CURES Rails Over Waste Transfer Expansion
The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has approved an expansion of a waste transfer station in Long Island City, but activists in Glendale and Middle Village are concerned that the plans will add to already heavy freight rail traffic-and related noise and air pollution-in their neighborhoods.
Last Monday, June 11, the DEC gave its blessing to Waste Management (WM) to expand its waste transfer facility located on Review Avenue in Long Island City to accommodate the shipment of municipal waste collected by the Sanitation Department from areas within the confines of Queens Community Boards 1 through 6 in the northwestern and central parts of the borough. The expansion is part of the Solid Waste Management Plan previously approved by New York City.
Under the permit, WM will be able to “increase its storage capacity and transportation of container cars” filled with putrescible solid waste by truck from the station through a private roadway to the nearby Blissville Rail Yard. As many as 40 container cars will be allowed to be stored at the transfer station site, it was noted.
From there, the trash containers will be loaded onto freight rail cars, then shipped south along the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Montauk branch to the Fresh Pond Railyard in Glendale.
The 10-acre, 15-track Fresh Pond Railyard serves as the merging point between the Montauk and Bay Ridge branches of the LIRR, as well as a CSX rail line that runs north through Middle Village, Maspeth, Elmhurst, Woodside and Astoria to the Hell Gate Bridge. The waste cars from the WM facility would be shifted from the Montauk branch to the CSX line, then shipped northward out of New York City en route to a processing center in Virginia.
“This permit will result in more rail cars to park, classify and switch, more noise and more emissions from old, high-polluting, New York Stateowned “tier 0″ locomotives because of longer hours of operation at Fresh Pond,” according to a statement released on Monday, June 18, by the Civics United for Railroad and Environmental Solutions (CURES), a coalition of local community groups seeking improvements to local rail activity. “Fresh Pond already is a bottleneck. Based on current conditions, it can be anticipated that new operations that result from the Review Avenue permitting will spill over further onto tracks in residential areas and take place during more hours when people are trying to sleep.”
“Our communities are devastated by this news that the State of New York continues to set a course of degradation for the health and welfare of our communities,” added CURES Co-chair Mary Parisen in a statement. “This is an unsustainable course of action for freight transportation, economic development and community health.”
“This kind of decision by the DEC negatively impacts my residents directly,” said State Sen. Joseph Addabbo in a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly on Tuesday, June 19. He has sent a letter to the DEC asking it to reconsider its approval of the permit, observing that “I do not believe enough research” was done on the department’s part in examining the effects of increased rail traffic in the area.
“This railroad is here to stay, but certainly, there’s mitigation that we can do to alleviate the burden that people have to bear each and every day,” he added. “I need the DEC to see it that way.”
CURES voiced their concerns to the DEC about the impact of the expanded waste transfer facility in a March letter to the agency. In a response date on June 11 which was forwarded to the Times Newsweekly, John Cryan-the regional permit administrator for the DEC-indicated that the city’s Sanitation Department had previously evaluated WM’s proposal and its potential impacts. The department, he claimed, indicated that the impact to neighboring communities would be minimal.
“DSNY found that the WM proposal would increase the amount of rail cars currently handled at Fresh Pond Junction (Railyard), which would result in longer trains and require that Fresh Pond Junction supplement its operating hours,” Cryan wrote. “DSNY determined that the movement of these additional rail cars would not require that an additional locomotive be employed at Fresh Pond Junction.”
The letter went on to note that the Sanitation Department “concluded that the incremental change in noise and air impacts produced at Fresh Pond Junction in association with the WM proposal would not be considered significant” under the state Environmental Quality Review rules.
Each of the container cars filled with waste, he stated, would be sealed, thereby preventing any noxious odors from emanating into the air. Cryan added that “recent and proposed changes at the Fresh Pond Junction freight rail facility are expected to reduce noise and air quality impacts associated with the operation” of the rail yard.
As one example, he noted that the New York and Atlantic Railway (NYA)-which leases and operates the Fresh Pond Railyard from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)-agreed to relocate the area on which trains are coupled to steer clear of nearby homes. He added that the NYA also installed a new air brake charging system which reduces locomotive idling time from three hours to 30 minutes.
Cryan added that the NYA is “retrofitting its locomotives with equipment that enables locomotive engines to stay warm in cold weather without idling,” and that one of the two locomotives in use at the Fresh Pond Railyard would be replaced with a “Generator Set” engine that will reduce noise and air emissions. The new train is scheduled to arrive in 2013.
Addabbo indicated that “we have to look at every avenue” for alleviating noise and air pollution associated with rail traffic experienced by residents living near train lines. Federal funding is already in place for the purchase of “quieter engines” in the near future, but other solutions-such as sound barriers along the rail lines, a request voiced by many neighbors at civic meetings and e-mails on the matter-would require the allocation of government funding that may be hard to come by.
“With any idea that has a price tag attached to it, we’re going to have to keep fighting for it,” the senator added. “It’s a long-term fight. I hear the frustration of my constituents … but I’m going to work hard to find a resolution to this.”
