Norwood News

Just nine months after  the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) dropped plans to use explosives in construction at the Jerome Park Reservoir, in response to a lawsuit by community residents, the agency is again proposing to blast, angering local activists and possibly triggering a second lawsuit.

Last summer, the community, with the support of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, sued the DEP after officials proposed the use of blasting to build a water tunnel to connect the reservoir with the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park.

In an affidavit dated Aug. 28, DEP said it would not proceed with blasting, and would instead use “hoe-ramming,” or mechanical excavation, to pound through the rock in Phase 1 of the project.

But now, as the DEP approaches Phase 2 of the project, they say that blasting is crucial, as hoe-ramming has been slow and ineffective.

The DEP unveiled its new blasting proposal two weeks ago at a monthly Croton Facility Monitoring Committee Meeting. Residents said they were frustrated with the agency’s lack of transparency and demanded that the DEP conduct a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) because the DEP’s proposal is a deviation from the 2004 final EIS.

In an e-mail statement, Angel Roman, a DEP spokesman, said the final EIS “provides for the flexibility of using either mechanical or blasting methods of rock removal at the shaft and meter chamber site” and that “the proposed modifications to the project would not result in new or previously undisclosed significant adverse impacts on the environment.”

At the meeting, DEP Deputy Commissioner Angela Licata said instead of a supplemental EIS, the DEP prepared an 80-page “Minor Modification” document in hopes that the information will alleviate the community’s concerns.

“Blasting and hoe-ramming were methods that the DEP ruled out in the EIS and yet they move ahead with both of these,” Dinowitz said. “It shows that, as usual, DEP just acts without regard to the needs and wishes of the community.”

“I think the community’s message is clear,” said local activist Karen Argenti.  “This is not what you promised, and you just can’t do whatever you want. [DEP] thought that once the fight was over, everyone would leave.”  Argenti said she is thinking about filing another lawsuit to force an SEIS. 

Greg Faulkner, the head of the monitoring committee, would like to see the community make a decision based on all the facts. “It comes down to a question of credibility,” said Faulkner. “There are a lot of examples where we could not trust the comments of the [DEP].” The DEP’s inability to be forthright has made it difficult for the community to objectively look at blasting, he said.

At the monitoring meeting, the committee voted to propose that the DEP conduct an SEIS. The proposal is not binding, but committee members said an SEIS would alleviate the concerns of the community.

Licata admitted at the meeting that the DEP did not do “a very good job of describing” work at Jerome Park Reservoir in the final EIS to begin with.

DEP officials said that blasting could start as early as September and last for three months. Since school will be in session, DEP plans to blast outside of school hours. Officials explained that blasting noise would last several seconds each time, and continue once or twice a day, three to five times a week.

Phoebe Cooper, an assistant principal at the Bronx High School of Science, which is across the street from the reservoir, said she favors the plan as long as “blasting will make that noise go away.”

Cooper described the constant sound of hoe-ramming to a loud, idling truck.

Cooper said the DEP assured her blasting is safe, but added, “I don’t know enough about blasting.” She also said, “I don’t want anything that helps us to hurt [the rest of the community].”

To reduce noise, DEP plans to build walls around the blasting area.
“In each case [blasting or hoe-ramming], someone is going to be impacted,” Faulkner said.