Pulse Magazine
Spring 2017
Reuse. Reread. Recycle
“When we pollute, we poison ourselves”
Local parks struggle to recover
Photo Courtesy of Nicholas Spedale
By Nicholas Spedale
Shards of glass, concrete blocks and roofing shingles scatter the ground. Asbestos, arsenic and other wastes contaminate the soil beneath the once green grass. Children watch the yellow police tape blow in the wind as the gates of their neighborhood parks are locked shut. This isn’t an apocalyptic future; it’s a brutal reality for two Long Island neighborhoods.
Dumping in public parks has reportedly served to save construction companies from paying anywhere between $1,500 and $5,000 per truckload to properly dispose of their hazardous waste at the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) approved facilities.
“The people who are responsible for illegal dumping are doing it to avoid paying the cost of proper disposal,” said Dr. J.B. Bennington, an Environmental Studies Professor at Hofstra University. “They don’t see these parks as valuable natural spaces that they have a civic duty to preserve. They see them as secluded empty lots that they can exploit to keep money in their pockets.”
The exploitation of parks appears to be a casualty in business for these companies, according to Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn, who says, “They think there are some companies from the city that are trucking their way out into the island and dumping wherever they can find open space.”
The vast degree of suburban and rural areas that have long been the selling point of living on Long Island have now become endangered targets, such as Islip’s Roberto Clemente Park. The Suffolk County park was shut down in May 2014 after investigators discovered over 50,000 tons of construction debris within its 30 acres, which remains shut down with a pending date for reopening.
The hazardous wastes containing asbestos, arsenic and Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, were reportedly dumped in the Islip park in over 1,000 truckloads, which could have saved the construction companies anywhere between $1.5 and $5 million in disposal costs.
According to the DEC, as of August 2016, all contaminants within the park have been removed, but as for the restoration itself, the park remains closed. Reports show that Thomas Datre Jr., who plead guilty to the dumping scandal within the Islip park and other locations, was left responsible for the park’s restoration under his sentence. The timeline of events seems to have taken its toll on local residents who have expressed their frustration by taking action.
“It sucks not being able to take my kids to the same park I grew up in because some idiots decided they wanted to make our park their dumping grounds,” said Herbie Medina, a lifelong Brentwood resident and founder of the Uplift Brentwood online petition that calls for officials to reopen the park as soon as possible. “The park symbolized where our community stood as a whole.”
Photo Courtesy of Newsday, John Paraskevas
The tension felt in the surrounding communities doesn’t end there, with a similar dumping scandal slamming Suffolk County back in August 2016, resulting in the closure of West Hills County Park, where toxic debris and carcinogens were found throughout its grounds. The contaminated area of the park itself is within the vicinity of a dog park and a summer day camp for children, as well as a horseback riding facility which was reportedly used for entry by the dump trucks.
“What we believe to be hundreds of tractor trailer loads of highly toxic and acutely hazardous and contaminated debris were brought into the Sweet Hills Riding Center at West Hills County Park in the Town of Huntington and spread throughout the area, on average, 3½ feet deep to 6 feet deep,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota in a press release.
Investigators believe the materials dumped at West Hills were first brought to a processing location where the construction material was pulverized so as to appear to be a “clean fill” before being dumped in the park. Spota cited the conviction of those found guilty of dumping in the Roberto Clemente Park scandal as a possible inspiration for the change in this particular case so as to avoid detection.
These well-known cases, as well as others found across Long Island, have prompted those within the local government to get involved. Suffolk County Legislators Kara Hahn and Sarah Anker recently announced plans to install cameras within county parks as part of an initiative similar to one set forward by the Town of Babylon back in 2009.
“Cameras at the entrances and exits of these parks would be very effective to either deter or catch someone who has dumped,” said Hahn, who hopes the program can prevent other kinds of illegal activities as well, just as it has for Babylon’s parks.
“Expenditure on the improvement and maintenance of the town parks is a perfect use of taxpayer funds,” said Robert Papenhausen, a Babylon resident. “A sustainable parks and recreation department, with superior facilities that have sustainability and the environment in mind, creates a forward-looking plan to conserve both resources and funds.”
For some, this isn’t enough. Some local residents have expressed their doubts about the effectiveness of the program on its own, wondering if this technology will be sufficient enough to prevent what the laws have previously enforced. But Hahn acknowledges that this plan won’t be able to do it on its own.
“We need the state’s help, so our District Attorney’s office has recommended that some dumping crimes be escalated to felonies which would really make a difference.”
- Kara Hahn.
“It’s a real problem and we need to address it regionally. Right now the fines are low and it’s a cost of doing business if they are ever caught. We really need to make the fines something that will deter these activities.”
Within days of our conversation, Governor Andrew Cuomo released the results of an operation enacted by the state in a crackdown on truck drivers who had been found with contaminated fill by the Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Police, Department of Transportation and Suffolk County Police.
“We had a law enforcement truck pull over operation and there was a number of tickets issued out of that,” said Bill Fonda, Regional Citizen Participation Specialist at the DEC. “It sends a message out to the construction and demolition community that we’re out there looking and sometimes it leads to us uncovering some new sites. It’s a good prevention method.”
Prevention, as the next step going forward, seems to be the overarching message here along with properly educating the next generation.
“We need teachers to have some training in local environmental issues so that they can infuse these into their classroom activities,” said Bennington. “We value only what we know and understand, and we care about and protect only what we value.”
What does he hope non-experts in the field can take away from this?
“When we pollute we poison ourselves,” said Bennington. “This is why we have environmental laws and regulations—people think it’s to save polar bears and spotted owls but it’s actually to prevent individuals and companies from harming society.”