North Brooklyn Community Organisation Angered Over Noise & Odour : Report Claims Over 1000 Violations at Waste Transfer Station in Brooklyn
A new report has claimed that the waste transfer station operated by New York based Brooklyn Transfer LLC is violating environmental and other laws over 200 times per day.
North Brooklyn residents are demanding the city take action on the waste transfer station, with around 100 community members, mainly Latino families who have lived in the neighborhood for decades, coming together at a community forum to speak out.
The alleged abuses included such as illegal levels of noise, stench, and pollution from diesel fuel emissions.
The report by Cleanup North Brooklyn, Profits Before Safety, documents the many ways in which the local transfer station openly flouts the law.
Through video and eye-witness documentation, the group claimed that to have found Brooklyn Transfer violating local and state laws and regulations 1261 times over six days, about 200 times per day on average. The transfer station did not receive a single official notice of violation during this period.
The report linked to videos documenting open garbage facility doors just steps from residences, garbage trucks driving on sidewalks, workers without safety equipment, and other violations.
The group also claimed to have caught the company on video destroying and removing a city parking regulation sign.
“It is not acceptable for a waste transfer station surrounded by residential buildings to violate the law 200 times per day and it is unconscionable that they are getting away with it,” said Jen Chantrtanapichate, Cleanup North Brooklyn organiser and resident. “Many of our elderly community members are in poor health and have lost family members to cancer. We have a lot of adults that have developed asthma and kids that have asthma. We deserve clean air and safe streets.”
New York City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, who represents the community added: “I want to thank Cleanup North Brooklyn for dedicating their time and energy to creating this thorough report.
“I am concerned that Brooklyn Transfer continues to be such a bad neighbor for this community, and I want to make it clear that we will not tolerate their blatant disregard for environmental and labor regulations meant to protect nearby residents and the facility’s workers.
“I want to assure those impacted by this toxic facility that I will work with Cleanup North Brooklyn and DSNY to find solutions, not only to this issue specifically, but to creating a more equitable waste system for all of New York City that delivers environmental justice to our community.”
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