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Community Corner

Environmental Advisory Board Tackles Full Agenda

Reviews Covanta's fourth burner, aircraft noise and water quality issues.

Garden City’s Environmental Advisory Board (EAB), which serves to highlight direct concerns for village residents and trustees, and to also give advice to the village about different environmental issue, held its monthly meeting Wednesday.

Members addressed key issues, including the fourth burner being built at Covanta Energy’s resource recovery plant in Westbury, aircraft safety and aircraft noise and its effect on the village, and Garden City's water quality. 

Covanta's Fourth Burner

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A major concern at the meeting focused on Covanta Energy, the village’s current waste disposal company, and the construction of a fourth burner at its energy-from-waste facility. Covanta was granted permission to proceed with its building plans at the last Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency (IDA) meeting. Covanta functions ideally to provide cost-effective and environmentally sound disposal of the Town of Hempstead’s municipal solid waste. 

The main concern about the additional burner was not air pollution, but the increase in traffic that will be generated by the transport of the waste. Also, Covanta will be bringing in municipal solid waste from New York City, generating an even greater increase in truck volume. However, an agreement was forged at the IDA meeting that prevents Covanta from using certain railways for transport, including the central extension that runs along St. James Street in southeastern Garden City.

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While the Village of Garden City does not have any direct say in Covanta’s expansion decisions (it’s ultimately Town of Hempstead’s decision), the village does have a voice at IDA’s permit meetings, and residents are welcome to voice any concerns to the Town of Hempstead directly. A monthly agenda will be kept to keep track of Covanta’s building progress and plans.

Aircraft Noise/Safety

EAB members also spent a great deal of time discussing aircraft safety and noise in the village. Particularly during the summer months, air traffic to and from John F. Kennedy Airport is elevated due to the direction of winds. This increases the noise disturbance generated by continuous flights using Runway 22, which places flights directly over Garden City. The EAB has voiced complaints to the Port Authority, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Rep. Charles Schumer to combat the volume issues.

Earlier in the week, Port Authority representatives discussed the ability to monitor air noise at specific locations in the village with air noise monitors.  Floral Park has one monitor positioned in Centennial Park to track the decibels generated from air traffic. If the noise from airplanes reached 65 decibels as an average for the year, the village would be entitled to federal funding to create quieter school environments.

By installing an air noise monitor, the village would be able to track its average decibels, and better voice a complaint about the noise, possibly leading to federal funding for schools. The EAB is currently looking into installing a monitor.

While both the Port Authority and the FAA acknowledged the village’s concerns, and agreed to try their best to reduce the volume and noise generated from aircraft, board members have been finding it quite difficult to receive accurate noise figures from both organizations. Members of the board felt that each organization seemed to dance around the issue of providing data for various reasons. Schumer has indicated that the Port Authority and the FAA need to take the village’s concerns seriously.

The board will continue to ask both the Port Authority and the FAA for their direct noise figures, and also to track down altitude readings so that they can compute the figures themselves. In general, the EAB wishes to track how the noise decibel changes over the span of a year, and also to see how the formulas used by Port Authority and the FAA may be failing. The board encouraged residents to speak out about the noise issue in order to generate more concern and action.

Water Quality

The last issue discussed at the meeting was Garden City's water quality, particularly the increasing level of nitrates found in wells by Stewart School. Nitrates are known to cause health problems in infants, and also to seep into streams and bays and affect marine life. While the level of nitrates in the village’s drinking water is well below the required measurement, the board was concerned with what might be causing these levels to steadily increase. Some possible causes discussed included fertilizer and pollutants that might be seeping through the soil from towns northeast of the village.

While it is important to determine what is heightening these levels, these measurements do not pose direct threat to any water used by Garden City residents. The concern is that, if the numbers continue to increase, extra funding will be needed to treat the village’s water for nitrates, which is expensive.

The EAB will hold its next meeting March 30 at 8 p.m. in Garden City's village hall boardroom. Residents are encouraged to attend and voice their concerns. Also, members from the Garden City High School’s HOPE Club, who are EAB committee members, are encouraged to stop by.

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