Opponents of Proposed Trash Station By Asphalt Green Vow Federal Lawsuit
By Daniel Edward Rosen July 24, 2012 5:30 pm
reprintsThe controversial East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, a proposed garbage station situated near the Asphalt Green on the Upper East Side, will be slapped with a federal lawsuit filed by its very vocal critics just days after the project received a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That permit was one of the few remaining hurdles the garbage station needed to clear before the $240 million station could start construction with an eye towards a 2015 opening date.
The Residents for Sane Trash Solutions said that it was not surprised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant the project the permit.
“The fact that they elected to do it on a Friday night on 7 P.M. before a summer weekend…. is a little dubious,” said Jed Garfield, president of the community group.
The group expects to file its federal lawsuit by Thursday.
“It’s a misguided mistake,” Mr. Garfield added. “This thing is not going away, and we’re not going to go away.”
Last month, the group, along with State Assemblyman Micah Kellner (D-Upper East Side/Yorkville/Roosevelt Island) sued Mayor Mike Bloomberg in State Supreme court over the proposed Marine Transfer Station, which they claimed would create unsafe and unsanitary living conditions for those living on the Upper East Side and Harlem.
Once operational, the waste station would cost the city an estimated $554 million in the next two decades.
Despite the favorable development for the Marine Transfer Station, Mr. Garfield said that his group is growing exponentially (with an estimated 7,000 members).
“If they [the city] thought we are going away they are dead, dead wrong. We are only getting cranked up,” he added.
drosen@observer.com
