Serranos Warn Other Leaders Not To Look To The S. Bronx For Increased Waste Handling

Press Release

SERRANOS WARN OTHER LEADERS NOT TO LOOK TO THE S. BRONX FOR INCREASED WASTE HANDLING

Today Congressman José E. Serrano and State Senator José M. Serrano reacted to press accounts that the Bloomberg Administration's new garbage plan is running into opposition in Albany . Both Serranos warned that the South Bronx cannot continue to serve as a destination for a large portion of Manhattan 's recyclables, commercial waste, and construction and demolition debris. They also expressed concerns that a delay in the plan's implementation would continue an untenable and destructive practice of trucking such waste and recyclables through East Harlem en route to transfer stations in the Hunts Point and Port Morris sections of the South Bronx .

"The South Bronx already does far more than its share of the waste handling in New York City and unfortunately it has the truck traffic, smells and health problems to show for it," Congressman Serrano said. "Any new proposals on how to handle the City's waste should take that fact into account and seek to reduce the South Bronx 's waste handling, not increase it.

" Albany politicians may not like Bloomberg's plan, but their substitute ideas should not include the typical ‘push the unpleasant activities in impoverished neighborhoods' thoughts of past decades of urban planning. Our borough has done enough for the rest of the City in these areas—it's time for the rest of the City to shoulder its fair share."

"We cannot afford an alternative waste transfer site in already overburdened, poor neighborhoods of Manhattan and the Bronx - neighborhoods that register some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the nation," Senator Serrano said. "The Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) recognized this fact and addressed it. Now politicians are trying to revert to the past, when underprivileged areas handled all of the City's waste. This is no longer acceptable."

"Every day the SWMP is delayed, garbage continues to be trucked through the outer boroughs that have born the burden of Manhattan 's waste for years. It is time that we embraced borough self-sufficiency so everyone in this city can do their part in handling their own trash."

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