Dozens of Brooklyn residents were outraged Wednesday over a city-run concrete recycling facility that has blanketed Cobble Hill in thick dust for a year, raising concerns that the smoke was making them sick.
More than 50 people formed a human shield outside SIM Municipal Recycling on Wednesday to block the truck from entering. They protested against rock-breaking activities they said were blighting the neighborhood.
“We are really angry. They have told us countless lies and we needed to do something drastic to make them listen to us. We've tried to be kind,'' Jana Weil, 42, told the Post.
Weil, who has lived on Columbia Street for 21 years, was one of the first to cut herself between a city Department of Transportation truck and the entrance to the facility, a move she felt compelled to take after months of dealing with air noise pollution. He said he had no choice but to take the . Discharged from recycling facilities.
More than a dozen outraged neighbors joined her, shouting, “Shut up!” “We need real solutions. No more air pollution.”
The driver sat idly until police rushed to the scene minutes later. The group continued shouting into the stream of pickup trucks that followed, but quickly dispersed without further altercations or arrests.
“We can't open the windows. There's always dust everywhere. Even when we walk, we get dirt in our mouths. Our building shakes from the trucks and the whole building shakes. And it just created a really dangerous situation – it destroyed the peace in my neighborhood,” Weil shuddered.
Weil was one of several people who told the Post they skipped work to vent their grievances at the facility. The facility was described as only a “temporary” operation at Kane and Columbia streets.
But angry residents said they recently learned the plant will continue to operate at the site for at least five years.
The SIM facility was relocated from its Sunset Park location last February to make way for offshore wind infrastructure construction at the South Brooklyn Army Terminal. This move floods the affluent Cobble Hill neighborhood with constant air and noise pollution.
They claimed that high winds frequently lift exposed piles of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and spread them across Cobble Hill, covering the neighborhood with a layer of dust.
“We can never open the windows. We run air purifiers 24/7, so we always get sick,” Sharon Gordon, 63, told the Post.
Gordon, who has lived around the corner from the SIM site for 20 years, has noticed his respiratory health worsening over the past year. She has selective immunodeficiency, which makes her particularly vulnerable to exhaust fumes, severely impacting her career as a professional singer.
Gordon handed out dozens of face coverings to other protesters who were concerned about inhaling toxic concrete dust from the city's efforts to crush and reduce concrete waste in landfills. .
To alleviate quality of life concerns, the city's Department of Transportation will reduce the size of RCA piles, install noise minimization devices to reduce back-up warnings from most vehicles, and suspend all operations during high winds. The company claims to have taken a number of measures, including: 30 miles per hour.
The department also plans to install a new irrigation system by spring to keep the piles moist so they don't blow away.
“While we are taking all necessary steps to protect public safety, in response to feedback from the community, the New York City Department of Transportation has reduced the size of the pile of recycled materials at this plant to reduce dust and We have taken new measures to further reduce noise,” a Department for Transport spokesperson said. he told the Post.
July agency told Star Review It said an environmental study showed no negative impacts on the environment, but did not respond to the paper's request to see the document.
A spokesperson for the Economic Development Corporation added that it is working closely with the DOT “to ensure that all possible steps are taken to keep the community safe while this important work continues.”
Residents say these efforts have done little to solve the problem. Records show nearly 20 complaints about air quality have been made to 311 in the past three months.
One Kane Street resident, who requested anonymity, asked why the Department of Transportation would move a recycling plant to a residential area, especially one that has an elementary school two blocks away, a public park just down the street, and a greenway. I questioned why they chose to move to that location. That driveway.
“It baffles me. There are so many better places than this,” a man who arrived at the protest wearing a wrestler's mask told the Post.
“Health issues are measured over years, even decades. Whatever the impact on health, we won't know for a long time, but I personally have definitely noticed a sore throat. It's definitely a respiratory difference.”
