The Story of Electronics (2010) - The Story of Stuff Project

The Story of Electronics, released today Tuesday, November 9th, employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution's collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill.

Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green 'race to the top' where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable.

Our production partner on the electronics film is the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, which promotes green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry.

City Should Be Cautious About Synthetic Turf - Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito -City Conversations - City Limits Magazine - CityLimits.org

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The issue of synthetic turf appears deceptively simple. With such a high demand for recreational open space throughout our city and a rising obesity epidemic, who would not want to facilitate greater use of our athletic fields? However, the debate over the proliferation of synthetic turf in our public parks is far more complicated than it appears at first glance. In evaluating these surface materials, policymakers must balance the health, environmental and safety implications of this surface material with community members’ desire for reliable, all-weather recreational space.

Synthetic turf has generated significant public and media attention in recent years, which has served to highlight a number of the dangers that have come along with its expanded usage on play fields. One synthetic turf field here in New York City, Jefferson Park in East Harlem, was closed by the City due to elevated levels of lead found on the ground; a number of these fields in New Jersey have also been closed for the same reason. An increase in the number of severe burns endured by children playing on the fields prompted the New York City Department of Health to commission a report, which indicated that excessive temperatures do occur on synthetic turf fields. Aside from the severe burns, synthetic turf also presents risks for other athletic injuries. It has been widely reported that New York Giants wide receiver Domenik Hixon severely injured his knee in a non-contact injury at the New Meadowlands Stadium that may have been caused by the synthetic turf field that was installed. After many concerns were raised about the environmental risks posed by the usage of crumb rubber infill from recycled tires, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation announced that they were no longer going to install this type of turf in the City’s parks.

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City, Environmental Protection Agency Make Deal to Test Schools for PCB Toxin by Bill Egbert - NY Daily News

Locally, MS 210 in Ozone Park is on the list of affected school sites...

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The city has agreed to test schools for PCBs and, if needed, come up with a plan to protect kids from exposure after a Daily News probe found the toxin in the window caulking of several schools.

The settlement between the city Education Department and the federal Environmental Protection Agency heads off a parents' lawsuit for now - and puts the schools under tougher federal scrutiny.

The deal dictates a million-dollar pilot study of five schools that could lead to much more testing.

"The program outlined in this agreement, along with general EPA guidance on managing the issue, will serve as a model for school systems across the country," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck.

Because PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were routinely added to caulking before the chemicals were outlawed in 1977, buildings nationwide constructed before then are at risk for serious PCB contamination.

The city had been in talks with the EPA since April 2008, when a News investigation found high concentrations of toxic PCBs in the caulking of several school buildings, in violation of federal law.

The Education Department expects the pilot study to cost about $1 million.

The EPA consent decree spares the city from having to pay millions of dollars in fines and also heads off a suit filed last year on behalf of Naomi Gonzalez, a Bronx mom of two, by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

"This doesn't get us all the way there," said Gonzalez, a teacher's aide, "but it's a real step in the right direction."

Following The News' probe, the city began testing old window caulking for PCBs - revealing contamination in 85 more buildings. The city has argued that left untouched, the caulking is safe.

The agreement, reached Tuesday, does not require the city to test all schools or to remove all PCB caulking it finds, but the EPA will monitor the city's actions.

While praising the settlement as a "positive first step," Manhattan Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said she's still committed to a bill demanding citywide testing.

Rep Weiner Secures $2.4 Million To Remove Toxic Waste At Floyd Bennett Field 2 Acres Of Contaminated Land To Be Cleaned

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn and Queens) and Barry Sullivan, Superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area, discuss plans to clean 2 acres of contaminated land at Floyd Bennett Field.

Standing near an overgrown, polluted section of Floyd Bennett Field that is marked with a “Danger” sign to warn passersby, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn and Queens) along with Gateway National Recreation Area Supervisor Barry Sullivan and representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, announced $2.4 million in funding to help clean 2 acres of land in Gateway National Park that is contaminated with fuel from over 40 years ago. The funding will help begin the process of transforming the area so that it will be safe for recreational use.

Floyd Bennett Field, which is a part of Gateway National Recreation area, is one of New York City’s hidden treasures. Located on the southeastern edge of Brooklyn, it is home to campgrounds, walking paths, fire pits, softball fields and even an archery pit for New Yorkers looking for a break from the bustle of the Big Apple. Floyd Bennett Field also serves as a training facility for the NYPD and, and it was previously used as a naval airfield and as New York City’s first commercial airport.

An examination conducted by the National Parks Service shows that the fuel contamination, which accumulated due to decades of use by planes and helicopters, has left unhealthy amounts of benzene, naphthalene and other harmful poisons and carcinogens in the soil. The funding pays for a cleanup of the soil in order to make the land safe for public use, as well as an investigation to determine the extent of the contamination. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the cleanup.

"We are very pleased that this issue is moving forward and we thank Congressman Weiner for his efforts in making significant progress towards containment and any necessary remediation in the area,” said Barry Sullivan, Superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area.

“This important cleanup is long overdue,” Congressman Weiner said. “This will be good for the park, good for the community and good for the environment. This is another chapter in our efforts to make this park better”

Soil Cleanup in Ozone Park Sparks Worries by Clare Trapasso - NY Daily News

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IT’S TIME for a deep clean — at a cost of about $1.5 million.

The state is hatching a plan to remove polluted soil from eight storage bays beneath an abandoned Ozone Park railroad track, where hazardous chemicals were once kept.

The cleanup, across the street from 101-32 101st St., is expected to start sometime this fall, state officials said. It is to be completed by the summer of 2011.
But some local leaders have raised concerns about the project. Community Board 9 is scheduled to vote on whether to support it at the board’s monthly meeting next Tuesday.

“If people are exposed to these chemicals over a long period of time, there can be an impact to their health,” said Bob Cozzy, an environmental engineer at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“These are chemicals that easily evaporate, and because of that, they have a tendency to go from the soil into the air.”

The chemicals were used by aircraft parts manufacturer Ozone Industries, and stored in bays across the street from Ozone’s factory.

The facility was sold in 1998, and the contaminated bays were declared a state Superfund site in 2003, state officials said.

The state plans to oversee the cleanup, which will involve removing about 2 feet of soil. The remaining contaminants are to be sucked out of the ground with a vacuum-like machine that will draw the chemicals out of the earth via a series of perforated underground pipes, Cozzy explained.

Groundwater contamination also will be monitored. It was 260 parts per billion the last time it was measured for carcinogens in August 2006, state officials said.

They expect that number has gone down, although there should be no more than five parts per billion, Cozzy said.

The cleanup is to be paid for by Endzone, Inc., which was created by Ozone Industries to handle the cleanup, said Ted Coyle, the corporation’s health, safety and environmental director.

Kubeer Sewkaran, owner of the custom-made cabinet company RK Design, located in one of the contaminated storage bays, has his own worries.

“There’s nothing wrong with the place,” said Sewkaran, who has to move his business out this month. “I’m going to close down the business because I can’t afford to rent another place.”

But he conceded, “They have to do what they have to do.”

Scientist: Throgs Neck Rehab Dumped Toxins into Little Bay by Joe Kemp - NY Daily News

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A bridge rehabilitation project that already has a list of snafus - including the death of a worker and a fire that resulted in weeks of snarled traffic - is being charged with yet another potential hazard: the dumping of high levels of lead and mercury in the water.

The blasting of lead-based paint on the Throgs Neck Bridge, the 2,300-foot span that connects Queens and the Bronx, may have contaminated the waters of Little Bay, according to an environmental scientist.

"I'm not by any means trying to attack the MTA [Bridges and Tunnels]," said Dr. James Cervino, an environmental scientist who serves on the Task Force on Health Effects of Toll Plaza Air Quality in New York City, a state panel.

"I want to urge them to start collecting samples and work with the community," Cervino said.

The MTA, however, argues that the bridge project has met all environmental safety requirements, and the new claims are simply unfounded.

"The process was performed in full containment, with additional restrictions imposed on work performed near sensitive locations," said MTA Bridges and Tunnels vice president Catherine Sweeney in a response letter sent last week.

According to the agency's monitoring of 103 dust-producing work days on the bridge, no dangerous levels of potentially harmful metals were emitted.

But those tests should have included more samples, Cervino said.

"They only tested air," he said, adding that his findings came from the water and the land along the shoreline of the bay.

Although his tests were preliminary, Cervino and community leaders plan to hire an independent laboratory to conduct a more thorough examination of the samples. The results of which should be known by mid-January, he said.

"We're grateful to [Cervino]," said state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose). "He's been more often right than wrong."

Considering the safety of the residents, Padavan hopes the new tests only prove the agency's claim that the area is toxin-free.

"I'd like them to be right," he said.

Concerned locals also hope the results don't reveal any threats to their health.

"I coach soccer under that bridge," said Anthony Melone, 44, the father of two young children. "Those kids roll around all over that field. This is ridiculous."

jkemp@nydailynews.com

Ozone Park Cleanup Raises Concerns by Lisa Fogarty - Queens Chronicle

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Businesses housed within the eight affected bays on 99th and 100th Streets between 101st and 103rd Avenues will have to leave, DEC says.

Some small businesses in Ozone Park will have to be temporarily displaced and residents are still wondering how they will be affected when the state performs a critical cleanup at a contaminated site, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Only a handful of people attended last Wednesday’s meeting at J.H.S. 210 in Ozone Park to hear the DEC’s proposal to address contamination at the former site of Ozone Industries, located between 103rd and 101st avenues and 99th and 100th streets. The low attendance wasn’t due to a lack of concern, but rather the city and state’s inadequacy in alerting residents to the problem, many said.

“Nobody showed up because nobody knew,” said one angry business owner.

Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Glendale) questioned the DEC about how traffic congestion caused by the project would affect residents — the agency responded that a plan would be put in place — and offered to help get the word out about the project. “You didn’t do a good job contacting the residents,” Miller said. “Maybe you’ll do a better job now.”

Until 1998, Ozone Industries, an aircraft parts manufacturer that operated at 101-32 101st St., rented several bays beneath the Long Island Rail Road that were used to store spent trichloroethene, hydraulic fluids and scrap metal chips. The DEC believes that solvents, oils and/or fluids may have been released in one or more of the bays.

Trichloroethene, or TCE, is a known carcinogen that, if ingested or inhaled over long periods of time, can cause liver damage and increase the risk of cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The state’s proposal calls for the removal of floors in eight bays, which would all be performed at the same time. Soil would be excavated and a soil vapor extraction system would be constructed to collect vapors from the deeper soils.

The implementation cost is $2.2 million, the construction cost is $1.5 million and an annual cost of $210,000 per year for two years following construction would be used to monitor the system. The entire cost would be paid for by Enzone Inc., an off-site paper company responsible for the area, said John Durnin, DEC’s project manager.

The DEC’s goal is to finalize plans by January, approve designs by the summer and begin the cleanup six to 12 months later.

State representatives said certain action plans would be put in place to ensure chemical vapors didn’t escape while the work was being performed, but this promise did little to satisfy residents’ concerns.

“Even if I close my windows, I get a breeze,” said Felicina Lisena, who lives across the street from the site. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to do one bay at a time so there’s less chemical exposure?”

The businesses within the bays, which consist mainly of storage units and utilities, will have to relocate while the work is being performed, DEC said. Durnin said it is the responsibility of Enzone and its environmental consultant company, AECOM, to work with the city and help reposition those companies.

In the meantime, neither Stephanie Renz at the mortgage company Northpoint Group, located across the street from the site, nor a spokeswoman at Tavella Plumbing, also across the street, have received an update about the DEC’s plans. A manager at Olympic Fence company, which has a main office on Atlantic Avenue but maintains a warehouse space in the affected area, said to his knowledge, the bay they use is not one of the eight that has been contaminated. Nevertheless, the city or state hasn’t provided him with an update on what to expect.

A representative from the DEC said an effort was made to alert business owners and letters had been sent to property owners, but that doesn’t always ensure tenants will be informed.

DEC is accepting written comments about the proposed remedy until Dec. 24. Submit comments to John Durnin, P.E. at NYSDEC, Division of Environmental Remediation at 625 Broadway, Albany, N.Y. 12233-7016.

School Windows Still Contain Toxic PCBs by Lisa Fogarty - Queens Chronicle

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By the time they’re in school, most children grow accustomed to hearing their parents echo cautionary instructions so common they’ve become part of the fabric of our society: wash your hands before eating and look both ways before crossing, to name a few.

But Naomi Gonzalez, a Bronx mother of two, has instilled in her 7-year-old daughter advice that may seem unorthodox at first.

“I don’t let her drink the water in school, and she knows to ask not to sit by the window,” Gonzalez said.

Her daughter’s school, P.S. 178, is one of 85 citywide public schools — 20 of which are in Queens — where the Department of Education found traces of toxic PCB-contaminated caulk on classroom windows last year. Gonzalez, along with parents in the Bronx and Manhattan, has filed a lawsuit against the DOE and School Construction Authority. And, with the help of attorneys from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, parents from Queens may not be far behind.

“These are really, really, really bad compounds,” said Miranda Massie, a lawyer at NYLPI. “There’s no doubt that other schools that haven’t been tested have been affected.”

Before the 1970s, PCBs, which stands for polychlorinated biphenyls, were added to the caulking material used to cushion window and door frames to make them more elastic, according to the NYLPI. Although they were banned in 1979, products that may still contain the compound include electrical equipment, oil-based paints, floor finishes and caulking — which has recently been found in abundance on many school windows.

PCBs volatize into air and don’t stay in place, Massie said, affecting the quality of air students breathe, as well as the soil around a facility.

“Even if they replace the windows, that doesn’t do it,” she said. “You need a complete clean up.”

The Environmental Protection Agency recognizes PCBs as potential cancer-causing agents in humans based on studies that found they caused cancer in animals. The toxin has also been known to negatively impact the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. According to David Carpenter, director for the Institute for Health and the Environment, PCB exposure, whether by inhalation or ingestion of PCB-contaminated foods, causes an irreversible loss of cognitive function and results in increased symptoms of hyperactivity, decreased general performance and decreased ability to deal with frustration — all of which constitute what is known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

At P.S. 65 in Ozone Park, which was built on a former industrial site where helicopter parts were made, a similar uproar was heard among parents when the toxin trichloroethylene was found beneath the building. TCE is known to cause liver, kidney and nerve damage. Many parents came forward to protest the unsafe conditions and the DOE retained external testers to test the quality of air inside the school.

“Kids were coming home with headaches,” recalled David Quintana, an education advocate.

At first, the DOE tried to sweep the PCB problem under the rug, Gonzalez and Massie said. “I attended a school meeting and left fuming,” Gonzalez said of a hearing two years ago with DOE health officials where parents were told the results of caulk studies performed on schools couldn’t be provided yet.

“Our children’s safety is too important to be casually dismissed by school construction authorities or anyone else,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. “Parents in the past have tried to raise money for independent assessments of those schools where PCBs were found, but this is something the city should provide.”

After what Massie calls more than a year of “dishonest denial” on the part of the DOE, the agency is now working to rid schools of the toxins, they say.

“We are engaged in positive and productive discussions with the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop an agreement on a plan to address the PCBs in NYC public schools,” the DOE said in a statement.

PCB-contaminated caulk found by DOE

• J.H.S. 25, Flushing
• J.H.S. 67, Little Neck
• J.H.S. 158, Bayside
• I.S. 210, Ozone Park
• P.S. 13, Elmhurst
• P.S. 22, Flushing
• P.S. 49, Middle Village
• P.S. 68, Ridgewood
• P.S. 76, Long Island City
• P.S. 84, Astoria
• P.S. 130, Flushing
• P.S. 159, Bayside
• P.S. 164, Flushing
• P.S. 169, Bayside
• Beach Channel H.S., Rockaway
• Cardozo H.S., Bayside
• Cleveland H.S., Ridgewood
• Hillcrest H.S., Jamaica
• H.S. Teaching Professionals, Bellerose
• John Bowne H.S., Flushing

A New Turf War : Synthetic Turf in New York City Parks From New Yorkers for Parks

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Is the first comprehensive study that identifies the issues surrounding the use of synthetic turf and offers a series of recommendations on how to determine when and where synthetic turf is appropriate in New York City’s parks and athletic fields.

The report is available online at:

http://www.ny4p.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=

Angry Parents Remove Dangerously Overheated Playground Mats by Jeff Wilkins, Elizabeth Hays and Rachel Monahan - NY Daily News

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Kian Mehran-Lodge, 5, with photo of his feet, which were burned in a Brooklyn playground. Alvarez/News

These city playgrounds aren't for child's play.

Black rubber mats designed to break a child's fall turn blistering hot in the summer, soaring to higher than 165 degrees, a Daily News investigation found.

Doctors at two city hospital burn units reported seeing 16 to 18 young children with playground burns a year, mostly from the mats under junglegyms and sliding boards.

"I have nightmares," said Anne Casson, whose toddler son, Will, ditched his shoes at Carl Schurz Park on the upper East Side one day last May.

"He stepped onto the black mats and was screaming hysterically," Casson said. "When I picked him up, the skin was just hanging off his feet."

The baby spent four days in New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where doctors administered morphine for intense pain.

The News, accompanied by NYC Park Advocates, took the temperature of mats under junglegyms at playgrounds in all five boroughs last Friday.

"It is unconscionable that the city continues to install products in playgrounds that hurt the most vulnerable park users - small children," said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, who took a 166.9-degree reading on the mats at Carl Schurz. "How many more have to get hurt until someone is held accountable?"

The News requested recent statistics on the number of burns at the 1,000 city playgrounds, but Parks Department spokeswoman Jama Adams said there were "no incidents reported."

The Cassons sent a letter to city officials with a graphic photo of their son's injuries.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs were posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot.

"We're not going to remove [the mats]," Benepe told The News. "Our playgrounds are the safest in the world."

Reyhan Mehran, a marine scientist from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, said her son Kian Mehran-Lodge was 14 months old in July 2004 when he was burned at Van Voorhees Park.

"We cannot understand why the city wouldn't immediately remove material that is known to severely burn children," she said.

Doctors said the highest temperatures measured on the mats could cause burns in less than a second.

At 140 degrees, it "takes about three seconds," said Dr. Palmer Bessey, of New York-Presbyterian's burn center, which treated two playground burns within the last two weeks and treats six to eight each year.

A recent U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission handbook recommended lighter colors for playground surfacing.

Barge Too Costly, Toxic Dirt to be Trucked from Rockaways by Asya Farr - NY Daily News

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Contaminated soil excavated from a former gas plant site in Seaside will be trucked away over local streets, despite pleas from concerned residents and elected officials to remove the stuff by barge instead.

An 18-month project to remediate the site - owned by National Grid - along Beach Channel Drive and Beach 108th St. is expected to produce 80,000 cubic yards of toxin-laden dirt, a National Grid official said.

Starting in September, the official said, an estimated 30 trucks a day will pass through local streets on their way to the Verrazano Bridge to disposal sites inland.

"They way they handle this is not going to work," said Lew Simon, Democratic district leader of the 23rd Assembly District.

Simon is among the many residents worried that the project might worsen traffic congestion on the peninsula, which has only two major thoroughfares.

"This project really frightens me. There are schools in the community," Simon said. "God forbid a truck jackknifes."

At a meeting with state and company officials last week, Simon, head of the Good Government Democratic Club, asked officials to barge the waste through Jamaica Bay.

But an official with the state Department of Environmental Conservation said that barging the soil would double the cost of the $35 million project and delay plans for an additional year.

"We deem it technically infeasible," said Douglas MacNeal, an environmental engineer for the state agency.

"The area is not large enough to accommodate the size barge we would be using," said MacNeal, noting that a ship is already docked at the gas plant site. "There is not enough room for both ships."

Transporting the waste by way of water also poses the risk of spillage, MacNeal said.

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, who did not attend last week's meeting, initially wanted the soil to be barged out, but now agrees with the DEC.

"Part of the problem with anything like this is the fear factor. The barging had too many avenues that could become a danger," said Pheffer, who noted that trucking would be faster and therefore safer.

One of the peninsula's two main roads would have to be shut down in order to move the trucks from the gas plant site to the barge.

"They fill the trucks up and spray a [sealing] foam on top of the dirt then put a tarp over it," said Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska. "It seems more plausible than losing one lane ... for the year and a half it will take for them to do this."

City Choosing to Forget - Selective Memory on Display in Uproar Over Delayed Yankees’ Parkland by Patrick Arden - metro

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When did the Bloomberg administration know that it was replacing parks lost to the new Yankee Stadium with polluted land?

That was the question City Councilwoman Helen Foster asked yesterday at a hearing on the project’s delays.

Costs to the city have doubled in the last two years, with the replacement parks’ bill climbing 84 percent to around $190 million. Yesterday, officials attributed part of the sticker shock to “unanticipated” cleanup.

“I can assure you that there was no attempt to underplay the cost,” said Liam Kavanagh of the Parks Department. But the city knew its replacement park parcels were contaminated — it’s even mentioned in the project’s initial environmental review. In 2006, Metro detailed the massive amount of pollution the city had found at the site.

The review acknowledged toxins exceeding state standards “were detected in soil samples from throughout the project area.”

Oil contamination was identified in dirt and groundwater.

National Park Service executive Jack Howard noted soil near the Harlem River had “petroleum-like odors.” With reason: The lot had hosted a Valvoline Oil facility and a power plant.

Mother Claims School Made Daughter Sick by Stephen Bronner -- The Queens Courier

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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.

Legal Loopholes Keep Parents in the Dark? by Henrick A. Karoliszyn - Queens Ledger

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View report - PA Gotbaum: Legal Loophole Keeps Parents in the Dark on Environmental Cleanup of Schools

Shouldn't parents know if a school is being built on toxins? Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum thinks so. Gotbaum wants to patch a loophole, she says, is puncturing the local school system - including Tech High School in Long Island City and the Robert Wagner School in Hunters Point.

Specifically, a recent report detailing a discrepancy in the Public Authorities Law (PAL), allows the School Construction Authority (SCA) to open education buildings on potentially contaminated grounds that could pose a health threat for school children.

When the SCA builds a new school on property it owns, state law requires that it submit a site plan to community board and give the City Council the opportunity to vote on the plan and conduct a public environmental review.

However, because of the ambiguity in the law, when a new school is being created on a leased site, these requirements do not apply. Even when there are known toxins present, there may be no public environmental review of the site, no opportunity for public feedback, and no Council oversight.

Gotbaum wants to change this.

She said the city is opening schools on leased sites that could be dangerous without City Council oversight.

Gotbaum stated the issue at hand is not whether or not schools in Queens necessarily pose an immediate threat. Her concern is to ensure that parents know when there is a potentially contaminated site. "Parents should have a right to know,” she said during a conference call with reporters last week. “Communities need to be notified."

With that idea she wants to pass a bill that will allow for clearness. That would be her subsequent step after drawing attention to the cause. Gotbaum insisted she would be able to close the hole in the system with the law.

She outlined her plans to do it.

Those included Council oversight of leased properties, having an outside consultant review the city's environment testing results, and availability of online public repositories that list contaminated school grounds.

Additionally, when the SCA leases an existing facility or constructs a new building, Gotbaum believes it should follow the rules by conducting a public environmental review.

"When it comes to our children's health, we can't afford to make poor decisions," she said. "State law must be amended to require a public process and environmental review of leased school sites."

Toxin Turns Up in School Buildings, but Officials Say There's No Danger by Bill Egbert - NY Daily News

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Window sills and door frames in dozens of city public schools contain a toxin that can lower IQ scores, causes asthma and is linked to cancer, a Daily News investigation has found.

Polychlorinated biphenyls are common in window and door caulking found in 266 New York City schools built or renovated in the 1960s and 1970s, officials concede.

Random tests, conducted in February and last month for The News, found the PCBs in eight of nine schools. Six of the nine contained levels of PCBs deemed unacceptable.

Last week in response to The News' findings, the Department of Education performed its own air and wipe tests in the affected schools. In all but one test, the PCBs in the caulking had not leaked into the air or surrounding environment.

At Public School 199 on the upper West Side, low levels of PCBs were detected in the first-floor cafeteria in both air and wipe samples. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said the levels were below those deemed unsafe by the federal government.

View Frieden's statement...

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"The independent consultant's findings resolve the central question raised by your investigation: Do PCBs pose a health risk in the schools where they're present in intact caulk sample? ... The findings clearly indicate they do not," Frieden said in a letter to the Daily News.

The buildings where PCB caulking at unsafe levels was detected by The News included five elementary schools and one middle school in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Besides PS 199, the other five were: PS 30 in Harlem; PS 86 in Jamaica, Queens; PS 160 and PS 178 in Baychester, the Bronx, and Intermediate School 131 in Soundview, the Bronx.

Brooklyn has 88 public school buildings built in the 1960s or 1970s; The Bronx has 61, Manhattan 53, Queens 39 and Staten Island 25.

Of the tested schools with unsafe PCB levels, the lowest level found was nearly four times the federal threshold of 50 parts per million.

City Department of Education officials insist the caulking poses no threat as long as it is left alone.

Spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said state regulations "permit the caulk to remain in place" and that the material is removed only when renovations take place. The department has no plan to remove all the material.

Experts say PCBs left undisturbed can still leach out of the caulking into surrounding material or become airborne.

From the 1950s through most of the 1970s, PCBs were added to caulking to keep it flexible, but that changed in the late 1970s when scientists discovered possible adverse health effects caused by exposure to PCBs.

By 1978, the Environmental Protection Agency listed PCBs as a probable carcinogen and issued standards for removal and disposal of materials like PCB-tainted caulk, now considered a hazardous substance.

Since then, owners of buildings with unacceptable PCB concentrations of 50 parts per million or more in caulking are liable for federal fines of $3,000 and $25,000 per day until the material is removed.

Even under its own policy, the Department of Education only removes window caulking during renovations, leaving tainted caulking in place in door frames and masonry joints. For example, the department's policy would have no effect at PS199, where caulking obtained from an outside door frame contained PCB concentrations more than 4,000 times the recommended acceptable threshold.

Over the weekend, after low-level PCBs were detected in air and wipe samples in the cafeteria, activities in the school were canceled and a cleanup crew was sent in.

"I'm concerned about the welfare of my child," said Bill Hawthorn, whose daughter attends kindergarten at PS 199. "If a child plays with this caulking or gets it in their system, what does that do to a 6-year-old? This may be the kind of thing where you don't want to take a chance."

Daniel Kraft, who heads the EPA enforcement and compliance division's toxics section in this area, said, "Wherever we find [PCB contamination] in high concentrations, we usually see it in adjacent materials."

Kraft suggested the education department's policy violates federal law.

"The notion that 'As long as we don't disturb it, we're in compliance with the regulations' is not an adequate interpretation," Kraft said.

Chemical hits children much harder

When the Environmental Protection Agency warns that PCB-tainted window caulking is a potential hazard, they're talking about the effect the toxins could have on grownups.

The ramifications for children, experts say, are even more alarming. Regulations still ignore the harm PCBs can do to growing children as so-called "developmental' toxins — even in low concentrations, they say.

"The picture is becoming clearer that PCBs are potent developmental toxins," said Robert Herrick of Harvard's School of Public Health.

David Carpenter of the Institute for Health and the Environment at SUNY Albany said PCBs interfere with thyroid hormones and testosterone, both important to growth and adolescent development.

Lab tests also show that even low-level exposure inhibits growth of brain cells, and several recent studies led Carpenter to conclude, "The higher the child's exposure to PCBs in early life, the lower the IQ and the more the child exhibits anti-social behavior, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-type symptoms."

A 2004 German study of children in schools with PCB-laden caulk found the compounds accumulated in students' blood.

Of the 377 pupils tested, 95% had low-level concentrations in their blood. The authors could not link the PCB concentrations to specific adverse health risks.

Japanese researchers have even suggested a link between widespread childhood PCB exposure and the spike in diagnoses of attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities.

Tainted caulking an 'emerging problem'

PCB caulking in public schools sparks special concern, but the problem isn't limited to schools.

Any building built between 1960 and 1977 that has not had all its caulking replaced is most likely still contaminated with PCBs at levels many times the threshold for recognized health dangers.

"The caulking issue is something the agency is looking at as an emerging problem," said Daniel Kraft, head of the Environmental Protection Agency enforcement and compliance division's toxics section in this area.

Daniel Lefkowitz, head of Westchester County's task force dealing with PCBs in schools, discovered the problem in caulking at his son's suburban school. That inspired the state's new protocol, requiring an aggressive response to remove tainted caulking.

Lefkowitz said contamination also has been found at Mount Sinai Medical Center and at the sprawling Co-op City in the Bronx.

wegbert@nydailynews.com

Queens School Shut Down After Mercury Spill Could Reopen Monday - NY1

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A Queens school that was shut down Thursday after a mercury spill could reopen as soon as Monday, if air tests taken this weekend come back clean.

The Humanities and Arts Magnet High School in Cambria Heights was evacuated after school officials say a staff member dropped a barometer containing mercury.

As a precaution, the school decided to relocate all 2,500 students and bring in a private contractor to clean up the spill.

Exposure to mercury can have serious health effects including lung and brain damage.

Various Local News Sources: Gennaro Fighting Toxic School Sites...

Times Ledger - Gennaro Fighting Toxic School Sites

by Alex Christodoulides

Two City Councilmen are seeking to put pressure on the state Senate to close a loophole in the city's school-siting law that they blame for allowing students to be placed in leased schools that are contaminated by toxic chemicals.

One such school site is the Gateway to Health Sciences High School project, which is to be built adjacent to Queens Hospital Center after the City Council last month mandated extensive cleanup of soil at the site that is contaminated by petroleum. City Councilmen James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), head of the Environmental Protection Committee, and Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), chairman of the Council's Education Committee, held a press conference on the steps of City Hall Monday to demand that the state Senate pass either the state Assembly's stronger version of the bill - mandating Council review for contaminated school sites - or a compromise bill. They were joined by representatives of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, West Harlem Environmental Action, Healthy Schools Network and the Sierra Club. "Providing a role for City Council in the school-siting process doesn't introduce politics - it introduces democracy," said Gennaro. "The involvement of the City Council in the recent É Gateway School siting was widely regarded as a win-win for both the city and the affected communities and vastly improved the city's original plans."

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School Toxic Loophole May Not Close

by Lee Landor

The New York City Council’s Education Committee unanimously passed a resolution in support of State legislation to close a loophole in the city’s school siting law last week.

If it reaches the State Legislature and is passed, the legislation will amend the Public Authorities Law to clarify that leased educational facilities should be subject to the same public notice, Council approval and environmental review as new school construction, according to New York Lawyers for the Public Interest attorney Dave Palmer.

The School Construction Authority, which is responsible for finding new school space throughout the city, both builds new schools on purchased property and leases existing facilities and remodels them into appropriate school locations.

To build a new school, the SCA is required by state law to submit a site plan to the local community board, to afford the City Council an opportunity to review that site plan and to undergo an environmental review. Each of these prerequisites allows for community involvement, consultation and dialogue regarding the construction and introduction of a new school in the neighborhood.

When it comes to leasing property, the SCA argued that its leasing program was not subject to the same process, even on sites where there is known contamination, Palmer said.

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Queens Chronicle - Pols Spar Over Council’s Place In School Leases
by Joseph Wendelken...

The place that the City Council and community boards occupy in the process of siting schools on leased property sits at the heart of an increasingly contentious debate between city and state lawmakers. Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) sharply criticized state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) for sponsoring legislation that codifies the environmental examination requirements on such sites without including the City Council in the review process. Padavan’s bill instead places community education councils at the heart of the review process. Students’ parents, who comprise these councils, are greater stakeholders in the process, Padavan argues. With school overpopulation an issue the city faces perennially, the School Construction Authority regularly considers both leased space and sites for purchase. By state law, sites are subject to environmental reviews and reviews by the local community boards and the City Council before their purchase. Although the School Construction Authority is not required to go through this process when considering property to lease, a bill passed the Assembly last month that would close this loophole. Padavan, Gennaro and Mayor Michael Bloomberg agree on the necessity of greater environmental reviews of leased sites, given that 31 percent of new school seats in New York City over the next five years will be created through the leasing program. But Gennaro and David Palmer, an attorney for the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a group that lobbied for the Assembly bill’s passage, said that Padavan committed to supporting the bill as it appeared in the Assembly. Padavan countered: “They had no such commitment. We only committed to looking into the matter.” Padavan sponsored an amended Senate bill, which the mayor supports. Gennaro, the chairman of the council’s Environmental Protection Committee, called Padavan’s bill watered-down and said the senator “abandoned the (Assembly) bill and the children it would help.” At a Monday press conference with Council members Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) and Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Gennaro added: “Senator Padavan needs to keep his word, stand up for our children, and get ... his colleagues to pass a bill that truly protects the health and safety of the city’s school children.” Gennaro said that it is “widely understood” that Padavan submitted a weaker bill to align himself with Bloomberg, who wants to limit the role of the City Council in the siting process.

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