By Ulrik Narcisse & Juliana Peck, edits by Abbey Jasmine Rose.
Teachers, textbooks and toxic waste! Greenpoint’s latest new public school building plan may create more public school space. It might also create the threat of a pool of poisonous plumes of underground poisons.
On February 7, 2019, Council Member Stephen Levin convened a meeting with the North Brooklyn neighborhood to discuss the upcoming site of Greenpoint’s newest K-8 public school. The site is owned by Greenpoint Landing Development Group. The only problem? No one in the community wants it. At least, they don’t want it to be where it is currently slated for construction: next door to the current Superfund location of the Nuhart Plastics Plant, a potential source of harmful ground pollution.
The NuHart has two pollutions: a phthalate plume going southward, facing the school, and and a TCE plume, going north towards Clay Street. These pollutants are not airborne, and they are also fifteen feet below ground. The city’s position is that the site is clean, but there is enough concern that the school-facing phthalate plume could move into a position under or closer to the school. It did move before, although it has not moved in the past five years, according to city officials monitoring the space.
Greenpoint Landing knew the phthalate plume was there, but they didn’t know it was traveling. “The phthalate plume has moved very very slowly, and has not moved in the past five years. There is groundwater, which can move things…”
But what will happen when they start digging? Who knows which directions these plumes could travel in, and how far? This was a comment that resounded across the large audience of nearly seventy to eighty audience members.
From what we understand, in December 2013 Greenpoint Landing wrote a letter promising not to build a school on the land for five years, due to the development of the DEC’s information regarding the phthalates in the ground in the region. None of the things that they said in their letter happened: cleanup has not even started on the site. Five years expired in 2018. Councilmember Levin’s office assures us that the developer continues to commit to the use of the land for the school, so the outstanding question remains: is it safe to build a school there? A copy of the letter is at the bottom of this article.
Community members voiced serious concerns with the lack of attention from state and city officials, as well as Greenpoint Landing. “They’ve spoken a lot about their burden. What about our burden as a community? It seems like they don’t care, and they just want to get their buildings up.”
Citizens asked the officials present, “The development has just finalized their development plan. If the community has been voicing their opinion for eight months, why didn’t they listen to them before that?”
Levin answered, “We have to induce them to do it. The question I have for all of you is, what is an appropriate inducement that the community can take that would allow them to consider this? And what would that look like? Would that be additional square footage?”
The current zoning for the region was decided in 2005. One possible incentive for the development group to change the school location would be additional development space.
The superintendent had concerns about delaying the school’s construction. What would happen if it wasn’t built in a timely manner and the classrooms overflow? Elementary public school utilization in Greenpoint is nearing capacity, but there is still space to grow. Reporting on official Department of Education Data, the Superintendent informed the crowd that P.S. 34 is overutilized and P.S. 31 is 74% full. P.S. 110 is steadily approaching capacity.
Levin would like to open a new school, as the children of Greenpoint need it. But the overwhelming voice of our neighborhood says “no” to this location. “I would like to get this school open in four to five years. I don’t think it’s realistic to say this school would be open by the time I left office.”
The citizens would like for the proposed school to move locations. A suggestion was made to simply move the school down three blocks, to a building between Java and India. Another option for the school could be the YMCA building. Apparently the YMCA would like to find a larger space. The Greenpoint Terminal Market Site, which suffered a huge fire in 2006, was also brought up.
The other choice is to defer to the the city, say that they are right and that there is no risk of pollutants affecting the current building site or the health of the children going to the school post-construction. By and large, the citizens of Greenpoint are not comfortable with this.
Council Member Levin said the only way to stop this outcome from unfurling is through litigation. “I’m in office for another two years and ten months, and I’m willing to make this a top issue. I’m willing to make this my top concern with regards to the de Blasio administration.”
Levin continued, “I think the advocacy and the unanimity of the community is the most compelling thing here. I’m in a room of 50 people, when last time I was in a room of 20 people. Not a single person wanted to do the current site. Those I have spoken to in City Hall have been sympathetic.”
There will be a meeting early in March to continue discussing this issue and the development of a school.
Sentiments were similar at the District 14 Community Education Council meeting, where elected members acknowledged the need for further discussion with Levin. One member also brought up the difficulty of finding suitable space: “P.S. 84 is surrounded by potentially harmful sites. A block away is a Nuclear Plant–where are we going to find a site that is not surrounded by toxic waste?” The discussion illustrated that both community members and officials are still figuring out viable alternatives.
There will be a North Brooklyn Development Meeting on February 28th. There will be a lot of developers there, as well as the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of Environmental Remediation. Below is the Greenpoint Landing letter from 2013, see page 2 #2 for the language on the school site.
