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By blackstar - October 11, 2023
Brookhaven, NY (October 9, 2023) – Leaders from the Brookhaven chapter of the NAACP NYS Conference, Citizens Campaign for the Environment (DDE) and the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group (BLARG) today called for an independent investigation into the dumping of potentially hazardous waste for years at the town of Brookhaven landfill, exposing neighboring communities of color, teachers and students at the nearby Frank P. Long School and workers at the landfill to serious health risks.
The leaders said neither the town nor the State Department of Environmental Conversation (DEC) should be charged with conducting the investigation into their own failures and called on Attorney General Letitia James and Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney to lead civil and criminal investigation into the illegal dumping of potential hazardous materials as reported on Sunday in Newsday.
Brookhaven NAACP Chapter President Dr. Georgette Grier-Key said, “We have long known that the town of Brookhaven was driven more by the money they get from tipping fees at the landfill than by protecting the people of North Bellport from shady operations at the landfill. We fought for years to close the landfill, and now we know we will live for years with the damage it has done to our community. Newsday’s blockbuster story cannot be swept under the rug – we want answers that can only come from independent investigations.”
CCE Executive Director Adrienne Esposito said, “More than a decade ago, we told town officials and DEC staff that we could see ash, smell ash, and taste ash throughout communities south of the landfill all the way to the hamlet of Brookhaven and Bellport. We documented residents’ complaints about ash on cars, backyard chairs, windowsills and blowing into homes. The community’s pleas for help were ignored. Now Newsday has revealed what we knew was true: our public health and environment were at risk because of lax enforcement. The public deserves better. This time, we won’t be ignored. This time, we want real answers.”
As Newsday reported, North Bellport already has levels more than double the Suffolk County rate of adult emergency department visits for asthma, according to state Department of Health data, and more than two dozen plaintiffs have sued Brookhaven in trying to tie the landfill to their cancers and other illnesses.
In addition, DEC notified Brookhaven officials in August that it must address a plume of harmful “forever chemicals” discovered in groundwater south of the landfill, including a likely human carcinogen known as PFAS that are common in the types of household products that have been incinerated and dumped at the landfill for decades. Now, with these latest revelations, residents must deal with the very real possibility that toxic heavy metals in ash disposed of illegally at the landfill could have contaminated the environment.
BLARG Co-Founder Monique Fitzgerald said, “Our community is under environmental attack, and it appears to have been sanctioned by both the town of Brookhaven and the state DEC. Town Supervisor Ed Romaine and the other leaders we count on to protect us have failed. They put our health at risk and spoiled our environment. Town Supervisor Ed Romaine turned a blind eye to our concerns and its time he and every other government official involved in this scandal is held to account.”
Dr. Grier-Key said in addition to independent investigations into the landfill, the NAACP called on the town to end its lawsuit with the NAACP, CCE and local residents to prevent a full-blown environmental impact study of a site just around the corner from the landfill where Winters Bros is hoping to build the largest waste transfer station in New York State history by getting a federal exemption from local zoning laws.
“The only thing worse than local oversight of the Winters Bros project is no local oversight at all – and that’s exactly what we would get if Winters Bros gets a federal waiver from local zoning. Our community is already reeling from the environmental damage the landfill has brought to us and now Romaine and his cronies want to do even more damage with this massive transfer station. Enough is enough.”