Office of Borough President James P. Molinaro
Staten Island, New York
B.P. Molinaro lauds Department of Sanitation for agreeing to implement new street cleaning procedures
Test program will concentrate on improving air quality along heavily traveled roadways
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Borough President James P. Molinaro today announced that the Department of Sanitation has agreed to implement a six-month test program which will determine if airborne dust and dirt along a lengthy stretch of Richmond Terrace and along shorter stretches of Morningstar Road and South Avenue could be significantly reduced by utilizing a street sweeper along with a street flusher.
“Over the past several months, constituents living along Richmond Terrace have informed me that the air quality in their neighborhoods has become noticeably worse,” Molinaro said. “After driving down the Terrace myself in the recent hot and humid weather, I was taken aback not only by the tremendous volume of truck traffic during daytime hours, but also by the amount of dust generated and carried along, block after block, by the trucks.”
The proposal calls for a mechanical broom and street flusher to be used in tandem in the designated areas twice a week to wash down and then immediately sweep the streets. During the six-month trial period, the machines will concentrate on Richmond Terrace between Bard and Western Avenues. Heavily-trafficked areas of Morningstar Road and South Avenue will also be included in the plan.
“Poor air quality can be directly related to health concerns. Asthma and other respiratory illnesses are made worse by the gritty, dusty air that is present in neighborhoods where there is a large volume of truck traffic. Obviously, we cannot prevent truck traffic on our Borough’s major thoroughfares, but we can try to minimize its harmful effects,” Molinaro said.
John Doherty, Sanitation Commissioner said, “The Department of Sanitation is committedto doing whatit can to help the Borough President respond to this condition on Richmond Terrace and in other areas. We will flush the streets several times each week to holddown dust and immediately sweep the area with a mechanical broom alreadyequipped with state-of-the-art dust control devices.”
The new cleaning procedures are scheduled to begin this week and will be performed during the late evening hours. “I believe that this project will be beneficial to everyone involved. I would like to thank Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Doherty for their quick response to my proposal, and I would also like to thank Ms. Beryl Thurman for communicating the neighborhood’s dust and air quality concerns with my environmental engineer. I look forward to the improvement of air quality and quality of life in our neighborhoods,” Molinaro concluded.
June 27, 2005