Filtration Plan Gets Final Go-Ahead

By JORDAN MOSS

Almost eight months after the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced it had chosen Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park as the site for an 11-acre water filtration plant, the City Council gave its final approval to the project on July 21. The vote, 32-10, capped a seven-month land use review process that began with the unanimous objections of the three local community boards bordering the site.

The defeat for local plant opponents, who fear the project's impact on the neighborhood, was not unexpected, but many who spent considerable time at City Hall lobbying council members to vote their way seemed to think they were having an impact.

The Sierra Club, an environmental group that had teamed up with Bronx activists to fight the plant, counted 20 or 21 members of the Council who were sympathetic to their point of view, only a little shy of the 26 votes that would have been necessary to defeat the plan.

Those who were present the day of the vote say the outcome was determined by Council Speaker Peter Vallone, who declared the filtration vote a "leadership vote," meaning that members would be expected to follow their leader or potentially lose projects for their districts or leadership positions. Two Bronx representatives -- Madeline Provenzano and Lucy Cruz -- were absent for the vote and Wendell Foster abstained. Only five council members voted against the project. They are Stephen DiBrienza, Guillermo Linares, Julia Harrison, Kathryn Freed, and Mary Pinkett.

Construction unions, anxious to keep the jobs associated with the project within city limits, also lobbied heavily, and many believe Vallone, a potential mayoral candidate, feared alienating them by rejecting the city's plans.

Activists took some solace in the fact that they could have won if only the merits of the plan were being considered and that educating the legislators on a complicated issue was important in and of itself, and could prove useful as other water issues come into play down the road.

"Many of the members that voted yes didn't feel good about voting yes," said Fay Muir, a Norwood resident and member of the Mosholu Woodlawn South Community Coalition. "So we feel that we had a strong influence and even though it didn't result in what we wanted, we feel there is more information out there, and at least people made more informed choices even though there was a lot of political pressure."

Muir added, however, that she was disappointed in the political process. "To me it's rather difficult to swallow, to think that [an elected official can] believe one thing but if you want to have a political future that you have to go along with something else."

Lori Brown of the Sierra Club said the hard work on the part of her organization's members and community residents was productive despite the outcome. "The effort that people put in had a huge impact on people's understanding of the issue [which] paves the way for whatever the next steps are."

Those next steps are not yet fully charted, but they are likely headed for a court (or courts) of law. The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park has indicated that it will probably sue the city on the grounds of park alienation. And Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, with 32 of his colleagues, has notified Mayor Giuliani that state legislation is required to take parkland for such a project. The city claims it does not need the legislature's approval, making a court fight over the matter a strong possibility.

The Norwood News filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the DEP, asking for documentation concerning the agency's determination that state approval is not necessary before it proceeds with construction at the golf course. The DEP denied the request. In writing, the agency's records access officer, Charlotte Abo-Comitini, said the relevant documents "were prepared as privileged and confidential client-attorney communications and are not subject to public disclosure under FOIL." The paper is filing an appeal with a more senior official at the DEP.

Also under consideration by community activists is a lawsuit based on federal environmental justice statutes, since the neighborhood that borders the park is largely comprised of minority residents.

The elected officials who have loudly objected to the project over the last several years, first when it was planned for the Jerome Park Reservoir, and finally at Van Cortlandt, were unified in opposition to the final defeat in the land use process and vowed not to give up the fight.

"Thousands of people live within a short distance of the sight chosen by the city," Dinowitz said. "Two hospitals are within blocks of the site. The impact on traffic, on noise, on the quality of the air -- and on asthma rates -- are alarming. This boondoggle must never be built in Van Cortlandt Park."

Councilwoman June Eisland, who is chair of Land Use, the lead committee on the filtration matter, was unhappy with the actions of her colleagues, and restated her view that protecting the watershed and other filtration avoidance measures are the better solution.

"It will cost far, far less -- both in dollars and in terms of damaging a park and a vibrant working-class neighborhood -- to clean up the water at its source," Eisland said. "The reservoirs in the Croton watershed should be protected as was done two years ago in the Catskill/Delaware watershed agreement."

Eisland added, "I'm still hopeful that a shovel will never dig into the ground at Van Cortlandt Park."

Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer agreed with Eisland's critique.

"By approving this project, the City Council, unfortunately, missed a one-time opportunity to force the city to do the right thing fiscally and environmentally and demand that the city seriously and aggressively pursue the non-filtration option," Ferrer said, adding, "This battle will now be waged in court. I am hopeful the courts will recognize the strength and validity of our position even if the City Council did not."

If filtration opponents do not succeed in stopping the project in court, construction will begin in September 2001.

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