Environment DEC
From the December 2007 issue
State and City Crackdown on Truck and Boiler Pollution to Assist Urban Neighborhood
Commissioner Grannis speaks about the new enforcement initiative in East Harlem
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced recently that DEC, in cooperation with the City of New York, has been carrying out a major enforcement action to address urban outdoor air quality in a neighborhood that has suffered disproportionately from pollution. The program-focusing on polluting diesel trucks and boilers-is centered on East Harlem, from 96th Street to 116 Street, and from FDR Drive to 5th Avenue (zip code 10029), where asthma hospitalization rates are four times the national average. It's also an area of considerable truck traffic.
"Stop Smoking" Plan for Trucks and Boilers
"Protecting the environment does not just mean watching over the wilderness and safeguarding lakes. It means looking out for urban neighborhoods as well," Commissioner Grannis said. "We call this our Stop Smoking Initiative for Trucks and Boilers. Just as cigarette smoke creates risk not only for smokers but also for those around smokers, polluting trucks and boilers put neighborhoods at risk, especially children."
East Harlem has asthma rates more than double the NYC average
Over the last two weeks, DEC law enforcement officers have been pulling over diesel trucks and issuing tickets to those that fail to comply with state emissions standards. So far, 311 trucks were pulled over
and inspected, of which 110 trucks were found to be in violation of state air quality regulations. A total of 158 tickets were issued, including for violations not related to air quality standards. In addition, based on the work done so far, we can reasonably estimate that about 25 percent of all trucks moving through this neighborhood are in violation of air quality regulations, and thousands of trucks pass through the neighborhood each day.
Effort Also Includes Air Monitoring
As a second part of the initiative, DEC officers have been patrolling the neighborhood issuing tickets for trucks or buses illegally idling. DEC intends to work with fleet owners to get them to correct these problems. Besides ticketing, DEC has placed an air monitoring unit on the grounds of Metropolitan Hospital, on the west side of First Avenue, between 97th and 99th streets, and will monitor the air in the area for two months. NYC Department of Environmental Protection inspectors have been issuing tickets for boilers found emitting black smoke and polluting the neighborhood, and for illegally idling trucks. Promoting compliance with the city's strict three-minute limit on idling vehicles is a component of PlaNYC 2030, which includes 14 separate clean air initiatives.
DEC will also issue tickets for illegally idling trucks
Data from these enforcement actions will be used to develop a long-term strategy for addressing local outdoor air pollution sources in NYC and other urban areas. In this effort, DEC will join with the city and local organizations, including Manhattan Borough President Stringer's "Go Green East Harlem" initiative, Community Board No. 11, West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT), and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The impacted neighborhood has an asthma hospital-discharge rate of 133 per 10,000 population. That is well above the national average (31/10,000), the state average (39/10,000) and city average (64/10,000). It is a compact area of 0.83 square mile, with two northbound and two southbound local truck-traffic routes, and two east-west truck-traffic routes.
More Information
See the complete press release, upon which this story is based, for the comments of several other officials present at the announcement of this initiative. See Related Links below for more information about PlaNYC 2030.
Related Links:
PlaNYC 2030 (leaving DEC's site)
