Fourth Ave brownfield cleanup continues to raise alarm

Wendy Romero, who lives in a townhouse on 41st Street off Fourth Avenue, regularly looks out on the brownfield cleanup site from her kitchen window. On July 7, she was once again overwhelmed by an odor.

“All of a sudden, it was just that horrendous smell. It overtook … So I had to shut the air conditioner and put the fan on outtake,” Romero said.

It was not the first time powerful odors from the construction site had alarmed neighbors, as the Sunset Post previously reported.

“It was all over the neighborhood,” said Romero. “Headache, stomach, burning. It’s just the same thing, and it worries me because I may not be exhibiting anything now, but you know when you’re exposed to things like this, it comes up and creeps later.”

The brownfield site at 4001 4th Ave. was previously a BP filling station and, before that, had been home to various gas stations and auto repair shops over the past 100 years.

The land was acquired by a developer with plans to build a new school to house Brooklyn RISE Charter School. The site is participating in the Brownfield Cleanup Program, overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

After reports of extreme gas odor on June 8, the Sunset Post requested information from DEC, including data collected by the three air-monitoring stations at the construction site. Monthly Progress Report No. 12, a 556-page report by environmental and geotechnical engineering consulting firm Haley & Aldrich, shows levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM), two major classes of air pollutants. The three stations report VOC and PM levels every 15 minutes.

“The levels during these [periods], for a few hours, were really high compared to the threshold they are supposed to be,” said Zhongqi Cheng, chair and professor of Brooklyn College’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Cheng’s research focuses on environmental geochemistry, urban soils and urban sustainability. He has studied toxins in soils and brownfield cleanups for more than 20 years.

Looking at the charts in the DEC report, Cheng said the spikes in VOCs and PM were limited rather than sustained, lasting no more than a few hours. He said odors generally dissipate quickly in open air.

“Some people are very sensitive; some people are less sensitive,” Cheng said. He added that people should move away from the immediate location of an odor when possible.

“Usually that does not cause any health consequences — very short exposure,” Cheng said. But he warned that long-term exposure is different.

“But if it’s chronic exposure, that’s a problem. That’s going to be health issues. Even sometimes maybe low [exposure], but if it’s a chronic exposure, it can be a big problem,” Cheng said.

Cheng said contaminants can migrate through soil and enter nearby basements. “If there is stuff in the ground, for example, it can migrate into people’s basements,” he said.

For this reason, he said removing the contaminated soil is the best option.

“Getting [the soil] out of this site is the best strategy. It’s a time bomb, essentially. If it’s sitting there, it’s going to be releasing it little by little over time,” Cheng said.

Cheng said there are many brownfield sites across New York State and that he believes DEC manages and regulates them well. “From the technology perspective, I mean, they are very limited to what they can do,” he said.

Three generations of Romero’s family live in the townhouse.

“Yes, it’s all family. It’s like the mother in the shoe,” she said with a smile.

Romero said several relatives are especially sensitive to the odors.

“My mother-in-law has respiratory issues. The boys upstairs have severe asthma,” she said, adding that she also has respiratory problems.

Asked whether anyone from the cleanup site had contacted her about the situation, Romero said no.

Looking out her back kitchen window at workers wearing respirators, she questioned why nearby residents were not being offered comparable protection.

“And here we are breathing it, and I’m not 100 [feet] from it,” she said.