Mercury Clean-Up Near Elementary School Will Go Forward

SOUTH STREET SEAPORT, NY — The Department of Environmental Conservation gave developers the greenlight to clean-up a controversial mercury site across the street from an elementary school Tuesday.

The department announced Tuesday it accepted what's known as a brownfield application for the site, located at 250 Water St. — which has sparked intense scrutiny from parents at a nearby school who fear the clean-up could exposure children to toxins.

The current parking lot was historically the site of thermometer factories and an underground gas tank. Remnants of mercury were made public in January.

Parents slammed the brownfield's approval — demanding the Department of Environmental Conservation and local politicians provide a grant for neighbors to hire an independent engineer to work with the ground founded amid the controversy, Children First.

"We will continue to fight for a third-party to oversee the remediation of the site," Megan Malvern, co-founder of Children First and a parent of children who go to the neighboring school, Peck Slip, where kids' have recess on a cobblestone street that abuts the remediation site. "We call on the NYSDEC and our elected officials to provide the community with a Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) to fund an independent engineer to represent the community throughout the process."

The developer Howard Hughes Corporation, which purchased the parking lot last summer, reiterated its dedication to remediating the site safely.

"As longtime members of the Seaport community dedicated to its sustainable future, we are fully committed to the safety and well-being of all of our neighbors," Howard Hughes Corporation said in a statement. "We take environmental issues extremely seriously and will continue to collaborate with community stakeholders as we begin to formulate a plan to clean up and redevelop 250 Water Street."

Parallel to concerns of mercury is neighbors' distaste for Howard Hughes Corporation — who suspect the developer will try to seek to override the historic Seaport's height limit of 120 feet under zoning regulations.

In March, Community Board 1 asked HHC to detail its building plans at 250 Water St. before moving ahead with remediation.

The developer has not disclosed development plans yet, and did not answer questions about its plans. In a New York Times feature, Saul Scherl, president of the New York tristate region for Howard Hughes, suspected not-in-my-backyard sentiments were the crux of the opposition.

"I believe they have an alternative agenda to maintain it forever as a parking lot," Scherl told the Times.

The state's brownfield program is among the state's "primary tools" to clean-up and reuse contaminated sites.

The developer's environmental consultant, Langan, is spearheading an analysis of the site with oversight from DEC and the state's Health Department.

Children First did welcome the DEC's "responsiveness."

Co-founder of the group Grace Lee said the department recommended that the clean-up be done beneath a "large temporary structure to prevent off-site migration of airborne contaminants."

"During the cleanup of sites in the program, DEC rigorously monitors all activities and requires that remedial parties undertake efforts to ensure there is no exposure to any contamination at the site — including requiring the use of temporary structures — and comprehensive investigations to determine the full extent and nature of contamination," the state's DEC said.

Howard Hughes Corporation has 60 days to sign the accepted application. Then, the developer would be required to submit a draft community participation plan and a draft remedial investigation work plan for review and comment.