Comment EI-16674
Received or sent (printed as 4/2/2009)
Hello, I am president of the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association, the neighborhood association which represents several thousand of residents who live in the area directly North of the Harsimus Branch Embankment. Our association calls for a full environmental impact statement. Our neighborhood organization is alarmed about the physical threat presented by large scale demolition adjacent to our Historic homes and buildings. There are dozens of fragile buildings along the Sixth Street side of the Embankment that are in our neighborhood, including a senior citizen residence, two churches, and a school. Some of these buildings are listed on the national historic register and ALL are less than 50 feet from the embankment. These will be most immediately impacted, but our entire neighborhood will also be affected. In addition, to the potential economic damage to our community, there are health and safety concerns which are of prime importance to us (and should be to STB). We are in an area adjacent to the Holland Tunnel entrance into New York City. This is a nonattainment area for air quality. Removal of the Embankment, with its immediate impacts and the foreclosure of mass transit opportunities, will only add to our problems in this area. Finally, a study done for the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency in 1997 reported levels of four heavy metals and PAHs that would prohibit reuse of the soils under most circumstances. More recently, residents of our area noticed environmental sampling trucks on top of the Embankment, but we have seen no report of this study's results. A full Environmental Impact Study (EIS) would uncover that study, the 1997 study and perhaps recommend more in-depth studies. Please authorize a full environmental impact statement (EIS). Thank You Olu Howard
Submitted by: Olu Howard · Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association · Jersey City, NJ
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/AB-167/sub/1189X/comment/EI-16674 · back to the docket sheet