In a lawsuit currently before the New York State Supreme Court, Assembly Member Micah Kellner has sued the Department of Sanitation and the city on the grounds that the current plan for the 91st Street Marine Transfer Station goes against the 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan. In the original plan, the city planned to distribute waste to three new Marine Transfer Stations: the 91st Street Station near Asphalt Green, Gansevoort in the West Village, and another at 59th Street. Because the latter are about 10 years from construction – three behind the 91st Street Transfer Station, Kellner said the city must create a new Environmental Impact Statement, and immediately stop all construction and planning at 91st Street. At the hearing last week, the State Supreme Court heard both sides.

“To say a whole generation is going to go by before the other two stations will be finished when they were supposed to be constructed in tandem, one can assume that we will take on the burden of collecting more trash,” said Kellner.

The plan for the 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, as it stands, states that the MTS will handle about 30 percent of Manhattan’s residential waste, and eight percent of the borough’s commercial waste. In addition, the cost of the project has slowly escalated, from an original 30 million-dollar estimate, to $180 million. An independent budget office, however, calculated earlier this year that the actual cost of the project would be closer to $245 million, and might grow even larger.

Right now, the city has a permit from the Department of Sanitation to transfer 1800 tons of trash per day, but the permit of operation is up for renewal in the fall. The lawyer for the plaintiff, Albert Butzel, said that the city could very well increase the maximum garbage allowed to 5000 tons per day, which would create even more of an environmental, air quality and safety impact on the neighborhood.

“As far as the DEC and city sanitation are concerned, it’s going to be a lovely facility that has no adverse environmental effects other than noise, and it’s very hard to prove otherwise,” said Butzel.

City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, who has not changed her position on the plan, says that if the transfer station were built in a traditionally low-income neighborhood, the effects would be disastrous.

“I am incredibly proud to stand up for all five boroughs, to stand up for people with asthma and children with asthma who have been put upon for too long by the City of New York, and to say that every borough has to do its fair share in taking care of its garbage,” said Quinn in a recent statement.

But Pledge 2 Protect, the new non-profit that has been collecting signatures opposing its construction, say that her claims are inaccurate, saying that in terms of health effects, Yorkville is just as much, if not, more of an at-risk neighborhood with 62 percent more minorities than any other proposed site.

The main arguments of the opposing side are that the city has done everything legal within its power to ensure an accurate assessment of environmental impact, and the concerns by the neighborhood are purely speculative. In its respondent brief, The department of environmental conservation claims that the city cannot be sued based on intangible complaints, and injuries that have not yet occurred.

“The effects hypothesized by petitioners would require at least several uncertain future events to occur first: (1) the actual construction of the East 91st St. facility; (2) the failure of the City to construct the Gansevoort and West 59th St. waste processing facilities; and (3) decisions by private commercial waste carters to attempt to use the East 91st St. facility rather than transporting commercial waste out of the City by truck,” the statement reads.

Kellner said that he is not buying the city’s argument of speculation.

“The city is saying you’re being speculative and you should wait until it’s built. If it’s already built, this neighborhood will become a parade of both public and private garbage trucks.”

In fact, the process has already begun, illegally. Uncovered trucks were spotted recently carrying away debris from the old Marine Transfer Station.

The company contracted to build the new transfer station, Skanska USA, had agreed to transport debris from the old site only via enclosed trucks, but a concerned citizen recently snapped photos of trucks driving out of the site with open tops.

“Dust and debris was spewing out of them along with jagged metal,” said Kellner. “Skanska is already cutting corners when it comes to the community’s safety. If this is a harbinger of things to come this is bad news for Yorkville.”

The Assemblyman said that he actually hopes that putting the project at a standstill will slow down the momentum of the construction, and the idea will be abandoned altogether.

“The best outcome that they demolish current site, whether we win the lawsuit or the next mayor says this is a waste of city dollars, and then they can turn that platform into park space that the community needs. It would be a win-win.”

SCHOOL MOVE TO BE DECIDED JAN. 16
The Department of Education (DOE) has moved its Panel for Educational Policy vote on the relocation of Innovation Diploma Plus (IDP) from Dec. 20 to Jan. 16. The controversial vote will decide whether the high school will remain co-located with four other schools in the Brandeis Education Complex at 145 W. 84th St. or move to a soon-to-be-vacated building in Washington Heights.

The move was condemned by education administrators and local elected officials when it was proposed in October because they believed that the DOE was isolating IDP’s students, who are transferred to the high school because of poor performance elsewhere, to favor Success Academy, the education complex’s one charter school that hopes to expand in the building. DOE maintains that the move would be advantageous to students because they would have shorter commutes and be closer to the school’s partner nonprofit community development organization.

EXPRESS TRAIN DERAILS
Passengers on the A express train recently were stranded near 81st Street Station when the train’s last car derailed. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an undetected broken section of the rail caused one wheel assembly of the southbound train to jump the tracks around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, leaving over 400 straphangers waiting underground as a second train came to their rescue. The accident caused subway delays from uptown Manhattan to Brooklyn throughout the day by forcing the A and D lines to run on the local track. No injuries were reported, and service returned to normal in the evening.

CHRISTMAS TREE CLEAN-UP
The Department of Sanitation (DOS) is currently running a Christmas tree collection for mulching and recycling. Through Saturday, Jan. 19, the department is encouraging residents to leave their trees by the curb in front of their homes for pick-up. Tree stands, tinsel, lights and ornaments should be removed, and the trees should not be placed in plastic bags.

According to DOS, the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields and community gardens throughout the city.

The Department of Parks and Recreation is also holding a “Mulchfest” next weekend, Jan. 12 and 13, at designated sites around the city. Residents can bring their trees to be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover for the city’s plants, and free mulch will be given to anyone who brings a bag to transport it.

THINKING OF SUICIDE? FREE COUNSELING AVAILABLE
In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, the Samaritans of New York reminds the New Yorkers that it operates a free, confidential, 24-hour suicide prevention hotline in the city at 212-673-3000.

“The focus on the details of the tragedy, the memorials and the politics of gun control must also be accompanied by the need for greater access to mental health services for those who are depressed, experiencing trauma and/or experiencing some form of mental illness,” Samaritans said in an e-mail, noting that their service alleviates the intensity of the feelings that those in crisis experience and reduces their risk factors for suicide.

Samaritans of New York, part of the international suicide prevention organization that has centers in 42 countries, is the longest-running suicide prevention program in the city. They have answered over 1 million calls from people in crisis, and provide suicide prevention education programs for health providers and support groups.