PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Local Lawmakers Want Fine Print On Plant

By JORDAN MOSS

In two recent public hearings held by the state Assembly and the City Council on the proposal to build a filtration plant at Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park, the local elected officials representing the area where the plant would be built pressed city officials for specifics on both the plant itself and the $243 million in park improvements the city has offered in order to make the project more palatable to residents. 

Though a vote could take place soon in the City Council and the state legislature (the city must pass a home rule before the state legislature can vote to alienate the park for the plant), local officials say there is not nearly enough information for their colleagues to make an educated judgment. "How can any elected official vote on this issue without knowing what they're really voting on?" asked Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. "It's irresponsible for any member to vote [for the project] without having more specifics."

Those specifics should be laid out in an environmental impact statement [EIS] for the Mosholu Golf Course site, Dinowitz and Councilman Oliver Koppell insist. The draft EIS just released by the city's Department of Environmental Protection only includes the two sites -- one in the Bronx along the Harlem River, and another in Westchester -- where the city would prefer not to build. The DEP claims that the EIS it prepared a few years ago for a larger proposed plant at Mosholu is sufficient. 

The lawmakers disagree. In testimony before the Assembly's Committee on Cities on May 23, Koppell said: "The Van Cortlandt site must be subject to a public review process in comparison with the two other sites identified by the city. Without conclusive evidence that the Van Cortlandt site is superior to the other two sites, that the community will be protected from the adverse effects of construction and operation, that parkland will be restored, and that there is an ironclad guarantee that the $240 million of park investments will be forthcoming, the site must be rejected." 

On the last point, Dinowitz said he wants to know over what time period the park 
improvement money will be spent. "If it's over 10 years, it doesn't mean anything unless we know the context." 

Dinowitz also questioned labor leaders at the Assembly hearing on the benefits of the project to Bronx workers, one of the arguments proponents of the projects make in its favor. 

"How many members does your local have?" Dinowitz asked a spokesman for Mike McGuire of the Mason Tenders District Council.

"Five thousand," was the spokesman's response. 

"How many live in the Bronx?"

"Probably a few hundred," the spokesman said.