Farah Louis, City Council Candidate for the 45th District in Brooklyn, today issued the following statement.
“The residents of District 45 refuse to stand
by while the MTA allows Brooklyn Resource Recovery (BRR) to contaminate
their land with toxic liquid wastes. For thirty years, the MTA has let
BRR illegally occupy
and operate on MTA-owned land with a complete lack of oversight or
enforcement. The MTA’s Inspector General must take action to evict BRR
from the MTA’s 45,000 square feet of land, which BRR is illegally
occupying without a lease or rent payment, and which
has a market value of $200 per square foot or $9,000,000. BRR uses this
MTA land to store oil-laden junk cars and other automotive debris in
brazen disregard of the law; BRR demolished and removed a natural earth
berm – used to prevent LIRR tracks from collapsing
-- and replaced it with an illegally-constructed 60-foot wall of
individual concrete blocks. These blocks are improperly stacked on top
of each other, not adhered to each other, without an engineered support
system and held in place only by gravity. This 60-foot
wall is putting LIRR freight lines at great risk. The MTA is liable for
any resulting accident occurring due to this dangerous situation. I
have been informed that underneath a newly-placed concrete slab - again
built without required permits – is MTA land
laden with automotive fluids, such as oil and gasoline along with
mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and PCBs.“
This is the official letter that was submitted to the MTA Inspector General.
May 06, 2019
Mr. Barry Kluger
MTA Inspector General
Office of the Inspector General
Two Penn Plaza, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10121
Dear Mr. Kluger,
As a candidate for NYC Council District 45, I am requesting immediate action by the MTA: I urge you to conduct a thorough investigation and issue findings on whether a private entity has illegally occupied and used for its benefit 45,000-square feet of public property that belongs to the taxpayers of New York City.
For nearly three decades, the MTA has allowed Brooklyn Resource Recovery (BRR) to occupy and operate on MTA-owned property with a complete lack of oversight or enforcement by the MTA. As Inspector General, you must take action to (1) investigate whether BRR is illegally occupying MTA-owned property, (2) investigate the environmental health impact on the land and community surrounding the BRR site, and, if BRR is found to be flouting the law and engaged in an illegal occupation, (3) evict BRR from MTA land and demand that BRR cover costs associated with damage to the surrounding land and community.
For the better part of a decade and a half, concerned residents, community activists and organizations, and elected officials have publicly and privately raised the following contentions with the MTA over BRR:
• Thirty years ago, BRR began illegally occupying 45,000 sq. ft. of land owned by the MTA.
• BRR holds no lease, licensing or permission that is publicly known that authorizes its possession of this public land.
• BRR has made no discoverable rent payments to the MTA for the use of this MTA land, which has a market value of $200/sq. ft. or $9,000,000.
• BRR uses the MTA property for the storage of environmentally hazardous materials, such as oil-laden junk cars and other automotive debris.
• BRR, without appropriate and necessary permits, manipulated the topography of the MTA land.
• With brazen disregard, BRR demolished a natural earth berm that LIRR rail tracks relied upon for structural integrity.
• In place of the natural earth berm, BRR constructed, with no publicly known permits issued or permit applications submitted for, a 60-foot tall wall of thousands of individual concrete blocks improperly stacked which are not adhered to one other, have no engineered support system and are, terrifyingly, held in place with just gravity.
• LIRR freight lines are at great risk due to the reckless construction of this 60 ft. retaining wall by BRR.
• The MTA will be liable for any accident in part or in whole caused by this dangerous situation created by BRR.
In addition to the contentions above, BRR’s actions appear to have resulted in the contamination of MTA land with toxic liquid wastes. I have been informed that underneath a newly placed concrete slab - again built without required permits – is MTA land that is now laden with automotive fluids such as oil and gasoline along with mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and PCBs. Moreover, the surrounding community has been subjected to the release of these harmful chemicals and pollutants not simply through their permeation of the land, but through massive fires at BRR’s site.
A simple request for FDNY public records will demonstrate the numerous fires at the BRR site, which the MTA has previously acknowledged is directly adjacent to the MTA rail tracks and which put MTA rail freights in direct danger.
If an FDNY records request somehow proves too cumbersome, a simple Google search will return reporting on a half dozen fires since the mid-2000s and at least one ruling by an Administrative Law Judge that substantiates the claims above of unpermitted work and operations by BRR.
The residents of East Flatbush are tired of being overlooked and treated as second class citizens by the MTA while the MTA allows BRR to operate a toxic waste site that is very likely illegal on MTA land. BRR has been allowed to abuse land and make millions while polluting Black and Brown communities, families and children.
This is disgraceful, and its certainly not BRR or the MTA paying the price; it’s Brooklyn’s residents. I cannot allow this situation to continue. As a candidate for the City Council District that suffers from BRR’s actions, I demand action by the MTA to correct this situation.
It’s worth repeating: any damages – financial or otherwise - which result from permit-less construction, illegal occupation of MTA land, environmental pollution or, worse, the collapse of the rail tracks and the resulting injuries and deaths will fall upon the MTA.
I demand that you immediately conduct a full investigation into BRR, its supposed title to occupy and use MTA land as it does, and its operations. Moreoever, no investigation would be complete unless you also sought answers as to the MTA’s role at the site, the failure of the MTA real-estate department to manages its properties and which MTA officials have been fully aware for quite some time of this situation.
If you will not take these actions, including removing BRR from its illegal occupancy of MTA land, I will use the platform available to me as a candidate and, should I win, all the tools at my disposal as an official take immediate action.
Source: Mercury
