That Stinks! Bronx Residents Sue NYC

Smell From Treatment Facilities Ruins Their Lives, Residents Say

(AP)  Residents of a polluted neighborhood in the Bronx sued New York City and a waste recycling company Wednesday, saying that putrid odors emanating from two nearby sewage facilities are ruining their lives.

Residents in the Hunts Point neighborhood complain that the stench from the plants infiltrates homes and schools, keeping families from enjoying their yards or even hanging clothes out to dry. At a local school, students don't go out to play when the odor hits.

"It smells like someone is passing gas in the house all the time, or someone is going to the bathroom," said Chrystal Francis, a 44-year-old hospital administrative assistant and mother of three who lives five blocks from plants. "Nobody has done anything, nobody listens to us. They don't care about the South Bronx, because we're just working-class people."

The lawsuit, filed in Bronx State Supreme Court, is focused on two plants in the neighborhood. One is a city-run sewage facility that takes in the waste of about 600,000 New Yorkers. The other is the privately run New York Organic Fertilizer Co., which transforms New York City sewage into fertilizer pellets.

The private plant is owned by Synagro Technologies Inc. of Houston, which operates in 33 states as America's largest recycler of organic waste. Synagro's parent company is the Carlyle Group - a global private equity firm.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection said it was still reviewing the lawsuit and could not comment on the case. But the agency said in a statement that it is "actively working with the Hunts Point community to address complaints about odors over the past several years" while trying to improve response to complaints.

Calls for comment to Synagro and Carlyle were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

The plaintiffs are demanding only that the facilities "take simple steps to make upgrades to eliminate or reduce the odors," said attorney Albert Huang. They are not seeking monetary damages.

He joined residents and environmental groups in announcing the lawsuit in Barretto Point Park, the congested neighborhood's only green oasis, built in 2006 at the behest of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The well-tended park looks on the Bronx River and the Manhattan skyline.

Huang says the scenario in Hunts Point is being repeated across the United States, with sewage plants operating "in blighted, low-income communities that lack the resources and political influence to hold these companies accountable."

In Detroit, Synagro recently signed a contract to build another facility that converts sludge to fertilizer pellets. The community fought the purchase over their concerns about odors and other effects, but the City Council approved the deal; the FBI is now investigating charges that Council staff received money before the vote.

The U.S. attorney's office and FBI officials won't comment on the probe, but one council member and a former consultant to another say they have met with investigators.

In Baltimore, a Synagro-owned facility is being penalized by the Maryland state environmental agency for creating a nuisance for residents from the odors.

At the New York plants' barbed-wire entrance, on a weed-infested street few people ever walk, a sign reads: "Call 311 for any odor complaint" - referring to the 24-hour hot line created by the mayor to help New Yorkers with just about any problem.

Residents believe the sewage plants present health issues as well.

The Bronx has one of the highest asthma rates in the country - partly a result of the pollution from roads that are main arteries for trucks delivering supplies to New York.

The sludge and sewer odors don't help the asthma, says Dr. Alan Jay Shapiro of the Montefiore Medical Center, who often sees patients with severe asthma. He believes the odors coming from the sewer and sludge facilities "aggravate asthma ... especially when the exposure occurs on hot days or on days when air quality is at its worst," according to the complaint.

[sociald63]

smell is coming from those section 8 people

[lissenhere]

"WHISKEYROCKER" and "RUSHMAN71", you guys are all right! Nothin'' like a few good ol'' Southern boys to keep the equilibrium. I enjoy the south since escaping from Chicago decades ago - I''m about ready to secede from this "union", how ''bout it, guys?

[nothappyatall]

The NIMBY''s strike again, they certainly love to flush THEIR toilets right? as long as the sewage THEY and their neighbors flush winds up in someone ELSE'' back yard.
DOn''t like the smell, crime and polution? MOVE OUT! no one is required to live in the freaking Bronx

[spadeisspade]

The difference is that normally it just smells like hot trash!

[foranc]

How do they differentiate between the treatment facilities and the normal Bronx smell? The locals must have very discriminating sinuses ...

[rushman71]

And the people up North say that it stinks down South? Well, why don''t you get your danm nose out of your arse!!! It smells like petunias down under the Mason-Dixie line!!!

Wish I was in the land of cotton,
old times there are not forgoton... Yeehaa!!!

[xmanborg]

I bet it does not smell any worst than.

Bourbon Street in New Orleans after a heavy night of drinking and throwing up, thats what Bourbon Street Usually smell like anyway on a good day.