Green Clarifies Stance: No Plant in Bronx By JORDAN MOSS
Prompted by a Riverdale Press article indicating that he might support building the filtration plant for the Croton water system in New York City, mayoral candidate Mark Green visited the area on Friday at the urging of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz to clarify his position. Green met Dinowitz, who has endorsed him in the mayor's race, and a group of activists and reporters at the corner of Sedgwick and Hillman avenues and immediately announced his opposition to building the facility in the Bronx. "With new technology we may be able to keep the Croton watershed clean and safe if we pursue the newest technologies which can avoid filtration in the first instance," Green said. "That's the goal. If that fails, and there has to be a filtration plant, it should be located not in a park and [only someplace] with community approval and consent. That means it can never, should never, and will never be built in Jerome or Van Cortlandt parks." He added, later in his comments: "If it has to be built, as mayor, I will negotiate real hard with Westchester and the state to make sure it's not in a park and it's not in the northwest Bronx." He then traveled to the top of the nearby Reservoir Park Towers, part of the Amalgamated Houses co-op development, to get a bird's-eye view of both the Jerome Park Reservoir and Van Cortlandt Park. The Riverdale Press article reported on a campaign forum at Hunter College in Manhattan sponsored by the New York Public Interest Research Group and Riverkeeper. Green said he favored Westchester in his remarks during the forum, but in written answers to the questions from the groups, Green said the plan should be built within city limits. Explaining why there was confusion about his stance on the issue, Green said: "I know there was a miswritten or misread answer to a questionnaire that I didn't see. This can happen when you get a 100 surveys a week from all kinds of groups." Of the other mayoral candidates, Alan Hevesi and Fernando Ferrer agree with Green. But Peter Vallone has said the city should build the plant at Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park, even though the state's highest court has ruled that that plan would need the permission of the state legislature.
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