New Haven Takes Enviro-Justice Victory Lap

Standing by the Quinnipiac River — across the water from the highway, oil tanks, and a recycling plant — officials joined neighbors and environmentalists in celebrating a victory over a plan to bring more industry to the business-crowded waterfront.

That victory-lap press event took place Thursday afternoon in Fair Haven by Criscuolo Park where James Street runs up against the river.

The cause for celebration was Murphy Road Recycling’s decision on Wednesday to withdraw two parallel state and local applications, one that had been submitted to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and one that was before the City Plan Commission.

Both of those applications sought permission for the Annex recycler to truck in from the suburbs up to 500 tons per day of putrescible municipal solid waste (MSW) — aka household garbage—to be processed at its current 19 Wheeler St. transfer station.

Standing alongside State Sen. Martin Looney, Wooster Square/ Mill River Alder Ellen Cupo, Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola, Save the Sound Senior Legal Counsel Roger Reynolds, and environmentalists and Fair Haven neighbors, Elicker heralded Murphy Road Recycling’s decision not to expand as a victory for ​“environmental justice.”

“The community came together on this in so many different ways. This to me is an example of what we can accomplish when we do things together,” he said.

“This is an important reminder that the state cannot continue to manage statewide waste on the backs of large urban centers. We all have to share throughout the state the burden of how we process waste.”

Speaker after speaker after speaker at Thursday’s presser attested to the impact that the coalition of elected officials, community members, and environmental experts had had in convincing Murphy Road Recycling to pause its years-in-the-works bid to expand its Annex operations.

Nearly everyone referenced the three hotly contested, hours-long public hearings before the City Plan Commission over the past two months that saw the plan’s opponents warn that allowing for suburban trash to be processed on Wheeler Street would result in in malodors, vermin, a polluted river, heavy truck traffic, and plummeting property values. Murphy Road Recycling’s lawyers, managers, employees, and hired consultants, meanwhile, argued that the operational expansion would boost jobs while having a negligible environmental impact.

In public hearings and in river-side press conferences, critics lambasted the planned expansion as perpetuating environmental and racial injustice. The company’s supporters dismissed those concerns as coming from alarmist NIMBYs.

“This is a victory,” said Looney, who, along with every other member of New Haven’s state delegation, opposed Murphy Road Recycling’s expansion. ​“This proposal would have been very damaging for the people on the eastern side of the city.”

He said that elected officials and community activists working together showed Murphy Road Recycling just how difficult the process would be for them to secure state and city approval for a project that so many in the city opposed.

“We have to be thoughtful about how we do waste disposal in the state, and not follow the old patterns of dumping it in areas that already have a higher than normal level of toxic uses, high levels of asthma, high levels of other health problems, and high levels of poverty,” he said. ​“Those things are only exacerbated when additional waste disposal is put on those particular communities.”

Cupo said that she spoke Thursday morning with an Annex neighbor who lives near the current plant, where Murphy Road Recycling currently takes in and processes dry waste like cardboard, packaging, and construction and demolition debris.

That neighbor was initially skeptical that she or fellow Annex residents could have any sway over the regulatory approval process.

Today, Cupo said, she realized that ​“there is value and there is justice in getting involved in the issues in her neighborhood.” To those who waited hours to testify at public hearings over the past few months, ​“clearly your voices have been heard today.”

Save the Sound’s Reynolds (pictured), who served as one of a half-dozen intervenors in the City Plan Commission application hearings, pointed to the water — and the myriad industrial and intensive uses nearby.

“This is a remarkable resource,” he said. ​“You have boating. You have fishing. You have oysters. Yet the neighborhood is completely cut off by the oil terminals.”

He said the city needs to step up local enforcement of odor, water pollution, and parking and traffic laws. He called on the state to establish a solid waste plan and pass a strong new environmental justice law and to advocate for recycling.

“Ultimately, just stopping more pollution is not enough. We have to clean this neighborhood up. We have to clean this river up.”

Both Reynolds and Looney said that a strong, statewide environmental justice law would set benchmarks and standards about maximum amounts of ​“toxic uses” that a single municipality would have to host.

“If the cumulative impacts are already too great, there shouldn’t be anything more added,” Reynolds said.

Fair Haven Heights resident Chris Ozyck agreed. Another official intervenor in the City Plan Commission process, Ozyck said he doesn’t think of this abrupt turn of events as a ​“victory lap.”

“I consider this a continuation and a reinvigoration of our environmental justice needs.”

“When the community comes together and works in a civic way with all of its nonprofits and organizations and leaders and especially with the community at the forefront, we can chart our own destiny,” he continued. ​“For too long, New Haven has been a victim of chasing after things that they think are going to bring in dollars to solve other problems. We need to have a more clear vision of what we want, as well as what we don’t want.”

Murphy Road Recycling has sought for years to expand its Annex plant to allow for the processing of both wet and dry waste.

When asked for comment on why the company withdrew its applications, and on what its plans are for the 19 Wheeler St. site going forward, Murphy Road Recycling Director of Operations Jonathan Murray replied by email with the following statement: ​“For over a decade, Murphy Road Recycling has been a good corporate citizen of the City of New Haven. We are proud to employ more than 120 people, contribute nearly $300,000 annually in local taxes, and support community organizations throughout the City. Since we took over operations of this facility in 2007, we have worked continuously to update and improve this severely contaminated brownfield site. We will continue working with this community on our mutual goals of protecting the environment, improving quality of life, and serving the recycling needs of residents and businesses.”

Envisioning An Accessible Waterfront

Fair Haven Heights resident and local developer Fereshteh Bekhrad (pictured) used her brief time before the mic on Thursday to draw attention to the current industrial uses on the waterfront — and to gesture towards a future where city residents were more connected to the river and the sound.

“Look at here. It shouldn’t be like that,” she said. ​“It should have beautiful buildings, people going back and forth, using everything. We can do it together. Really, this,” she said as she pointed at the river, ​“this is why I am in New Haven.”

When asked for what vision he has for the city’s waterfront and on what role city government can play in bringing that to fruition, Elicker spoke of the environmental, physical, and emotional benefits of living in a city with clean air and access to a healthy waterfront.

“New Haven and cities like it have been removed from the water,” he said. ​“There are many opportunities for us to get closer to the water.”

He pointed to the ​“work done on the Mill River” — including community-led efforts to build out the Mill River Trail — as a good example of making an industrial waterfront cleaner, safer, and easier to access.

“Promoting uses that allow public access, that are cleaning, that present a waterfront that is welcoming and healthy and environmentally friendly,” is what he intends to prioritize in office.

When asked if he would like Murphy Road Recycling to leave its current Annex transfer plant entirely, Elicker said, ​“What I want is not important in this circumstance. They have a permit to continue to be there. We need to make sure that any business operating in this city is doing so legally and appropriately and not violating any city regulations. We’ll be keeping an eye on this.”

“Sometimes You Get Lucky”

As the press conference played out at one end of the intersection of James Street and the river, Hill resident Irving Rodriguez stood with his fishing pole and box of bait at the other. He prepared to engage in what of his favorite activities since childhood: casting a line into the Quinnipiac RIver to see what he would catch.

Rodriguez, 60, said he grew up near the river. He has spent decades coming to this very spot near Criscuolo Park to fish.

“It’s peaceful out here,” he said. A retired former construction worker, Rodriguez said he sometimes catches ​“little stripers” — but he doesn’t hold on to them, let along bring them home to eat.

“Catch and release” is his fishing policy, he said.

When asked for his thoughts on the Murphy Road Recycling debate, Rodriguez said he’s relieved to hear that the company won’t be expanding — at least for now.

“That should come into our river,” he said about the prospect of suburban trash being trucked in to the Annex.

Then he opened a box of bait to display his choice of lure for those stripers. ​“Bloodworms,” he said with a smile.

He attached one slithering specimen to a hook, cast his line into the river, steadied the pole against a metal fence, and leaned back and waited.

“Sometimes you get lucky,” he said. ​“Sometimes you don’t.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.