The following are excerpts from our letter of May 4, 1996 to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) concerning their approval of a fish-cleaning table at the end of the pier at Gantry Plaza!
Queens West design drawings show this table as a large, amorphously-shaped stainless steel slab with a center trough for waste material and a water faucet at the end. The HPCC was told by Queens West that this fish-cleaning table was part of the mitigation for the project. The local Hunters Point community has serious concerns with the proposed fish-cleaning table.
1. It is irresponsible of the State to encourage the consumption of fish caught in the East River.
2. The cleaning of fish in this location will involve the discarding of the parts of the fish not to be consumed. The resulting health, sanitary and odor conditions will impact, not only the pier, but the nearby proposed businesses (cafes) and residences. Furthermore... any presence of fish parts will attract sea gulls in such numbers that the pier will no longer be usable.
We firmly believe that this proposed fish-cleaning table will not only discourage public access, but it also has the potential of creating a public health impact. A much more reasonable mitigation of the density of the Queens West Project would be more restoration of tidal wetlands.
The Hunters Point Community Coalition is requesting a thorough review of this fish cleaning table and recommends it be removed from the mitigation and restoration of habitats become part of the mitigation.
The HPCC received a letter dated June 19th from the NYSDEC. In this letter the NYSDEC repeatedly refers to the entire fishing pier. We do not oppose the fishing pier, only the fish-cleaning table.
The NYSDEC also wrongfully claims the HPCC responded to these issues in an untimely fashion.
The following are excerpts from the HPCC July 4th letter to NYSDEC: We find your letter disingenuous and insulting not only to the Hunters Point community, but to all New Yorkers who care about their quality of life, their community and the quality of water and their environment.
Nowhere on the ³Notice of Application² (August 5, 1994 #2-6304-00427/00001-0) does a FISH-CLEANING TABLE appear as part of the Queens West project. When do you suggest that we or anyone should have raised this issue? Had NYSDEC granted requests for a public hearing, the community and all interested parties might have been able to comment on this totally inappropriate mitigation.
When did it become NYSDEC policy to encourage the disposal of putrescible waste into a waterbody?... That particular bit of logic is obsolete where water quality is concerned.
The Coalition awaits NYSDEC¹s response.
The Coalition would like to thank State Senator George Onorato and Councilmember Walter McCaffrey for their letters to NYSDEC in full support of our position.
To contact the Hunters Point Community Coalition
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Hunters Point Community Coalition