For Immediate Release Contact: Lee Landor (Gennaro)
September 20, 2007
* Press RELEASE *
Gennaro, Gioia Protest Department of Education’s Concealed Lease of Toxic Land and Failure to Regard Student Welfare
Reiterate Demands that DOE Properly Conduct Environmental Testing on Toxic Land and Subject Leased Sites to Community Review
Today, City Council Members James F. Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), Chair of the Council’s Environmental Protection Committee, and Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside), Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Committee, stood with other elected officials, advocates and community residents to call for change in DOE practices that allow schools to be built on toxic sites without full mitigation and without public disclosure.
“The children of the City of New York must be our top priority when it comes to safeguarding public health. I am extremely alarmed and disturbed to discover that this school is sitting on top of a known contaminated site,” Councilman Gennaro said. “It is further outrageous that the Department of Education never notified parents or members of the community about the state of this site – which is now imperiled by the very device installed to protect it. I believe this situation calls into question the ability of city authority to ensure that schools are not threatened by toxic hazards.”
“If there’s an area where we can’t afford to take any risks, it’s with the health and safety of our children,” Councilman Gioia said. “Instead, there was no warning to parents, staff and the community about the potentially cancer-causing toxins beneath their feet. Unfortunately, this issue is not isolated to this one school – the DOE must provide testing and full reporting at all toxic school sites. Parents need to have assurance that their kids aren’t learning on top of the next Love Canal.”
Councilmen Gennaro and Gioia are calling on the DOE to immediately address the hazardous situation at Information Technology High School that threatens the health and safety of the students, teachers and staff in the building. They demand that DOE conduct environmental testing at the location, especially of the indoor air, and provide the test results to parents and the school community.
In 2003, the Department of Education’s School Construction Authority (SCA) opened the brand new Information Technology High School in Long Island City. The DOE failed to tell parents and the community that the school was sitting on toxic land – a Brownfield site that had previously been home to a metal plating warehouse. The DOE, which leases the school for more than $1.5 million a year, spent $20 million converting the warehouse into a high school and occupational training center for disabled students.
a pump outside the school that draws up toxic vapors from the ground and then expels them has repeatedly malfunctioned, according to reports, and may be gathering more toxins from neighboring sites in the mostly industrial neighborhood, causing the site’s contamination levels to rise and endangering the health and safety of students. The group monitoring the school’s environmental remedial system, Leggette, Brashears & Graham, Inc., advised the school to shut down the pump until the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation could identify the cause of the increased contamination levels, indicating that the remedial system – intended to safeguard – is possibly imperiling the site.
Gioia and Gennaro are also insisting that the DOE review all leased school sites to catalogue any potentially toxic sites and provide notification of all new school locations – leased included – to elected officials and community boards. Currently, DOE is required by State law to notify the public of new school sites, and such sites must be reviewed and approved by the City Council. However, a loophole in the law allows leased school sites, like Info Tech, to get by with no public scrutiny.
Assembly Member Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood), Chair of the Assembly’s Education Committee, sponsored legislation (Bill A. 8838) to close the loophole and clarify that leased educational facilities should be subject to the same public notice, Council approval and environmental review as new school construction. State Sen. Frank Padavan promised to sponsor a Senate bill to accompany Nolan’s, but reneged on the agreement, costing communities their voice in matters of leased site locations.
“This terrible situation is why the New York State Assembly passed my bill, A. 8838, which would have prevented situations like this from occurring,” Assembly Member Nolan said. “I call on Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein to support this bill so that it can be signed into law and protect our schools, children and families.”
“Senator Padavan and the State Senate have engaged in a game of courtyard dodge ball – dodging the responsibility to protect kids while playing politics to avoid real accountability,” said Theresa Cassiack, Legislative Associate for the Sierra Club. “The City must stop opposing attempts to pass a strong leasing bill that could prevent disasters like this from ever happening again.”
“The neglect occurring here demonstrates that the DOE and SCA may be incapable of ensuring the safety of children in schools on toxic sites,” said Dave Palmer, a staff attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “The Senate’s failure to pass a bill that would provide for stronger oversight of leased facilities – and the Bloomberg administration’s opposition to that bill – is grossly unacceptable; both entities must act now to protect New York City’s schoolchildren.”
The Council’s Education Committee unanimously passed a resolution in support of Nolan’s bill in June 2007. “We cannot, under any circumstances, compromise the well-being of children, teachers and staff,” said Councilman Robert Jackson, Chair of the Council’s Education Committee. “While space to build on is becoming less and less available, any site to build on must be subject to an environmental review. All hurdles must be cleared before buildings rise or leases are signed.”
