Tag Archives: MGP

Con Ed hits gas line while drilling at 6 Peter Cooper Road

Con Ed works on the gas line behind 6 Peter Cooper Road on Tuesday. (Photos by Sabina Mollot)

By Sabina Mollot

As part of drilling work associated with the plan to build at least 16 contaminant recovery wells in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Con Ed hit a gas line on Monday, causing a shutdown at 6 Peter Cooper Road.

The shutdown of the gas line feeding the building was announced by StuyTown Property Services in the morning via a flier.

In it, SPS CEO Rick Hayduk warned that at another building in Stuyvesant Town, something similar happened last year and it was almost six weeks before the gas was restored.

“Because of regulations and safety protocols, restoring the gas is a complicated process that requires considerable cooperation and coordination by us, residents, contractor and city agencies,” said Hayduk. “Inasmuch as we would like to get gas to every apartment and the laundry room as quickly as possible, we cannot compromise resident health or safety.”

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Con Ed to begin work on gas plant remediation wells

The gas works and storage tanks of Con Ed’s predecessor company in 1890. (Photo courtesy of Con Ed)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village residents appeared more concerned about communication regarding Con Edison’s plan to dispose of toxic waste left behind from the property’s days as a manufactured gas plant than about the project itself during an information session hosted in Stuy Town last Thursday evening.

“We understand that it has to be done,” resident Sherry Kirschenbaum said. “Rick (Hayduk, the property’s general manager) said they will be working with Con Edison throughout the project. Our concerns were allayed.”

Con Ed expects the wells to remain in place for the foreseeable future but representatives said the most disruptive part of the project will be the drilling.

“We’ll be starting the drilling (during the day) once people are already at work and at school and the sonic drill rake we use is more of a hum,” Con Edison engineer Ken Kaiser said. “If there are complaints about noise, we could use some kind of baffling to muffle the sound.”

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UPDATED: Con Ed recommends putting wells in ST/PCV to recover contaminants from former gas plant

Mar13 Con Ed

The gas works and storage tanks of Con Ed’s predecessor company in 1890. (Photo courtesy of Con Ed)

UPDATE: Con Ed has changed the date and venue of the upcoming meeting. It will be on Wednesday, November 1 at 7 p.m. at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s Podell Auditorium in the Bernstein Building, 10 Perlman Place, one block west of First Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets, according to an email sent to neighbors from the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association.

By Sabina Mollot

As most people who live in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village know, the property is the site of the former Gashouse District, named for the Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) stations and facilities run by Con Ed and its predecessor companies.

In recent years, the utility has been conducting an investigation in and around ST/PCV, looking for contaminants in the ground, groundwater and air. The investigation is being coordinated with the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the State Department of Health.

According to the study’s findings from investigations in 2006 and 2008, contaminants were found, but located deep in the ground (at least five feet) with most even lower, and in groundwater beneath the site, though that water is not used for drinking. MGP residential levels tested in the air indoors were found to be typical. Outdoor air samples collected were also found to be normal for an urban area. Because of this, Con Ed said in an advisory this week that it’s unlikely people will come into contact with these contaminants, though air monitoring will continue.

Still, the company is now proposing a “remediation” (cleanup) plan for the site that involves, among other things, the placement of wells.

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Manufactured gas plant investigation resumes in ST/PCV

The gas works and storage tanks of Con Ed’s predecessor company in 1890. Photo courtesy of Con Ed

The gas works and storage tanks of Con Ed’s predecessor company in 1890. Photo courtesy of Con Ed

By Sabina Mollot
After a two-year break, Con Ed this week resumed an ongoing study of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for manufactured gas plant (MGP) impacts and contaminants.
The utility noted on its website earlier this week that it would be doing indoor air testing from March 10-14 in certain buildings in ST/PCV.
The work was described as a routine part of its investigation of the complex, formerly home to MGP sites at East 14th Street, East 17th Street, East 19th Street and East 21st Street.
The former 21st Street Works MGP site occupied two thirds of the space that’s now Peter Cooper Village. Impacts have also been found in Stuyvesant Cove Park.
In its online notice (at coned.com/mgp), the company provided a list of addresses where testing would be done. In Peter Cooper Village, the testing sites are at all 21 buildings. In Stuyvesant Town, the testings sites are at 16 Stuyvesant Oval, 245 Avenue C, 522 and 524 East 20th Street and 615, 625, 635 and 645 East 14th Street.
Any contaminants and impacts are all leftovers from the days when ST/PCV was known as the Gashouse District, home to gas plants and holders where coal and oil was converted into gas for heating, lighting and cooking.
Con Ed’s manufacturing and storage of gas began in the 1840s and continued for a century until the property was sold to Metropolitan Life. Byproducts of the gas conversion included tar and purifier wastes, which were materials formed during the process before the gas was given to customers.
The last time Con Ed did investigation work on the property was in February of 2012 when it also did an indoor air study. Prior to that, in 2011, the company said it was looking at ways to “remediate” or clean up Peter Cooper Village, which was more heavily impacted by MGPs than Stuyvesant Town. However, no plan was ever announced. Con Ed is working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the NYS Department of Health on the project, which began in 2006.
When asked about the ongoing work and plan for remediation, a spokesperson for Con Ed, Bob McGee, said the investigations at the four MGP sites in ST/PCV have already been completed. Though he didn’t share the results, he did say that reports have been submitted to the NYSDEC.
“Con Ed has submitted alternative analysis reports for each site that analyzes potential remedial alternatives,” said McGee in a written statement. “NYSDEC has reviewed these reports and is in the process of preparing draft Decision Documents for each site that will present NYSDEC’s proposed remedial alternative. When these Decision Documents are complete they will be issued for public comment and a public hearing will be held. After NYSDEC considers public comments they will issue a final Decision Documents presenting the remedy that Con Ed must implement.”
The purpose of the study is to determine the potential hazards of human exposure to contaminants that could happen through breathing, ingesting or touching them.
Con Ed has said that because the contaminants have been found two feet or below the surface of the ground, the public is not expected to come into contact with them.
Exposure to contaminated groundwater is also unlikely, the company has said, because residents are served by a municipal water system.