The city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has decided not to blast at the Jerome Park Reservoir, but they were still due in court on Wednesday along with community organizations that brought a lawsuit to fight the plan.
“The impacts of hoe-ramming or blasting at the two small shafts at Jerome Park Reservoir would be equal to or below the thresholds disclosed in the 2004 FSEIS [final supplemental environmental impact statement] conducted for the project,” the DEP said in a statement. “In order to avoid substantial fines and to ensure this critical project is not stalled by ongoing litigation, the agency has decided that the rock excavation necessary will be performed with hoe-rams.”
Local activist Karen Argenti responded that the FSEIS doesn’t allow for hoe-ramming either.
“The final SEIS in 2004 said very clearly that there would be no surface drilling or blasting at the reservoir,” she said on Tuesday. “Hoe-ramming was never mentioned. It is surface drilling and it will be discussed in court tomorrow. “
Argenti added that she believes the noise level on hoe ramming is similar to that of blasting.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Councilman Oliver Koppell and the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality brought suit against the DEP, which was planning to blast near Goulden Avenue in order to build a connector shaft at the reservoir, which will re-direct water to the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park.