City and State politicians rally with members of two civic groups to protest increased traffic of garbage trains through Queens. Addabbo staffer Alex Maureau holds the trash trains’ route map while State Senator Joe Addabo speaks. Photo courtesy of Joe Addabo’s office.
On Monday, a cast of elected officials and activists gathered in Long Island City to protest trains passing through neighborhoods miles away.
The State Department of Environmental Conservation recently OK’d the expansion of Waste Management’s truck and rail transfer facility at 38-22 Review Avenue in Long Island City.
More vehicles will be running through the station, but a consequence of this expansion is more trains cutting through the whole of Queens.
This in turn causes more traffic at the Fresh Pond Terminal rail yard, which has long been a thorn in the side of Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village residents.
Those living next to the tracks complain they constantly have to hear and smell the engines coupling and uncoupling with cars through the night.
The parade of elected officials at the protest included State Senators Joe Addabbo and Mike Gianaris, Assemblyman Mike Miller, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley.
CURES (Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions)—a conglomerate of civic groups—and the Juniper Park Civic Association also came to voice their disapproval.
CURES has long argued that a push to use more train transfers for garbage is disproportionately abusing Queens—where all the trains must pass through.
“Government at every level in New York has put into place policies and plans to use more freight rail and fewer trucks. Government at every level—including NYS DEC with the issuance of this permit––is setting a course of degradation for the health and welfare of communities in Queens,” the organization announced in a statement.
The group advocates barging trash out of the city and insists this is another thumb in the eye to Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale, which hug the rail lines.
“One freight rail expansion after another is planned for Fresh Pond without commensurate mitigation for increased community burdens or realistic consideration of Fresh Pond’s limitations,” the group continued. “The great State and City of New York need to plan for a sound freight transportation system that will support the NYC region’s economic development.”
Addabbo is in a race to retain his Senate Seat against Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich, and Ulrich took the opportunity to say the rally was too little too late—coming only after New York approved the expansion.
“Today’s press conference is an insult to the residents of Middle Village, Maspeth and Glendale who have been enduring toxic air pollution, excessive noise and noxious odors from trains hauling garbage through their neighborhoods for far too long,” He said. Even as the DEC approved a plan that will bring tons of additional trash and debris right through the heart of Queens, Joe Addabbo was asleep at the switch. He was supposed to weigh in before the DEC approved the plan but instead stood idly by as Waste Management lobbied state officials to expand the use of the corridor.”
By Jeremiah Dobruck
