By Carol P. Bartold

Sep. 28, 2016: Bronxville resident and activist Betsy Harding appeared before the Bronxville Village Board of Trustees at its September 12 meeting to urge the body to hire an independent consultant to advise the village on the extent and degree of groundwater contamination on the site.

The construction site sits atop the former marble quarry in Tuckahoe, which was used as a commercial dump for several years after the quarry ceased operations.

The proposed five-story 163-room hotel with a 6,400-square-foot restaurant and 208 parking spaces is to be located on a Brownfield site, where current contaminants exceed health-based or environmental standards adopted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). 

The DEC has approved a remedial action work plan that includes some groundwater testing in addition to the testing that it has already conducted.

Harding reported to the Bronxville trustees that both State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and State Senator George Latimer have written letters to the DEC to request further testing and examination of the site.

"I have no confidence in the DEC at this point to conduct or supervise testing," Harding stated. She said that a DEC representative explained, in a set of answers to concerns and questions raised, that the department filtered the contaminated groundwater before testing. A test of the filtered water came out "pretty close to acceptable standards," Harding said. "It's staggering that they would conjure this up and think people would accept it," she added.

Harding said that additional testing on the proposed hotel site for ambient metals and other sources of contamination has happened only because members of the public protested and pushed for it.

Mayor Mary Marvin stated that the Bronxville Board of Trustees will discuss concerns about contamination, proper testing, and remediation as a board. She added that the DEC reported to the village that the combination of low organic compounds at the site and the 1.25-mile distance groundwater would have to travel before reaching Bronxville would diminish the impact of contamination in Bronxville.

"We are trying very hard to pay attention and, at the same time, honor the jurisdiction of the planning board of Tuckahoe," she said. "We want to know where we fit in, if at all, in the equation."

Pictured here:  Site of former marble quarry in Tuckahoe.

Photo by A. Warner