For 12 years, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has known about a potentially deadly chemical in the soil on a city-owned site less than two blocks from an Ozone Park public school - but cleanup plans have been snagged by red tape.
Now, the mother of a former student of Public School 65 is suing the city.
“I had no idea that the school was sitting on a toxic plume,” said Katie Acton, who believes her daughter developed chronic asthma while attending the 99th Street school, beginning in 1999.
“If I had known, I would have removed her long before the three years,” added Acton, whose daughter, Kaylyn is now 15. “When I did remove her, it made a big difference.”
The community did not learn of the toxic chemicals left behind by an aircraft parts plant until 2002. Soon after, the state ordered a clean up, but the chemicals are still in the ground. DEC officials, P.S. 65 administrators and the Department of Education (DOE) maintain there is no danger for the students and staff of the school.
“Back in 2002, we became aware of concerns from the school community about the soil and air,” said Marge Feinberg, a DOE spokesperson. “This has not been an issue since the indoor air was tested and found to be acceptable.”
She added, “To allay concerns of the community regarding soil, the Department of Education installed additional ventilation and barriers to keep any vapors from the soil away from the building that houses the school.”
When asked about Acton’s lawsuit, Feinberg responded, “We do not comment on pending litigation.”
Seven years after the DEC discovered the pollution, the agency took action. In February 2003, the DEC reached an agreement in court for a clean up with the company responsible for the pollution, End Zone Inc., previously known as Ozone Industries, said DEC spokesperson Maureen Wren.
However, work has not begun.
“We’re at this crossroad where we collected a lot of assessment and data and now we’re just figuring out the best way to mitigate the site,” said David Austin, a senior project manager for ENSR, a private international environmental and energy consulting company hired by End Zone.
Degreasing chemicals that were used by End Zone, an aircraft parts manufacturer, contaminated the soil under the site, according to a DEC summary. The city, which owns the land and most of the buildings at 99th and 100th Streets between 101st and 103rd Avenues, rented the space to the factory.
The city’s Division of Real Estate Services, which serves as the landlord of city properties, could not be reached for comment.
In addition to the school, residences and shops are near the site. A row of homes and a masonry company are across the street. Other manufacturing companies occupy the spaces under the abandoned elevated Long Island Railroad tracks along 99th Street.
The DEC declared the land potentially dangerous, but concluded in a summary of its study that while “Groundwater beneath the site has been contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) due to past site operations,” it needed additional information to determine the extent of the pollution.
ENSR investigators found chemical concentrations in the soil exceeded state standards, Austin said. That landed the site in the DEC’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which oversees the cleansing of contaminated properties so that they can be reused or redeveloped, according a 2007 DEC document.
Austin said the project is currently in the remedial stages, meaning ENSR will determine when and how to clean up the site. He cites red tape for the long delay.
“Every step of the way we have to provide a draft work plan to the state, and they typically take three to four to five months to approve it,” said Austin. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but that’s the way they operate.”
The city’s ownership of the land complicates matters.
“Before we do any work, we have to get an access agreement from the City of New York,” Austin said. On average, this takes two to six months, he said. Once the firm visits the site, it collects data, then conducts lab work and analyzes the findings, which takes months. This process has repeated two or three times, Austin said.
“A lot has been done since 2004, if you consider the work that it takes. That is the reality of a site like this, when the state is involved and the city owns the property,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DEC contends the public has nothing to worry about. “Due to the groundwater contamination, this is a significant threat to the environment and the public health,” Wren said. “However, the area is served by a public water supply and the concern of potential vapor contamination in the P.S. 65 school was eliminated with the installation” of a soil purifying system in October 2002.
Walter Hang, founder of Toxics Targeting, a New York-based company that investigates potentially dangerous sites for homebuyers, consultants and engineering firms, said the only way to solve the problem is by removing the pollution.
“What you’re really concerned about is, did the authorities respond to the problem and in effect clean it up, or did they not?” he asked.
Exposure to large amounts of TCE could cause asphyxiation, chronic health problems like cancer and long-term neurological disorders, according to The Risk Assessment Information System, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The New York State Department of Health’s February 2005 fact sheet on TCE calls the risk from the chemical “low.” It says, “the guideline is based on the assumption that people are continuously exposed to TCE in air all day, every day for as long as a lifetime. This is rarely true for most people who are likely to be exposed for only part of the day and part of their lifetime.”
Acton, meanwhile, hopes the lawsuit will help to move things forward. “I don’t want another child to go through what my child went through,” she said.
