Letter to Each Member of the New York State Assembly

Letter

Letter to Each Member of the New York State Assembly

In letters sent today to each member of the New York State Assembly, Congressman Jose E. Serrano and State Senator Jose M. Serrano called for the Assembly to support the full implementation of New York City's Solid Waste Management Plan and the reopening of the Gansevoort Marine Transfer Station in lower Manhattan . The text of the letter Congressman Serrano sent follows.

***
June 12, 2007

Dear Assemblyperson ________:

I am writing to express my deep concern about efforts underway to derail the unfinished business of implementing New York 's Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP). As you may know, certain communities in our city have been disproportionately burdened with handling waste and recyclables from Manhattan , creating dangerously high volumes of diesel truck traffic from waste haulers bound for outer borough transfer stations and out-of-state processing and disposal sites.

The city's Solid Waste Management Plan calls for reopening the Gansevoort Marine Transfer Station (MTS) to handle Manhattan 's recyclables, freeing the 59th Street MTS for commercial waste use. The use of locally-accessible, sensibly-sited marine transfer stations, such as the one planned for Gansevoort, would lessen the City's reliance on truck-based solutions to our waste disposal crisis and dramatically reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by both private and public sanitation trucks in the city of New York. These additional VMT, which amount to thousands of extra diesel truck miles each year, make the city as a whole a less livable place for all New Yorkers, not just for those who live near outer borough transfer stations or along major truck routes. We all live in a sea of bad air and the practice of trucking waste and recyclables great distances affects us all.

But a special burden is placed on those outer borough communities such as Hunts Point, Port Morris, and Greenpoint-Williamsburg, which are citywide destinations for recyclables and other forms of commercial and municipal waste. To leave Gansevoort shuttered or further delay the full implementation of the export plan would only perpetuate the environmentally-unsound practices that for years these communities have endured. Every day we delay and defer, more children are hospitalized with severe asthmatic episodes, more parents lose work days to care for them, and our health system is further burdened by costly hospital admissions to treat a preventable illness.

The Bronx does not want, nor does it need, more recyclables, commercial waste, or construction and demolition debris, and neighborhoods like East Harlem do not need any more outbound waste-hauling trucks rumbling through their streets en route to transfer stations and disposal sites. I fully support the SWMP's goal of equity and borough self-sufficiency in the handling of solid waste and the full utilization of marine transfer stations, valuable public assets that hold a solution to our waste crisis. I strongly encourage the State Assembly to overcome any outstanding objections and support the goals of environmental justice, borough self-sufficiency, and clean air by supporting the reopening of the Gansevoort transfer station.

Sincerely yours,

José E. Serrano
Member of Congress

Source