HabitatMap is an environmental health justice organization that leverages community knowledge to achieve just and sustainable urban places. Our online collaborative mapping and social networking tools are designed to maximize the impact of community voices on city planning, strengthen ties between organizations and activists working to build greener, greater cities and establish a shared advocacy platform for:
- alerting the public to environmental health hazards;
- holding corporations accountable for their environmental impacts;
- highlighting urban infrastructures that promote healthy living;
- identifying future opportunities for sustainable urban development; and
- promoting policies that enhance equitable access to urban resources.
Clean Heat for New York City:
The New York City Council is currently considering legislation that would require heating oil include biodiesel – a fuel primarily derived from vegetable oils. Bioheat proponents claim that substituting biodiesel for petroleum can reduce oil imports, improve air quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In reality, as our Fact Sheet details, a biodiesel mandate will:
- increase heating oil costs by 15-30 cents a gallon;
- do little to improve air quality beyond what can be achieved with ultra low sulfur diesel;
- encourage environmentally destructive farming practices;
- have no impact on foreign oil consumption;
- drive up food prices;
- devour millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies; and
- increase greenhouse gas emissions (see the latest report from Science, “Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt” and The New York Times coverage, “Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat”).
Rather than require biodiesel, City Council should authorize an ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) heating oil mandate. ULSD will improve air quality in the city dramatically and reduce heating oil consumption without raising the cost of home heating or requiring government subsidies.
What We Can Do:1. Contact your City Council member and Mayor Bloomberg today in support of a ULSD heating oil mandate that does not include biodiesel. Let them know that by simply switching to ULSD heating oil we can dramatically improve the quality of the air we breathe daily while reducing oil consumption, and we can do it without raising the cost of home heating or depending on unsustainable and environmentally destructive biodiesel! [Sample Letter]
2. Find out more; download our Fact Sheet, "Heating New York With Biodiesel, A Bad Idea".
Mitigate and Remediate the Meeker Ave. Contaminant Plumes:
During the winter of 2006/2007, the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation and the NY State Dept. of Health tested homes near the ExxonMobil Greenpoint oil spill for hazardous vapors. Of the 388 property owners contacted, 52 agreed to testing. After testing was completed, DOH identified 9 residences, or approximately 17 percent of the homes tested, as having potentially hazardous concentrations of toxic gases in their indoor air.
According to DEC/DOH, the hazardous vapors found in people's homes are not related to the oil spill. Subsequent investigation by DEC has identified several large plumes of chlorinated solvents as the likely source of contamination. These plumes are collectively referred to by DEC as the "Meeker Ave. Plume". DEC is currently in the process of testing more homes for hazardous vapors and identifying the businesses responsible for the contamination.
Supporting Documentation:
1. DEC Meeker Ave. Plume Trackdown Phase I report (introduction only, 196kb)2. DEC Meeker Ave. Plume Trackdown Phase II report (introduction only, 580kb)
3. Phase I Meeker Ave. Plume Anatomy Map (3mb) Note: the study area was expanded one block west and one block south during the Phase II investigation
4. Results from the initial 2006/2007 ExxonMobil Greenpoint oil spill vapor intrusion and indoor air sampling investigation
5. Slide from the October 16th, 2007 DEC/DOH presentation in Greenpoint detailing two "areas of concern" where elevated levels of several chemicals were found during the 2006/2007 ExxonMobil Greenpoint oil spill vapor intrusion and indoor air sampling investigation
6. DOH guidance for evaluating residential soil vapor intrusion and fact sheets on PCE and TCE
7. NY State Assembly Report, "Vapor Intrusion of Toxic Chemicals: An Emerging Public Health Concern".
What We Can Do:
Please contact us at info(at)habitatmap.org if you can lend your expertise or enthusiasm to our cleanup efforts.
Community Health & Harm Narratives Project: In partnership with the Newtown Creek Alliance and Hunter College's Dept. of Urban Public Health, Habitatmap will soon be launching a community based participatory research project - “Community Health & Harm Narratives: Exploring the Public Health Concerns of Communities along Newtown Creek" (13mb). This project will recruit and train a research team made up of long time Greenpoint, East Williamsburg, and Maspeth residents to interview their peers, document their public health concerns, and develop a community based education program to address public health harms and risks in these neighborhoods.
6/27/08: Habitatmap launched our online community mapping and social networking platform.
6/25/08: Habitatmap taught a lesson on New York City's sewage and waste infrastructure to students at Hunter College.
6/4/08: In support of the Newtown Creek Alliance, Habitatmap helped organize a "Community Based Brownfields Planning Workshop" where representatives from Bethel New Life shared their experiences with brownfields redevelopment in Chicago.
5/11/08: As part of the the Showcase Learning Event - a series of workshops and symposia held at Columbia University to support the work of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development - Habitatmap discussed the environmental and social implications of New York City Councilman James Genarro's proposal to add biodiesel to the City's heating oil supplies.
5/8/08: While guiding a group of students from CITYterm through the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, Habitatmap outlined the origins of the Greenpoint ExxonMobil oil spill and discussed the role of community activists in securing a clean up of the oil spill.
4/19/08: In collaboration with fellow Brooklyn activists, Brooke Singer (www.superfund365.org) and Emily Gallagher, Habitatmap held a "Virtual Toxic Tour and Community Mapping Workshop" at Eyebeam.
4/18/08: Habitatmap lead a group of students from the Highschool for Global Citizenship on a tour of Newtown Creek which detailed contemporary and historic industrial activities along the Creek and discussed the impact these operations have had and continue to have on human health and the environment.
4/2/08: As part of the Center for the Urban Environment's Environmental Youth Consortium, Habitatmap taught a lesson on New York City's sewage infrastructure and the environmental justice movement at the Green School in Bushwick.
Gotham Gazette, 4/21/08
The Dirty Side of Biodiesel
Gowanus Lounge, 4/17/08
Upcoming:
"Virtual Toxic Tour" - Do You Know Where Your Superfund Site Is?
Grassroots International, 3/12/08
What Does Heating Homes in New York City with Biodiesel Have to do with Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Curbed, 6/7/07
Have You Checked
Out the Greenpoint 'Toxindex'?
New York Magazine, 6/6/07
You Can Find Brooklyn’s
Toxic Sludge
New York Underwater
Combined Sewer Overflow in
Newtown Creek
Michael Heimbinder, Founder & Executive Director
Michael Heimbinder is a writer, researcher, community organizer, and graphic designer. He is a graduate of Colorado College and received his M.A. in International Affairs from the New School for Social Research. Over the years he has collaborated with a wide range of environmental and human rights organizations including the Newtown Creek Alliance, the United Nations Equator Initiative, the Ghana Wildlife Society, Food First, and The Oakland Institute where he is currently a Fellow.
Eileen DeRavin, Board Member
Eileen De Ravin is Manager of the Equator Initiative, a United Nations Development Programme partnership that brings together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and communities to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Eileen has a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University and is a lifelong resident of Greenpoint.
Kathleen Schmid, Board Member
Kathleen Schmid is the founder and director of The Newtown Creek Alliance. She recently completed a law degree at New York University, before which she was the legislative policy analyst of the NYC Council Committee on Waterfronts and Transportation.
Roberta Weisbrod, Board Member
Roberta Weisbrod Ph.D. is the principal of Partnership for Sustainable Ports, a business engaged in improving maritime transportation and waterfront development. Previously she worked for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as Special Assistant to the Commissioner for the downstate marine ecosystem and the New York City Economic Development Corporation for Port and Intermodal Planning.
info(at)habitatmap.org
347.410.9499
107 S. Elliott Place, Suite #2
Brooklyn, NY 11217