This video, from Staten Island’s Coalition for Wetlands and Forests, asks the question: Has Staten Island’s NYC Councilmember Debi Rose betrayed her constituents, the community of Graniteville.
For over four years Gabriella Velardi-Ward, an architect and environmentalist, among other fields of knowledge, has lead the fight to save these wetlands and forests based on many reasons: flooding is only one of them.
Through her fights in the court and street demonstrations, she and her members have stopped the bulldozers from tearing down the trees that held back the heavy waters from torrential rains and hurricanes until now. Although the group had the backing of the community, it’s elected officials overrode their wishes and allowed the builders to rip out the trees and pack the ground. Why? And can this still be reversed?
On this episode, the stalled construction of a seawall and how it could lead to lives lost on Staten Island. The fight to save a very important wetland on the borough’s north shore from being bulldozed for a big box store. Why an effort to create a more expansive bluebelt is also a labor of love. Putting a fresh face on Freshkills Park, once the location of the much maligned “Staten Island Dump.” Then we profile a group that’s spent nearly half a century advocating for the island’s protected parkland.
Gabriella Velardi-Ward, founder and coordinator of the Staten Island Coalition for Wetlands and Forests (SICWF), let’s us in on the secret: The Graniteville Wetlands are being destroyed and this greatly effects the people living there RIGHT NOW.
Homes have been damaged and destroyed and there are rumors that some people have actually died during the recent hurricane, IDA, yet the local media has not covered this.
She, and members of her group who live there alongside her, have started interviewing and documenting what has happened and are trying to get the word out there with little success. But they are trying and continue to assist their neighbors as they have for the past 4 years or more.
The Coalition for Wetlands and Forests continues their fight to preserve the Graniteville Swamp, aka the Graniteville Wetland and Forest. This is the wetland that saved this Environmental Justice community, a community of mostly black and brown people, from flooding during Hurricane Sandy. We are right across the street from the wetland. This video is highly important to this cause because Carl Alderson, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), proves the point that the community was saved from flooding during Hurricane Sandy and that we are at high risk of flooding, especially if we lose the wetland.
He also shows that a careless land use policy, with no one looking at the whole picture, has led to developments such as the Amazon Fulfillment Center nearby. With the filling in of that land, which was once a valley and now is a hill, and the addition of its very large structures, the Graniteville community is even more at risk of flooding. The policy of not looking at the overall impact of construction or land adjustment on the neighboring communities has to stop. Nothing in nature is isolated. Everything is connected to everything else.
No new land use should be approved without the consideration of the effect on nearby land and communities and without the consideration of climate change, which brings sea level rise, storm surges, and torrential rain flooding. Climate change, climate chaos, is happening now, not in 50 years. Just look at the fires on the west coast, now in 19 states; just look at the record-breaking hurricanes and flooding in the south. Look what happened to NYC during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Let’s wake up and begin to heal the earth.
The Graniteville Wetland located along South Avenue in Staten Island has been a point of contention for residents who do not want the BJs Wholesale Club project to go forward. This project would cut down about 1,800 trees, and destroy the wetland that people living in the area, environmental conservationists, scientists, and others have stated protects the local area from flooding. Gabriella Velardi Ward of Staten Island Coalition of Wetlands and Forests has provided an update to the public, including things you can do and how to get involved.
This is a recording of a toxic emission event from a nearby petroleum refinery. And of course, the prevailing winds are flowing in the direction of Graniteville. Gabriella Velardi-Ward recorded this event about 4 years ago. She sent the link to the EPA and then spoke to someone at the EPA after that. A man confirmed that these clouds were coming from the petroleum refinery and told Gabriella that the EPA had been there the day before inspecting. Gabriella responded, “What better time to emit toxins than when they know you won’t be coming back?” He told her that if it happened again to call the EPA, even if it was at night, someone would pick up. It happened again, and she called. No one picked up. And she called a third time, and again no one picked up. Nothing happened as far as we can tell.
“It’s Not Over” street and door-to-door flyering continues for Graniteville, Staten Island residents to protest the destruction of 15+ acres of wetlands and forests to make way for a new BJs and other stores along South Ave and Forest Ave. The Coalition for Wetlands and Forests is concerned about more destructive flooding from Hurricane Sandy type storms, increases in and forced flood insurance, loss of homes and property and all the effects that come with overcrowding.