Comment EI-17124
Received or sent (printed as 4/6/2009)
I am writing to urge you to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and provide an Environmental Impact Statement for the Embankment in Jersey City!. Under that act an EIS is required for Federal actions that have quality of life implications -- and you know that the Embankment carries many! Conrail and its partner are seeking permits to demolish the Embankment which will have sever negative effects on air quality by generating enormous amounts of dust in a very populated residential area. It will create significant noise. It will create dangerous vibrations from heavy truck traffic through fragile historic districts, damaging buildings on two sides for one-half mile. It also threatens flooding to this historic and residential area – there is no half-mile of fill to absorb storm water in the flood plain. It threatens water quality by increasing the burden on combined sewers, which are old and inadequate. It will severely pollute the area: It will release CSOs into the Hudson Estuary. It will release contaminants and destroy wildlife habitats of migratory birds and monarch butterflies. It will destroy important cornerstones of the local community. It will be a cultural loss for the historic Holy Rosary festival, key to the historical Italian community in downtown Jersey City. We will lose an important and needed grade-separated transportation structure, ideal for an urban area’s heavy traffic and a light rail linking Secaucus to the waterfront. We will lose light freight opportunities. Inadequate studies have been done of the contaminants that will be emitted into the water and air of a very densely populated area. Conrail’s developer has failed to submit an environmental sampling study to STB, as required by the federal law. This ridiculous omission burdens local governments at a time when they are suffering budget deficits of record proportions. This violates citizens’ rights and environmental justice. Conrail has neglected this site for decades. Its failure to seek demolition permits is unconscionable. How can you do this at a time when public transportation and environmental issues are now such critical and accepted issues in public poly. We demand and have a right under federal law for an EIS on this project. Mary Ann Sherman.
Submitted by: Mary Ann Sherman · 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-17124 · back to the docket sheet