For Immediate Release
April 22, 2008
Jersey City Groups Call on Governor to Break State Logjam on New School
DEP Inaction on Chromium Blocks Badly-Needed New Elementary School
Three Hudson County citizens’ groups asked Governor Corzine today to end years of delay by the state Department of Environmental Protection on a toxic-waste cleanup at a site owned by another state agency, the Schools Development Authority. The Jersey City site has for several years been slated as the new site for Public School 20, but the project remains stalled while DEP grants the corporation responsible for the pollution one extension after another.
The three groups – the Interfaith Community Organization, Parents and Communities United for Education, and the PS 20 Parents’ Council – sent Governor Corzine a letter today asking him to act swiftly to get the cleanup done, and to ensure that the cleanup is permanent and fully protective of public health. The groups pointed to a 1993 cleanup agreement for the site that remains unenforced.
“This project is absolutely vital for the people of Jersey City, especially children and residents of Greenville neighborhood that has yet to see a new school construction in their community,” said PCUE parent leader Louella McFadden. “We can’t afford to wait another year while DEP does nothing.” PCUE is currently engaged in a campaign to improve health and environmental safety of Jersey City public schools.
The site is located on Ocean Avenue, at the corner of Cator Avenue, in the Greenville section of Jersey City, and is planned as the future home of PS 20, a successful but overcrowded school currently operating in an aging building nearby.
“The Greenville section is blessed to have Public School 20, which is one of the real success stories in the Jersey City public schools,” said Mr. Fletcher Walker who is the president of the PTA at school 20. “But we need an adequate building.” The school’s overcrowded classrooms are currently supplemented by adjacent trailers. Mr. Walker has one Grandchild attending the school.
The state’s Schools Development Authority acquired the site in 2004, and with the input of the PS 20 community and neighbors, developed a plan for the new facility. Jersey City school officials consider the PS 20 project a top priority. The SDA’s efforts have been stymied, however, by DEP’s stalled progress in compelling Honeywell International to clean the site.
The site is known by DEP as Chromium Site #155 – one of more than 200 known locations in Hudson County where chemical companies dumped highly toxic waste generated by chromite ore processing at local plants. The residue from this processing contains hexavalent chromium, one of the most potent known carcinogens. In the 1950s or 1960s, an old building foundation at the site was filled in with chromite ore residue. Levels of hexavalent chromium measured at the site are more than 100 times the levels considered safe by the DEP (20 parts per million). The waste is concentrated in the first four feet of soil, and extends up to 14 feet below grade on some parts of the site.
The Interfaith Community Organization, the local citizens’ group that has successfully pushed for chromium cleanups in the county since 1989, recently reviewed some of DEP’s records related to the site.
“We were concerned about the delays at the site,” said Rev. Geoff Curtiss, ICO co-chairperson. “And we were especially concerned by the possibility that DEP might allow Honeywell to cap the site and walk away without a real cleanup, and that the Schools Development Corporation would then proceed with a school construction project on top of a capped chromium site. The SDA has a history of mistakes like this, that result in jeopardizing the health of children.”
Tom McKee, a retired DEP official who led DEP’s chromium cleanup efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, reviewed documents related to the site on behalf of ICO.
“What we found in the files surprised us,” said Mr. McKee. “The SDA has apparently pushed DEP for several years, quite aggressively, to require Honeywell to excavate and remove the chromium waste from the site. The DEP case managers have agreed. The problem has been the lack of will of the political leadership of DEP.”
“We commend Scott Weiner of the Schools Development Authority for recognizing that you can’t safely build a public school on a capped chromium site,” site Rev. Curtiss. “The problem is the same one ICO has confronted for years – the failure of DEP leadership to require polluters to clean up their toxic waste.”
Mr. McKee, who was directly involved in DEP’s efforts to negotiate cleanup agreements with Honeywell and two other chromium-producting companies, said the DEP has all the enforcement tools it needs to get a timely and protective cleanup done.
“A lot of work and taxpayer dollars were spent forging the cleanup agreement with Honeywell in 1993,” McKee said. “Fifteen years later, the terms of that agreement have still not been enforced – at this site and many others. Honeywell’s lobbyists have been able to tie the hands of DEP for decades while urgent cleanups go undone.”
The groups called on Governor Corzine to get the cleanup done within one year. Rev. Curtiss recalled the cleanup of Metro Field in Jersey City, done by Honeywell in 1993, under pressure from the state, ICO and media scrutiny. “The Metro Field cleanup took a few months, and Honeywell got the job done in time for the next Little League season,” Curtiss said. “We’re asking for the same sense of urgency from the Governor for this cleanup.”
CONTACTS:
Louella McFadden, Parents and Communities United for Education, 201-780-1933 or 201-918-2918
Fletcher Walker, PTA President, 201-432-1808 and cell 201-344-5768
Rev. Geoff Curtiss, Interfaith Community Organization, 201-792-3563
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