Did you read the Staten Island Advance today? The editors joined Borough President Jim Oddo in supporting our call for a FULL STOP WORK ORDER at Mount Manresa and a thorough investigation to find out how the Savo Brothers were even able to obtain ANY demolition permits.
Now it’s critical that we turn up the volume! Can you take a moment to contact the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB), and the Department of Investigations (DOI) and add your voice to the calls for action?
You don’t need to say a lot—just reiterate the main message, which is:
“I want a full investigation of the Demo Permits issued for Mount Manresa and a FULL STOP WORK ORDER until the investigation is completed. Residents have already been exposed to lead and asbestos dust from the illegal demo at the site. The health of thousands of local residents should be more important than the profit of Savo Brothers. It is urgent that you put A Full Stop Work Order at 239 Fingerboard Road in Staten Island”
Call Department of Building Customer Service at (212) 393-2340 or
email the DOB commissioner Rick Chandler by clicking here.
Call Department of Investigation at (212) 825-5900 or
email the DOI Commissioner Mark Peters by clicking here.
Then, help me keep track of calls and emails made by emailing me at savemm2013@gmail.com.
THIS IS A SERIOUS PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE:
Please know, according to the EPA there is no such thing as a “little abestos.” Once it is in the air, it can cause cancer and lung disease. Similarly, lead exposure can cause long term damage.
Many residents in the area have complained about breathing problems, headaches and related health issues after the construction began. If you live in the area and are experiencing these issues, please see a doctor immediately and tell them demo has been occuring Mount Manresa since Aug 29,2014 and you may have been exposed to lead and asbestos dust, also please call the NYC Department of Health at 347-396-4100 and please let us know by email so we can track as well.
Thank you for helping us action taken on this very important issue.
Mount Manresa work should be stopped pending probe (editorial)
on October 07, 2014 at 10:13 AM
The indefatigable opponents of the concluded sale and ongoing redevelopment of the Mount Manresa site were out there again on Saturday, in the pouring rain.
These days, with the property irretrievably in the Savo Brothers’ hands after the inevitable sale was concluded some months ago, and the preparation of the site for the construction of 250 townhouses already well under way, the Committee to Save Mount Manresa is focused on the question of asbestos embedded in the old buildings on the site.
Their concern has much merit. Recently, the city Department of Environmental Protection levied $67,400 in total fines against the Savo Brothers and the independent contractor the developers hired to test for asbestos and other contaminants in preparation for the demolition of the buildings.
Gaspare Santoro, the engineer who took only a small number of samples before declaring that the six buildings on the site were free of asbestos, was hit with a total of $37,200 in violations. Savo Brothers was cited for $19,000 worth of violations and another contractor, was slapped with $11,000 in fines.
Full stop-work order sought
The city issued a partial stop-work order for the site as a result of the violations, but the committee wants a full stop-work order.
Indeed, said Barbara Sanchez, the secretary of the group, “Those [demolition] permits should have never been issued.”
Committee members want all the buildings on the site that contain asbestos to be fully encapsulated with negative air pressure to reduce the spread of asbestos into the surrounding neighborhood and they want authorities to impose a requirement that asbestos and lead monitoring be performed throughout the neighborhood, including on the dust in residents’ homes.
The group is also calling for a more substantial probe into the demolition of Mount Manresa’s buildings by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the city and state health departments.
No wonder.
Just 19 samples taken
Mr. Santoro reportedly took just 19 samples before declaring the site — six buildings — asbestos-free.
Borough President James Oddo, who has taken up the committee’s concerns, reported that an asbestos investigator hired after that took 300 samples and found the material in two buildings. The results of the tests on the other four buildings have not yet been released by the DEP.
He has called on the city’s Department of Investigations to look into the matter. Moreover, he wants the DOI to order the DEP and the Department of Buildings to refrain from issuing any more permits for the project, and to rescind those that have already been issued.
“I don’t know if it’s negligence, incompetence, or something worse,” Mr. Oddo said. “But DOI should find out.”
He added, “I’m sure as hell curious that one guy took 19 samples and another guy took 300.”
So should the DOI be.
Sketchy testing
And how was it that the developers and their contractors were permitted by the Buildings Department to conduct such a sketchy investigation of the asbestos issue?
After all, the buildings on the site date to at least the first half of the last century. It’s a cinch that asbestos — regarded in those days a miracle fire-retardant insulation material — was used in those buildings as any engineer worth his salt would have known.
Or was it hoped by some that no asbestos would be found on the site so demolition and townhouse construction work could proceed without delay? Maybe that would explain the skimpy testing done by the engineer hired by the Savo Brothers.
‘Stop it in its tracks’
“Nothing should move forward until we are given a full accounting,” said Mr. Oddo, who was briefed on the violations and other aspects of the project by DEP and DOB representatives on Friday. “We should stop this project dead in its tracks.”
He’s right. Unless there are real consequences for the developers and their contractors, they will regard the city’s fines as simply part of the cost of doing business. It’s been known to happen before. It cannot be allowed to happen here with all the heartbreak and anxiety this project has caused in the community.
We’ve always said that the Jesuits had the right to sell the property and that the buyers had the right to develop it within the zoning restrictions — even if virtually nobody on Staten Island liked that outcome.
But if the regulations concerning asbestos contamination as the result of demolition have been sloughed off by the developers in a hurry to realize their profits, risking the health of the surrounding community in the process, that should be uncovered by a thorough investigation, made public and penalized with something much more exacting than modest fines.
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