To the Editor,
There is a proposal to build a hotel complex on part of the abandoned quarry dump on Marbledale Road in Tuckahoe. For about 20 years, the quarry was used as a hazardous industrial waste dump accumulating approximately 500,000 cubic yards of toxic debris, including carcinogenic chemicals and heavy metals. An independent environmental engineer recently confirmed that the soil, soil vapors and groundwater on the site are heavily contaminated.
The groundwater at the Marbledale Road quarry dump is contaminated with a variety of toxins including: lead at 1,000 times the permitted amount for groundwater safety; perchloroethylene (also known as perc) at more than 300 times the groundwater safety standards; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which were recorded at more than 9,000 times the groundwater safety levels.
The current New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, proposal is to vent the vapors from the quarry dump into our air. The current DEC proposal does not address the contaminated groundwater at all.
Contaminated groundwater releases toxic vapors which penetrate building foundations and remain trapped, exposing the people inside to noxious vapors. The groundwater flows south/ southwest through the quarry dump site to the Bronx River. The groundwater travels under buildings in Tuckahoe and Bronxville.
There are too many unanswered questions about the contents of the quarry dump.
The DEC has not examined anything below 40 feet deep, when the quarry is known to be at least 100 feet deep. The DEC has only moderately considered about 100,000 cubic yards of the 500,000 cubic yards of the toxic debris. The DEC has not tested for dioxin or pharmaceuticals, despite strong evidence of their possible presence in the site.
It is crucial to encourage the DEC to do a comprehensive evaluation of the entire quarry dump site. It is not possible to have a protective remediation plan unless we, and they, know what is in dump and where the contaminants are going.
Please come to the DEC public meeting on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. in Tuckahoe Village Hall, 65 Main St. The public comment period for written comments ends on April 24, 201
Regarding DEC Site Code: C360143, write to:
• Hon. Basil Seggos, Acting Commissioner, NYSDEC, 625 Broadway,
Albany, NY 12233-1011.
• New York State Sen. George Latimer, 615 Legislative Office Building,
Albany, NY 12247.
• New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, 700 White Plains Road, Suite 252,
Scarsdale, NY 10583.
CC your letters to Public Comment on the RAWP Site Code: C360143 before April 24, 2016 to: Randy Whitcher, DEC, Division of Environmental Remediation, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-7020.
For more information, visit sierraclub.org/atlantic/lower-hudson under the “Tuckahoe’s Toxic=Trench” section. You can also send an email to marbledaleroad@gmail.com.
Rachel Zolottev,
The Marbledale Road Environmental Coalition6.
