growing coalition of concerned citizens called Pledge 2 Protect.

Pledge 2 Protect’s mission is to stop the city?s plan to build a massive 2-acre, 10-story dump on East 91^st Street, and a full-scale garbage route. We pledge to protect the tens and thousands of New Yorkers facing the imminent health and safety dangers imposed by the dump.

We can do this by pledging to support only the politicians who publicly stand with us in opposition to the dump. Please help us to mobilize concerned citizens to hold our elected officials and candidates running for office in the 2013 municipal elections accountable for their positions on this issue, and persuade them to protect the many New Yorkers who will be affected by this misguided, dangerous trash dump.

We strongly urge all of our members and friends to take the pledge to protect our community by signing the petition and joining the coalition.  You can take action and sign the online petition by going to http://pledge2protectnyc.org

If we all work together we can stop the dump!

Marine Transfer Station Talking Points for Response to Army Corps of Engineers Request for CommentThis is our community’s most important opportunity to influence the E. 91st Str. Marine Transfer Station(MTS)  permit process  

In a recent press release Rep. Carolyn Maloney has announced that the

Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) will solicit public comment on the City’s Application to construct a marine garbage transfer station at East 91st Street and the East River adjacent to Asphalt Green.

Prior to making a permit decision, the district must complete essential fish habitat (EFH) consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service under the Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.”  In connection with that review, ACE is reopening the public notice period to give the community an opportunity to review and comment upon the City’s “mitigation” plan in connection with the proposed new dock. 

Rep. Maloney states in her press release that she is “hopeful that the Army Corps and the National Marine Fisheries Service will be able to halt this poorly conceived project.”.  However, written opposition from residents in our community is extremely important and must be received by the ACE prior to the August 24th deadline.  Rep. Maloney has requested that both individuals and groups submit as many letters as possible in opposition to the Marine Transfer Station and include personal references if you can to boating, fishing, wild life and any other experiences along the Esplanade and East River estuary.   The Estuary Guide to the East River and the Request for Comment from the Army Corps of Engineers are both  posted below –  click the link for further information.  

Public comments on the plan are due in writing by August 24, 2011 via mail.

If you wish to write an individual letter (please download the attached letter)  you must send it by mail before August 24th , 2011 deadline to:

Ms. Naomi Handell

Department of the Army Corps of Engineers

New York District

26 Federal Plaza, Room 1937

New York, NY 10278-0090

Army Corps of Engineers Individual Letter doc

Estuary Guide to the East River

Army Corps of Engineers Request to Comment

Marine Transfer Station -Talking Points from Rep. Maloney 

 -Let’s Keep Our Community Green-

STOP THE $125 MILLION FUNDING* OF THE NEW 77,815 square foot  MARINE TRANSFER  GARBAGE STATION  @ e. 91^ST Street

STOP SPEAKER Christine Quinn & THE CITY COUNCIL FROM BULLDOZING OUR DENSELY POPULATED RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY WITH  

5,280 TONS OF TRASH PER DAY

*The City Council will vote Wednesday, June 29 on the funding for the construction of the Marine Transfer Station (garbage truck to barge transfer)

JOIN THE RALLY 

TUESDAY, JUNE 28TH @ 6PM

Spread the word and bring your neighbors,families & children let your voices be heard !!!!   

Center garden at Isaacs/Holmes Towers

93rd Street & 1st Avenue

Assembly Members

Dan Garodnick & Jessica Lappin will speak

SPREAD THE WORD AND JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORS ON TUESDAY  

GO TO FACEBOOK IMPACTNY against the building of the East 91st Marine Transfer Station

June 24th, 2011

Dear Speaker Quinn – 

The more than 360 + signatures which accompany this letter represent residents from every walk of life: low, middle and upper income, children, adults and senior citizens.   We are a multi-cultural and racially diverse neighborhood.  As upper east siders we do not consider ourselves “elitist” but rather we are  proud of our diversity. We are equally proud of the renaissance that we are witnessing in our neighborhood.  In the past few years we have added public schools, as well as a school for the handicapped, senior citizens homes and many new apartment buildings. We have two hotels which cater to international and domestic visitors, a diversity of food shops as well gourmet stores, restaurants and even a local green market on Sundays between 92^nd and 93^rd Street offering the neighborhood organic vegetables and other farm fresh produce, locally caught fish, freshly baked breads and fruit directly from orchards in upstate New York.  This is a densely populated residential neighborhood which surrounds Asphalt Green which is the proposed site for the Marine Transfer Station at East 91^st Street.  The aqua center, play ground and playing fields of Asphalt Green serve more than 100,000 people a year with many free programs for low income children.  Asphalt Green is our “backyard”, this is a place where both children and adults can participate in a variety of programs as well as excel athletically.   This is what you would see if you WOULD VISIT OUR COMMUNITY!  As an elected official don’t you have a responsibility to visit your constituents who elected you – how can you mandate and judge what is right for a community if you do not want to come and see with your own eyes and understand who we are. 

When we hear the words “environmental justice” we literally cringe.  Is this not environmental injustice to mandate the construction of a garbage dump in the middle of a children’s playing field, athletic complex and in the heart of a residential neighborhood  less than 300 feet from low and middle income public housing?     Do we not continually question why third world countries force their people to live next to toxic waste dumps or a nuclear reactor – is this not the same thing.  We do not live in a dictatorship but a democracy which entitles us to have a voice.  You as well as the Mayor refuse to understand that we are a densely populated neighborhood with a high incidence of asthma and very poor air quality. Why do you wish to site a garbage facility next to a children’s playing field which serves low income families. Running garbage trucks through our neighborhood 24/6 will create an environmental catastrophe – toxic fumes, vermin, rats and scavenging birds (the bird excrement covering our local parks and playing fields).  This will destroy a tranquil residential environment.    You are acting as though we were living in a third world country by telling us that we are mandated to accept a toxic garbage dump.  To make it even worse you state that you will make it “environmentally safe”.  Does that mean that you will take care of us when our children, seniors and other at risk adults become seriously ill.   You tell us that there are ways to make a garbage dump more “environmentally” safe in a flood zone and in the middle of a children’s playing field.  Not having ever set foot in this district I am surprised that you would want to give these assurances.  When our neighborhood has been destroyed by the ineptitude of a few politicians who are no longer in office – who will rebuild our neighborhood?  Many of us who have signed the petition have lived in this neighborhood when the transfer station was active. We know what it is like to have garbage trucks lined up and idling in front of our buildings and the continuous foul odor which emanated from the site.  We are told in the first page of the proposal that the East River will need to be dredged to accept the garbage barges and that the eco system will be damaged. These are not our words but a statement of fact in the official proposal for the construction of the MTS.  We are told that the Esplanade along the East River is not a Park and that Asphalt Green is not Park.   Even though Asphalt Green appears on the Parks & Recreation website.

Speaker Quinn how do you define a residential neighborhood, an athletic complex, a playing field or even a park?  Why are you arguing semantics – please come and look at our neighborhood  and listen to the voices of  the young and the elderly and all  the people that live here  – please take a hard look at the alternatives and find a solution that is truly environmentally safe before you vote 125, 000 million dollars to fund this seriously misguided and politically motivated project.

Yours sincerely,

Tara K. Reddi

President

East 93^rd Street Block & Neighborhood Association

www.east93blockassoc.org

The Gracie Point Community Council

RALLY AGAINST

THE GARBAGE!

Proposed Marine Transfer Station site at E. 91st which will bisect the Aqua Center and Playing Fields of Asphalt Green

DON’T LET CHRISTINE QUINN AND THE CITY BULLDOZE OUR COMMUNITY WITH TRASH!

PROTEST THE $125 MILLION EAST 91ST STREET MARINE TRANSFER STATION

10 MILLION  POUNDS OF GARBAGE EVERY DAY!

Featured Speaker:

City Council Member Jessica Lappin

Date:    Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Time:    6 PM

Where:  ASPHALT GREEN Basketball Court

                 90th St. Between York +East End  Aves.