Bloomberg and Thompson debate

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Comptroller William Thompson squared off in the first debate Tuesday night in East Harlem, across the East river a small group of citizens met to debate something else.

“What we want to do here tonight is come up with a list of questions,” said Katie Schmidt, Executive Director of the Newtown Creek Alliance. They’re going to take those questions to the Environmental Protection Agency.

About 30 people—ranging from environmental activists, to lawyers, to businessmen, to residents—crammed in to a small conference room in Greenpoint. The subject: how the community feels about the federal government’s plan to make Newtown Creek a federal Superfund site.

After a brief introduction to Superfund, the program that cleans up the nation’s most polluted sites with both federal money and money from polluters, the questions began to flow.

How does this affect pending lawsuits against polluters? What role will the state of New York play? Will the EPA go after small polluters too or only big ones?

In September, the EPA announced that it was considering adding Newtown Creek, the small stream of water that divides Brooklyn and Queens before flowing in to the East River, to the Superfund National Priorities List.

“Newtown Creek is one of the most grossly-contaminated waterways in the country,” Acting Regional EPA Director George Pavlou said in the press release announcing the decision.

The EPA says that since the mid-1800’s the creek has been collection pollution. Along the creek’s banks site more than 50 industrial sites, including factories, sawmills, and lumberyards.

Along with raw sewage and countless spills, including one oil spill the environmentalist group Riverkeeper says is 6 million gallons larger than the Exxon-Valdes, the EPA simply says the creek is “badly polluted.”

Adding the creek to the list would allow for further investigation and long-term clean-up, said the EPA. The public has 60 days to comment.

As the meeting rolled on, Schmidt tried to clarify what they wanted to accomplish—keeping the conversation going while voicing community concerns.

The most tense moment of the night came when the question was asked if small businesses were going to have to pay to help the clean-up.

Under Superfund laws, any contributor to the pollution can be held liable for the entire cost of the clean up.

Tony Nunziato, a small business man from Queens, expressed concern the EPA was going to go after smaller business who may have polluted in the past.

“Every small guy along that creek is going to get slammed, every single one,” said Nunziato. He said the clean up should be paid for by the big polluters.

Schmidt and others said the EPA has said they have no intention of going after the little guys.

“We’re never going to be totally for this,” said Schmidt. “We will advocate for business concerns even if they’re against [the designation of Superfund] and we’re for it.”

Over in Harlem, the debate between Bloomberg and Thompson barely touched on environmental issues.

For his part, the Mayor has not announced whether or not he supports or opposes making Newtown Creek a Superfund site.

Spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the mayor’s office was reviewing the proposal and would eventually put forward its comment.

Bloomberg has adamantly opposed a similar designation for the Gowanas Canal just to the south. In April, the EPA announced its intention to give the canal Superfund status.

The mayor said doing so would hurt planned economic development in the area because of a stigma attached with the label Superfund.

LaVorgna pointed out that just because it’s “not the right decision” for Gowanas, “doesn’t mean it’s not the right decision for Newtown.”

“Luckily, unlike Gowanas, we don’t have major economic development,” said Schmidt.

Even though the mayor has yet to come down on either side of the issue, he seemed to have a positive reputation at the meeting.

Michael Heimbinder, who has been active with the Newtown Creek Alliance for 3 years, said the mayor has done a good job when it comes to the environment, citing the mayor’s green initiative, PlaNYC. He hasn’t made up his mind yet on who to support.

Nunziato, a Republican, said he supports Bloomberg. “His mindset is to make New York better.”

As for Thompson, Heimbinder said, he just doesn’t know that much about him.

Schmidt said the EPA will hold a public meeting to discuss the future of Newtown Creek and Superfund, although a date has not yet been set.