©2004 PPOW
| Protectors of Pine Oak Woods · Protectors Votes Against NASCAR |
Protectors Votes Against NASCAR The Board of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods has taken a position against supporting the International Speedway Corporation’s (ISC) plans to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island, basing its decision on wetland protection issues and air quality, noise and traffic concerns. Background The proposed speedway (and retail center) would be constructed at a
675-acre vacant industrial site near the Goethals Bridge. This area was
owned recently by the petroleum industry (GATX and Texas Eastern). The
site is designated as Gulfport Marsh and Uplands (Gulfport) in the
seminal study An Islanded Nature—Natural Area Conservation and
Restoration in Western Staten Island, including the Harbor Herons Region
(Blanchard, et al, 2001). Gulfport is bounded by the Arthur Kill, south
of Old Place Creek and the Goethals Bridge as far as and including the
shoreline immediately north of Prall’s Island. The southern boundary is
roughly Bloomfield Avenue to the junction of the Arthur Kill and Prall’s
Creek at Merril’s Creek (see map). Quoting from An Islanded Nature:
In addition to the Northern Harrier, birders have documented that yellow-crowned night herons have nested in this area, which is probably the first recorded nesting of this species on the Staten Island mainland. Many years of restoration work of the salt marsh has been done by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation’s Salt Marsh Restoration Team, and their hard work has paid off in restored and expanded habitat. Aside from the ribbon of salt marsh, a 162-acre freshwater marsh dominates the site, including vernal ponds. The area serves as an important “significant foraging site for the Harbor Herons” (U.S. F&WS, 1996), situated offshore at Prall’s Island. Native Americans frequented the site and recent Advance articles have
reported that substantial artifacts have been recovered and the site
will have to be secure for further recovery. ISC admits that traffic will be a problem on its race days, where they expect 80,000 fans to attend. They have used models that project an increased vehicular traffic on our highways on race weekends that will duplicate our weekday rush hour traffic scenario. They have set limits to the plan by allowing only 8,400 cars into the area for parking. Other fans must rely on distant park-and-ride facilities in NJ where they will board buses or fast-ferries. (Click here for a pdf file from the Staten Island Advance outlining the traffic plans.) That leaves upwards of 60,000 people boarding fleets of 1,000 buses and dozens of boats to attend a race. Upon exiting the race, drivers will be directed towards the Goethals
Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing on the highways, but those using the
Bayonne Bridge (about 1,800 cars) will be directed to use Richmond
Terrace to Morningstar Road. Those roads are in no condition to support
that extra load. ISC officials claim that noise levels in the nearest communities will
approximate the dull roar of living next to the expressway. However,
what about noise levels for those on the grounds itself, adjacent to the
speedway and those attending the mall on those days? Pictures of fans in
the seats during a race show everyone wearing protective earwear.
Protectors, as an environmental organization, can hardly support a sport
in our community that creates harmful levels of noise pollution for
bystanders, let alone spectators, even if they purchase tickets for the
experience. The plans for the speedway and retail center it seems are sited within the already developed areas. However, the track is adjacent to the Old Place Creek DEC preserve and we are concerned about negative impacts to the wetlands there. The ISC plans to build an 8,400-car grassy parking lot contiguous to the wetlands they plan on restoring. We know of no engineering design that will prevent pollution runoff from cars, erosion and degradation from occurring to these wetlands in such a plan. And in a plan where the speedway, not the health of the wetlands, is the primary focus, who will be the monitoring agency to make sure that the viability of the wetlands will be maintained? We have been listening to those NASCAR supporters who write to the Advance. It seems that even they are resigned to having to sit in yet another traffic jam on our highways on race days. These NASCAR fans actually expect people to stay home on those days so that the highways might be unencumbered for those wanting to attend a race.Certainly that is a solution, but can it be reasonable? Staten Island has received a failing grade in air quality for the
sixth straight year by the American Lung Association as reported by the
Advance (4/28/05). This air quality is reported to be from the
“factories and refineries in the Midwest,” but you don’t have to be a
scientist to intuit that the problem is compounded manyfold by the
amount of traffic in our area.Why would our elected officials agree to
add to the problem with the 1,000 buses or the 8,400 cars idling in
traffic spewing their fumes? Protectors argues that the Gulfport Marsh and Uplands should become a restored wetlands wildlife sanctuary on the west shore, expanding the habitat of Harbor Herons and Old Place Creek. Much restoration work has been done and it has become a laboratory of how restoration work can successfully be accomplished in a viable wetland after heavy industrial use.As such, its value serves the community good in the long run as other industrial areas in sensitive wetland areas are turned over to the public. Please send letters voicing your opposition to NASCAR to the Staten Island Advance, the borough president and to your local council member. See our web site www.siprotectors.org for sample letters and addresses. —Hillel Lofaso |
©2004 PPOW