City studies stench, but residents want action
By Luis M. Mostaceroluismartinnyc@gmail.com
Photo by Jolie Ruben
Toting a coffin to symbolize the death of clean air, demonstrators from Mothers on the Move marched to the NYOCO fertilizer plant, whose striped smokestack can be seen in the background, to protest the odors it emits,
For decades, Hunts Point residents have complained about smells so foul they can make the simple act of breathing a burden.
“In the summer time the odor gets so strong that you can’t really breathe,” says Malanee Heacleay, 20, a Hunts Point resident, who calls the stench overwhelming. “You feel old garbage, burned rubber and pestilence,”she said.
“This preoccupation has been in the community for about 20 or 30 years,” said John Robert, Community Board 2 district manager, who said the local consensus was that the blame lies with two sewage treatment plants: the city’s Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant on the East River, which is now undergoing a major expansion, and the NYOFCo fertilizer plant on Oak Point Avenue, which turns treated sewage trucked from all over the city into fertilizer pellets.
But seven months after hiring a consultant to identify the sources of the smells, the city Department of Environmental Protection says it still has no definitive answer.
That will have to await the results of a comprehensive Odor Management Plan, said Mercedes Padilla, a spokesman for the DEP.
On Sept. 14, 17, 20 and 25, odor inspectors responded to complaints phoned to a special hotline in an effort to identify odor sources and find possible solutions. Although Padilla refused to disclose the results, the DEP consultant briefed a citizens committee in November and December.
The “predominant odors were car and truck exhaust,”but NYOFCo and the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant, were also at fault, said Chet Morton, from the consulting firm Malcolm Pirnie Inc.
In citing the sewer plant, Morton also explained that the inspectors “were able to distinguish odors from different processes” in the DEP’s treatment facility.He said other foul odors originated in a municipal garage, junkyards and industrial sites, diesel fuel terminals, a catch basin and a laundromat.
Morton made his report to the Hunts Point Monitoring Committee (HPMC), appointed by local officials to establish community oversight of the sewer plant’s expansion. The DEP hired the Pirnie engineering firm as part of an agreement with Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who dropped her opposition to the sewer plant project in return for the DEP’s promise to address the odor issue.
The idea of the special hotline was to have somebody on the spot to respond to complaints quickly, according to Maria Torres, the president of The Point and a HPMC member. “Unfortunately, when people call 311, it takes a while before somebody gets there to even check the complaint,” said Torres.
“Odor surveys are a start, because at least you have somebody there who tries to follow the sources,” she continued. “What we want to see is more responsiveness when somebody calls. They are showing us some improvement in that area, but it is still not as quickly as you would like to see,” she said.
Last month, Mothers on the Move staged a demonstration at the NYOFCo plant. The organization is demanding the elimination of the odors from the NYOFCo plant and the sewer plant, said Wilfredo Febre. He said the solution was to change the way the plants do business “to minimize the smells.”In a statement, Mothers on the Move also called for the DEP to scrap its plan to expand the sewer plant by building 13-story waste-processors next door to Barretto Point Park, saying it should build within the current plant, instead.
Rep. Jose Serrano praised the demonstration, and renewed his call for regulators to take action against NYOFCo. “I will redouble my efforts to work with city, state, and federal authorities to bring this plant into compliance,” he said in a statement. “If it cannot comply with operating regulations, it must be shut down.”
Frank Marrero, a member of HPMC, credits the monitoring committee for what progress has been made. The only reason the DEP is showing any interest is that in order to expand the sewer plant it has to communicate with HPMC, he said, and, “Since the DEP counts with about seven billion dollars as the cost of the upgrade, we are telling them, ‘Listen, can you at least take care of some of this odor problem.’”Together, the DEP and HPMC are seeking to develop a Hunts Point Peninsula Odor Management Plan that identifies the sources of odors and classifies them as unpleasant, pleasant and neutral. As part of this initiative, further, unscheduled, surveys will be conducted and measures to improve air quality will be proposed.
The DEP’s Padilla said the report was months from completion.
For residents who believe the sewer plant and the NYOFCo plant are the main culprits, the big question seems to be whether real solutions can be implemented. HPMC members say they are pressing the DEP to acknowledge the urgency of the problem. The DEP continues to insist that the sources of the smells have not been definitively identified.
“The DEP seems to be concerned about the odor situation, but they are limited by their own procedures and rules,” observed John Robert.