Sunset Park Has 14 Schools Near Pollution-Filled Roads: Study

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A quarter of Brooklyn schools that were built too close to roads with dangerous pollutants are in Sunset Park, a new study found.

The neighborhood has 14 of the borough's 55 schools that are within 500 feet of a major road, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns pollution levels are the highest, according to the Localize.city. The study found 244 public schools across the city that are within that proximity to the heavily-trafficked corridors.

Urban Planner Liat Halpern said the data shows that parents should add whether schools are near a major highway to their list of factors when choosing where to send their kids.

“They might not pay attention to hidden hazards of air quality, even though pollution could have a big impact on their children’s ability to learn," Halpern said. "After all, kids attend city schools 180 days a year, often running around at recess every day, breathing in the air — and potentially toxic fine particulate matter.

"We think it’s important for parents to have this kind of information when they’re making decisions about where to live because often their choices are linked to nearby schools.”

Sunset Park's schools include those near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Third and Fourth avenues and 39th and 65th streets.

"Many of these are noisy truck routes where outdated diesel engines rumble along, spewing particularly noxious fumes," the researchers said.

The risky school locations could be because residential development booms have school districts "bursting at the seams," meaning finding building space for a school is becoming more difficult, the researchers said.

The schools close to busy roads include several that are being built this year.

In Sunset Park, that includes P.S./I.S. 746, which will open in September 2020 "in the shadow of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway." Another Brooklyn school, P.S./I.S. 667, is set to open in East New York near two high-trafficked corridors and truck routes the same month. And, a year later, a pre-K school is scheduled to open in Gowanus along the 9th Street truck route, the study said.

Jackson Heights' will also get a new just 200 feet from the BQE this year and East Elmhurst I.S. 419, a 650-seat middle school, is slated to open in 2021 on a busy corner by the Grand Central Parkway.

Check out a searchable list of all schools the study found were near major roadways here.