Elevated levels of chlorine vapors in Gate House 5 at the Jerome Park Reservoir on Friday, June 8 triggered an alarm and treatment of at least one city employee, but authorities say the leak was contained and presented no risk to neighbors and the many schools in the area. Gate House 5, on Goulden Avenue, is one of the facilities the city uses to chlorinate and add other chemicals to the drinking water.
On that Friday morning, an ambulance responded to a call from the site to treat a staff member who was concerned he had been exposed to chlorine vapors, according to a statement released by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
In the statement, DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd said there was a higher than normal presence of chlorine inside Gate House 5, but that there was no danger to the public. The chlorine was temporarily added to the water to disinfect water in the New Croton Aqueduct prior to placing the aqueduct into service to meet peak summer demands.
Staff at area schools saw the emergency vehicles and inquired about the situation but were told there was no need to evacuate the students.
“The message I got was it was inside the building, there was no leak outside the building, and a couple of staff were taken to the hospital,” said Stephen Kalin, Assistant Principal of the Bronx High School of Science. Kalin approached the workers to find out if it was safe to take the kids out at lunchtime, he said.
Local activists and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said the leak could have presented a major hazard to the people at the housing complexes and schools around the site, which include Lehman College, Bronx Science and Clinton High School. The chlorine level in the Gate House was two parts per million, double the standard set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In a letter to the New York State Health Commissioner, Dinowitz expressed his concern over the DEP’s handling of the incident, saying the public was not sufficiently notified.
Karen Argenti, a community activist, also criticized the agency and said the incident raises issues about the chemical filtration process the nearby Croton filtration plant will use.
“What this has done is it has shown that they’re not being careful enough,” Argenti said.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.