‘Top priority’: Officials demand action on Staten Island radiation cleanup

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It’s time to speed up an East Shore clean-up, two local elected officials recently told the responsible agencies.

Prompted by a July 23 Advance/SILive.com report, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and South Shore City Councilmember Frank Morano penned a July 28 letter to leaders with the National Parks Service and city Department of Environmental Protection calling for them to make the environmental remediation at Great Kills Park a “top priority.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needs the remediation completed before it can move forward with the full South Shore of Staten Island Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, a resiliency effort commonly known as the East Shore Seawall.

“Staten Islanders have waited more than 20 years for this contamination to be fully addressed,” the Republican duo wrote to the National Parks Service and Department of Environmental Protection Agency. “We appreciate the commitment of all parties to completing the cleanup safely and responsibly, and we look forward to working together to remove the remaining obstacles so that both the remediation and the East Shore Seawall can finally move forward.”

A spokesperson for the National Parks Service did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. A spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection said they’re reviewing the letter.

In total, seven contracts comprise the $2.3 billion project that includes interior drainage and a 4.5-mile seawall from Fort Wadsworth through Oakwood Beach to the edge of Great Kills Park. Work on other sections of the project will be able to proceed as the remediation is worked out.

Construction of an interior drainage portion of the project near South Beach had been underway, but that work is on hold due to the Corps’ safety concerns with the contractor it hired on a $133 million contract.

In their letter, Malliotakis and Morano wrote that the Corps has “indicated it stands ready to perform the physical work on the City’s behalf,” but a spokesperson for the agency told the Advance/SILive.com last month that the remediation work would be “solely the responsibility of the project sponsor and the City of New York.

Daphne Yun — a spokesperson for the National Park Service, the sponsor and agency responsible for addressing the contamination — said last month that she couldn’t provide a timeline or the cost of the remediation project.

“The timing for beginning and completing the remediation, and the ultimate cost of that work, cannot yet be determined and will depend on the remedy selected, execution of the necessary funding agreement with the City of New York, and other applicable project requirements and contingencies,” Yun said.

An Army Corps factsheet for the seawall projectshows the agency expects all contracts related to the project to be underway by about 2030, but the most southerly, a levee and tide gate running from the coastline to Hylan Boulevard along Great Kills Park, requires radiological cleanup before it can proceed.

The radiation around Great Kills Park, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, was discovered in 2005 during an NYPD anti-terror flyover. Information about the radiation wasn’t made public until 2006 after a congressional survey.

According to the National Park Service, New York City chose to landfill the former wetland that now makes up Great Kills Park starting in 1925 in an effort to turn the area into usable property. At the time, waste was commonly used to fill land for such purposes.

The majority of the waste was placed from 1944 to 1948, and the site operated as a city park until 1972 when it transferred to the federal system, according to the Park Service.

Language in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which passed in 1980, typically precludes the federal government from handling hazardous waste remediation out of a concern for liability.

Brig. Gen. Jesse Curry, commander and division engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ North Atlantic Division, said in early July that the federal government is committed to completing the seawall.

“Staten Island families have waited a long time for this protection, and this Administration is committed to getting it built safely and according to the design standards that will deliver long standing protection,” he said.