By Kathianne Boniello
Bayside’s Fort Totten boasts roughly 120 acres of land jutting out into Little Neck Bay with stunning views of the East River in a quiet, parklike setting.
It seems peaceful at the former U.S. Army base, but as the city gets ready to take over the land later this year, civilian members of an environmental review board have criticized the Army for not doing enough to cure problems they said could hamper the future use of the property.
Members of the Army Restoration Advisory Board, or RAB, said the Army has not done enough to take care of environmental issues on the base such as a large landfill or old, unused explosives — known as unexploded ordnances — which could be scattered throughout the property. The landfill was closed in the 1940s.
The U.S. Army began the final stages of its efforts to give ownership of Totten to the city last week during a final meeting of the RAB on Aug. 8, when members were asked to sign off on official transfer documents for the property.
Peter Koutroubis, the Army representative for the RAB who has overseen the transfer process, said the RAB’s concerns about the property were duly noted.
“We’re at a point where we’ve complied with the environmental process,” Koutroubis said of the Army’s environmental efforts at Totten. “At this point we’re done with our public meetings.”
Koutroubis said the majority of the landfill is covered by a parking lot on the southeastern corner of the base and would remain on Army property even after the base is transferred to the city. The 77th Regional Support Command plans to maintain its site at Totten, he said, leaving the landfill under Army supervision.
Larry Ordine, community co-chairman of the RAB, decried what he called the Army’s lack of interest in the environmental problems on the fort.
“As far as the community is concerned, we’re inheriting land that has a mysterious landfill and that might have unexploded ordnances on it,” he said.
Ordine said he has repeatedly asked the Army to investigate the contents of the landfill and to expand its previous investigation into the proliferation of unused explosives at Totten.
RAB member Bob LoPinto said the Army could have done more to soothe environmental concerns.
“This is the environmental sign-off, so to speak,” he said of last week’s RAB meeting. “The Army did as much as they were going to do.”
LoPinto and Ordine said the Army’s studies for unused explosives at the fort did not go deep enough or include enough of the property for the investigation to be conclusive.
Koutroubis said the unused explosives study indicated there were few to none of the ordnances on the base. Those results did not reveal a need for further testing, he said.
After the Army decided to close the Civil War-era fort in 1995, it established Restoration Advisory Boards, or RABs, to oversee environmental concerns at Totten during its transfer to the city. RABs are composed of community and government representatives.
A separate RAB established by the Coast Guard has been dealing with mercury contamination on the base, which is in a separate portion of the fort than the Army property. The Army and the Coast Guard shared the land.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
