Mercury Clean-Up Near School Gets Extra Month For Public Comments

SOUTH STREET SEAPORT, NY — A plan to clean-up mercury leaks beneath a parking lot has drawn so much scrutiny that locals will have an extra month to submit public comment about the toxic site, the Department of Environmental Conservation announced Wednesday.

The department said a public comment period for what's known as a Brownfield clean-up site will be extended from Oct. 30 to Dec. 2 because of "requests from the public and elected officials," according to a notice from the department.

The parking lot, which lies on top of historic thermometer factories and a gas tank, was found to have remnants of mercury and other contaminants at the site, at 250 Water St.

Developer Howard Hughes Corporation, which bought the property last summer, announced earlier this year it would remediate the parking lot of the toxic soil.

But parents of children at a school across the street as well as residents in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood have sounded alarms about the clean-up — fearful of kids being exposed to contaminants during the work. The kids at the elementary school, Peck Slip School, have a play area in the cobble stone street next to the parking lot.

Children First, a neighborhood group formed in the wake of the Brownfield clean-up at 250 Water St., thanked DEC "for hearing the community and agreeing to extend the public comment period," the group said on Twitter.

The public will have until Dec. 2 to comment on the draft remedial investigation work plan as a part of a lengthy process under the state's Brownfield program to determine if the site has significant threats, and what remedies could be made, if so, according to a timeline presented at a September Community Board 1 meeting.

Thirty-foot deep borings will be drilled to see how deep mercury may be after soil is analyzed for mercury vapor in the investigation, but it could be another six months before the clean-up formally begins, reported Tribeca Tribune at the September CB 1 meeting.

Documents about the plans at 250 Water St. can be found on DEC's website. Per the department, comments can be submitted to 250 Water St.'s project manager Rafi Alam at rafi.alam@dec.ny.gov or 518-402-8606.

Reach Patch's previous coverage on the mercury clean-up at 250 Water St:

• Mercury Clean-Up Near Elementary School Will Go Forward
• Mercury Clean-Up Near Manhattan School Leaves Parents Worried
• Parents Concerned About Mercury Clean-Up Near Seaport School