NEWS


Pump upgrade planned on East Side sparks air concerns

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection is planning to upgrade the pump capacity at the Manhattan Pump Station located on Avenue D between E. 12th and E. 13th Sts.

This pump, one of many throughout the city, conveys sewage from the east side of Manhattan to the city’s main processing plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Improvements will include boosting the pump capacity from 300 million to 400 million gallons per day, and increasing the operating horsepower. Federal and state regulations mandate the upgrade, according to Charles Sturcken, spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection.

Construction will begin in 2005 and continue through most of 2009, Sturcken said. Two weeks ago, representatives from the environmental protection department met with community members to explain the plans and tour the pump area.

Some community members, while accepting that the pump work needed to be done, nonetheless expressed concern for a neighborhood that already counts a Con Ed plant as its neighbor.

“It’s still going to have a huge impact on the community,” Susan Stetzer, chairperson of the Public Safety Committee of Community Board 3, said of the pump upgrade. Still, Stetzer said, “I’m very hopeful we’ll be treated as good as possible.”

Rosie Mendez, an aide to Councilmember Margarita Lopez, said there was concern that until the pump upgrade is complete, temporary diesel generators will be used, adding to the particulate matter already in the air from the Con Ed plant.

The Manhattan Pump Station site was formerly a manufactured gas plant. This summer, Con Edison will conduct studies on the site to evaluate it for potential toxins, according to Joseph Petta, a Con Ed spokesperson. The main contaminant that could be present at the sites is coal tar, a byproduct of the gas-making process. Up until the 1950s, manufactured gas plants converted coal, oil and water into gas for lighting city streets and heating homes. However, officials have said that the risk posed by residual toxins, if there are any, is very small.

Sturcken said that the city would review Con Ed’s findings.