Waste Transfer Station Proposal Moves Forward

Boys play soccer on the field at the Asphalt Green Community Center in Manhattan on June 25, where the abandoned East 91st Street Trash Station rests in the background. The proposed plan would demolish the existing building and replace it with another 10 stories high. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—A proposed waste transfer station on the Upper East Side has received final approval and will be built, unless a pending lawsuit blocks it.

The $500 million proposal would tear down a closed facility near East 91st Street and York Avenue and build a new 10-story building for ferrying trash across the river to New Jersey.

The project has upset area residents, who on June 25 with state Assemblyman Micah Kellner filed a fourth lawsuit against the city over the proposal. The group alleges that the city was required by law to perform another environmental review of the site, and that aspects of the 2006 version of the proposal changed, giving grounds for the lawsuit.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office announced Sunday that final approval for the project was granted late last week by the U.S. Army Corps. “Building it will make our trash removal system cleaner and greener,” the office tweeted. A spokesperson didn’t respond to emailed questions by press deadline.

Kellner, meanwhile, said on Twitter, “The fight to stop the [waste transfer station] isn’t over by a long shot,” adding he’s taking the mayor to court and linking to a website for Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, a community-based organization opposed to the proposal.

Albert K. Butzel, who represents the group in the lawsuit, said Monday they were waiting for the city to respond to the lawsuit. “Eventually we’re going to get to a judge,” he said, though he didn’t know when exactly, since these cases “take a while to get there.”

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