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It wasn’t built on an old native burial ground, but two councilmen are up in arms over a Queens high school's location. The Department of Education failed to disclose that Information Technology High School in Long Island City, which opened in 2003, was built on the former location of the Gould Mercereau metal-plating warehouse – one apparently chock full of lead and petrochemicals.
City Councilmen James Gennaro and Eric Gioia claim that the city exploited a loophole which shielded the school from public review – something that would have been mandatory had the school been built on city-owned land. Instead, by constructing the building on a leased piece of private land, the city was able to avoid telling the public that the property had undergone extensive cleanup as well as the installation of a vapor extraction system which removes harmful products from the possibly toxic ground lying underneath.
This is all compounded by the fact that the environmental consultant on the project recommended that the extraction system be shut off until further tests were run to make sure that it wasn’t drawing in dangerous vapors from nearby sites. The system is currently still in place.
The Education Department has countered by claiming that there is no serious threat and that an air quality test performed earlier this month demonstrated that the school is safe (where have we heard that before?). However, parents are finding little solace in any level of reassurance they are given by officials, given what they feel has been something of a cover-up, with some threatening to pull their kids from the school. For now, we would recommend not picking up any tiki dolls seen lying about.
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How retarded do you have to be to try and screw over kids. You might have gotten away with this crap when building yet another luxury high rise condo, but not when it comes to kids.
This is the kind of stuff that judges loves to throw the book at - then jump over the bench, pick up the book, and beat the defendant with the book.
Remember, the mere appearance of impropriety is impropriety.
Troma Films!
i am an environmental lawyer with intimate knowledge of this site and surrounding sites in LIC and i totally disagree with some of the statements being made by the local policians. although disclosure of the site's prior environmental condition may not have been made through the DOE, the remedial actions taken at the site for the specific purpose of building the high school went through a lengthy public notice and comment period in 2003 under the auspices of the DEC's Voluntary Cleanup Program, now the Brownfield Cleanup Program. Each public notice that was mailed to all neighboring sites and all relevant municipal leaders and politicians explicitly stated that this site was being remediated for development as a public high school. further, each component of the remedial action was extensively reviewed by the DEC and the DOH , as well as the private consultants. why did Goia and Gennaro wait until 4 years later to raise their concerns when they could have had a real voice in the remedial process at its inception?
in addition, since environmental remediation science is often like medicine where there can be differences of opinion as to the correct course of action to take, the debate regarding the operation of the SVE is not atypical, and does not mean that the air quality poses a danger to the students.
to be frank, the LIC area, as well as Greenpoint, Williamsburgh, Hunts Point and other historically industrial areas are very contaminated, and anyone living, studying or working there who believes they are not being exposed to something are seriously deluding themselves. Better yet, as New Yorkers we are exposing ourselves to high levels of particulate emissions, toxic chemicals and biological irritants every day. The chemicals of concern at the high school and in LIC are the same toxins we are exposed to when we wear dry cleaned clothes, smoke cigarettes, use paints and varnishes, clean our carpets, fill our fuel tanks, take a plane, or breathe car exhaust, among other daily activities. I'm so sick of environmental hypocrites who refuse to give up their pampered lifestyles and toxic activities, yet demand a "pristine" environment. Either reduce, reuse, recycle or get over it!
Just how dangerous can this stuff be since we don't drink water from local aquifers? How much is becoming airborne?