[CPEO-BIF] Visit to the Soundview Educational Campus, the Bronx, New York

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Below is my report on my field visit to the Bronx, to learn more about 
the Loral site and the Soundview Educational Campus. For a formatted 
version with photographs, go to 
http://www.cpeo.org/brownfields/SoundviewNY.doc. - LS



Visit to the Soundview Educational Campus
March 14, 2006
Lenny Siegel

On March 14, 2006, I visited the Soundview Educational Campus, a recent 
brownfield development in the Bronx, New York. Since I have previously 
met with community activists about this site, this report will focus on 
new information. On this tour, I was hosted by Mary McKinney (Concerned 
Residents Organization), who lives directly across the street from the 
campus, and accompanied by Veronica Eady and Jaime Rivera of New York 
Lawyers for the Public Interest.

The Soundview Campus is located just East of the Bronx River and across 
the East River from (and in the flight path of) LaGuardia Airport. It is 
nestled into a corner of a former Loral manufacturing facility. The area 
to the east of the Loral property contains numerous high-rise apartment 
buildings. To the south is Soundview Park. Across the Bronx River to the 
west are a cement plant and what appears to be a dump or recycling 
center for large metal wastes. The property across from the front 
entrance, to the north, appears to be industrial.

This is a "poster-child" brownfield site, displaying visible blight and 
containing hidden contaminants. Particularly on week-ends, the large 
open area is used to park large industrial trucks.

The Soundview Campus, opened in 2004, is neither a neighborhood school 
nor a typical high school campus. The building is a brick box, with no 
visible outdoor plazas or athletic fields. It appears to be a magnet 
high school for gifted students, all or most of which are bused in from 
elsewhere. Neighbors have little contact with students or their parents.

As we walked along the sidewalk, Mary pointed out a grid of boxwood 
shrubs. She said they turned yellowish, apparently from toxic substances 
in the soil, soon after planting. We re-discussed the importance of 
vapor intrusion sampling in every ground-floor room.

Veronica said that the New York School Construction Authority avoided 
doing an environmental impact review by leasing, rather than buying, the 
site. I told her about a court case in which a federal judge found that 
for some environmental purposes, a long-term lease is tantamount to a 
transfer by deed. I also observed that the process of obtaining funding 
for school construction in New York creates pressures to avoid serious 
environmental investigation.

The larger problem, however, is the rest of the Loral site, which has a 
plume of volatile organic compounds flowing toward the rivers as well as 
extensive soil contamination with heavy metals. It's an obvious blight 
on the largely African-American neighborhood, yet little is being done 
to clean or redevelop the property.




--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

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