From CT Post reporter Bill Cummings:
O&G Industries, one of the state’s largest construction companies, is asking the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals for permission to build a new cement and asphalt recycling plant at 92 Howard Avenue, along Cedar Creek. A public hearing is scheduled for May 10 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Zoning officials said O&G intends to relocate its existing recycling operation from 1225 Seaview Avenue, near the Interstate 95 ramps. The Torrington-based company has owned the Seaview Avenue property since 1995, city records show.
O&G crushes cement and asphalt and recycles the resulting material into new product. The process requires that large piles of material be stored on the site, and creates dust and noise.
Full story here.
State Rep. Steve Stafstrom recently sent a letter to O&G about its plans.
Asphalt plants mix gravel and sand with crude oil derivatives to make the asphalt used to pave roads, highways, and parking lots across the U.S. These plants release millions of pounds of chemicals to the air during production each year, including many cancer-causing toxic air pollutants such as arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde and cadmium. Other toxic chemicals are released into the air as the asphalt is loaded into trucks and hauled from the plant site, including volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and very fine condensed particulates.
Donald Day, thank you for a brief summary of the REAL DANGERS of this plant. I will most certainly be going to the ZBA meeting to oppose moving the plant to this new site. There is Absolutely Nothing Good about this plant being placed in an urban area. It is wrong at the Seaview Location and it will be wrong at this new location. As listed by Donald Day, this is literally poison being put into the air. Also, in both cases, these huge piles of debris can be see from I-95 and it creates a terrible reflection upon the city of Bridgeport. O&G should not be allowed to move this plant and, through the refusal, maybe they will take a hint that they should remove this operation COMPLETELY out of Bridgeport and take it up to Torrington where they are headquartered. There has to be a better place somewhere in Connecticut because there was a lot of quarrying activity upstate. I will be contacting both State Senators (Moore, Gomes), State Reps especially Steve Stafstrom, our Council members, and will contact the Mayor’s office. I hope anyone else here on OIB who feels this plan is atrocious will also PLEASE act and protest. I am also not very confident in our ZBA commission. I’ve come before them several times and they tend to rubber stamp things. I am afraid that they will call this area light industrial,impose minimum conditions and allow it.
Don and Frank, thanks for your input. It’s here we go again, first it was the asphalt that was going to be built on 1050 South which would have been in my backyard with only a fence between the plant and my backyard. Those of us in Seaside Village had NO support from Mayor Ganim (G1) or our two council members, Crossin and Groggins, instead it took State Rep. Chris Caruso who was from another district to lead the fight in keeping the asphalt plant from being placed there. I’m one of those who has asthma but it’s worse for the children in the South End who are asthmatic. But I must say it was the support of residents from all over Bridgeport who came to our need and who spoke out at the City Council meeting on the topic and I am so grateful for their help. Now what elected officials have received or are being promised favors and donations to their campaign? Follow the money, but to the residents it’s our health and lives.
*** THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS THAT WILL IMPACT ALL WHO LIVE OR WORK ON THE WEST SIDE/WEST END LINE. OVER ALONGSIDE THE I-95 THRUWAY ALONG PINE AND RAILROAD AVE; ALSO FROM WORDIN TO FAIRFIELD AVE. ***
Donald, it seems like you are talking about an asphalt production plant. This one will be an asphalt and cement recycling facility right on Cedar Creek. Here is just some of what I’ve learned about the pollution that will come out of this facility: Silica is a prime ingredient in concrete and cement and its dust can cause asthma, silicosis or lung cancer. Asphalt has coatings like creosote that also cause many severe health issues. And if the piles of rubble will be sprayed with water to keep the dust down, then it can get worse; as the water dissolves it forms a slurry containing toxic metals and is also caustic and at a corrosive pH level. This caustic wash water can harm fish and their reproduction. And the machinery required to break down concrete and asphalt makes noise starting at the 80 decibel level.
Good research, Bepo.
It’s a damned shame here in this City the mighty dollar is glorified over peoples health, I guess because these toxins that are being inhaled by residents in the area will only affect you through a course of time, years if any, there has to be some type of protection from these big companies who put our health in danger and affect our quality of life, just like those smokestacks from the coal company that pollute our air and water with that heavy toxic smoke that creates acid rain from those toxins and affects our fish as well. I guess the mighty dollar rules again.
Mayor Ganim, State Rep. Steve Stafstrom and the Bridgeport City Council need to have a environmental study on silica and all the other chemicals that will endanger the health of the residents in Bridgeport before anything else is done.
Angel, and of course it is mainly the disenfranchised and poor who suffer. Just two weeks ago there was a big rally downtown of many groups for environmental justice in the poor neighborhoods of Bridgeport. See this excellent article, photos and video on this rally:
capitalismvsclimate.org/2016/04/70-people-rally-for-environmental-justice-in-bridgeport/
Madeline, Bridgeport In The Know
This one seems like a no-brainer. First, it is clearly an inappropriate activity for a densely populated urban area. Second, it constitutes a threat to the public health and safety. Finally, dumping a project like this in Bridgeport hurts, rather than helps, the city’s image and future economic development.
Just say no.
Phil Smith, yes that’s all true but remember under G1 we had Mount Trashmore and the attempt to build two asphalt plants, one on South Ave and the other on the East End.
Sadly, I remember them well.