Greenpoint activist group says site is too polluted to house school
A group of Greenpoint residents are fighting against the city’s plan to build a new school across the street from the NuHart Plastics building, which is so polluted it was declared a state Superfund site. According to WNYC, an underground plume of toxic chemicals has made its way to within a few feet of the proposed school site.
At a recent meeting, Mike Schade, an activist with the North Brooklyn group Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, urged City Councilmember Stephen Levin, who approved the site in 2013, to go back to the drawing board.
“We know that this is a contaminated site; it’s one of the most contaminated sites in New York City and New York state. Let’s find a safer, smarter site for our children,” Schade said. In 2013, the developer agreed to wait until the site was cleaned up, but now it appears that the toxins may be too entrenched to be removed, WNYC reported. Levin will continue to take public input and will decide by the end of the year whether to proceed or start from scratch at another site.
