Congressional hopeful Steven Harrison is raising a stink about City Councilmember Michael McMahon, his opponent for the 13th Congressional District.
Standing in Bensonhurst Park last week, Harrison said that McMahon, who chairs the City Council’s Sanitation Committee, played a key role in the plan to bring an environmentally damaging waste transfer station to Gravesend Bay – the site where a noxious incinerator stood for decades.
Following a mayoral decree that made each borough responsible for getting rid of its own trash, the Department of Sanitation (DOS) has begun taking steps to build a waste transfer station on Shore Parkway at the foot of 26th Avenue, where Brooklyn’s garbage will be taken away on barges.
Their plan has been fought by Assemblymember Bill Colton and other residents and environmentalists, who claim that the dredging necessary for the construction of the waste transfer station will unearth long-buried lead, mercury and other pollutants left behind by the incinerator, which was torn down in 2004.
The dredging could also dig up – and set off – unexploded ammunition that fell into the water when a U.S. Navy ship capsized in Gravesend Bay over 54 years ago, they claim.
Opponents to the waste transfer station are currently outlining their case against its construction to the state’s administrative law judge, who could kill the DOS’s plan if he sees fit.
Harrison said that the plan, which McMahon approved, would not only pollute the waters of Gravesend and Bensonhurst, but almost 70 percent of the 13th Congressional District, which includes areas of Brooklyn and Staten Island.
“[McMahon] has been a prime mover for this ill-advised project as the Chairman of the City Council Sanitation Committee that pushed for this site,” Harrison said Thursday. “The howls of protest from Gravesend fell on Mr. McMahon’s deaf ears as he pushed forward with the Gravesend dump regardless of the strong sentiment of those whom he now seeks to represent in Congress and the obvious problems with the site.”
“He takes credit for the plan and touts it as his premier achievement on the Council,” the Bay Ridge attorney continued, adding that, ever since announcing his run for Congress, he’s changed his tune about the waste transfer station. “[His] belated, hollow campaign-driven rhetoric to ‘mitigate’ the problems McMahon now apparently concedes exist at the dump site, only highlight, but do not forgive, his past disregard of the people of Gravesend and Bensonhurst.”
A spokesperson for McMahon retaliated against Harrison’s attack in kind, accusing the Bay Ridge legislator of “mudslinging.”
“Mike McMahon has led the fight for the most equitable, environmentally progressive, and economically responsible solid waste plan in the history of New York City,” spokesperson Anthony Hogrebe said in a statement. “He has consistently raised concerns about this transfer site, and continues to work with local leaders to explore alternative locations. Steve Harrison continues his relentless mudslinging because he has no record of his own to run on, nothing of substance to add to the discussion, and no vision for addressing the needs of Brooklyn or Staten Island.”
Harrison, who lost a bid to oust incumbent Rep. Vito Fossella in 2006, has been campaigning for a second attempt at the 13th Congressional District since last summer. McMahon joined the race in late June, after news surfaced about Fossella’s secret second family and the scandal-scarred legislator announced he wasn’t seeking re-election.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary will go against the winner of a Republican primary, which is expected to be GOP favorite Robert Straniere.
Agreeing with Hogrebe, Colton, who has endorsed McMahon along with many other Kings County legislators, said that he has gotten “assurances” that McMahon would fight the transfer station if elected to Congress.
“[McMahon] supported the initial plan but did not support the waste transfer station,” he said. “Of course, we would like to see a commitment to that if he’s elected.”
