TESTIMONY
Megan Carr on Rikers Island's Environmental and Carceral Injustices
5:38:48
·
3 min
Megan Carr testifies about the dual nature of injustices at Rikers Island, emphasizing its environmental and carceral aspects.
- Carr highlights Rikers Island's construction on a landfill, leading to poor air quality from methane gas and pollution from surrounding areas.
- She criticizes the local government and the Department of Correction (DOC) for not taking steps to close Rikers by 2027 as legally required, instead favoring mass incarceration.
- Carr points out the attempt to renew and modify an expired permit for a gas-powered cogeneration plant to increase harmful emissions.
- She underscores the health and moral costs of maintaining Rikers Island, advocating for its conversion into a hub for clean energy and green jobs.
- Carr calls for city council intervention to halt DOC's prioritization of incarceration over vital community services and to address the pollution and injustices at Rikers.
Megan Carr
5:38:48
Thank you, chair nurse and council members for the opportunity to testify before you today.
5:38:53
My name is Megan Carr, and I'm a legal fellow at New York Lawyers for the public interest.
5:38:58
We advocate for how disability and environmental justice.
5:39:02
And I'd like to talk about Ryker's Island, which has been an environmental injustice from the start.
5:39:07
The penal holiday nestled in the middle of the east river was literally built upon mountains of trash as landfill was utilized to expand the island and make it suitable for development.
5:39:16
It is well documented that this decomposing garbage releases high levels of methane gas on the island, and poor air quality on rikers is further exhaust created by the many industrial facilities and polluting sources in the neighboring South Bronx And Northern Queens, including multiple peaker plants and waste transfer stations.
5:39:36
Rikers is required by law to close by 2027 that this administration seems unconcerned with taking the necessary actions to enforce the law and shutdown rikers.
5:39:47
We see this through DOC's actions and in the proposed budget, which continues to prioritize mass incarceration over vital services that make us safer such as housing, healthcare, and education.
5:39:59
The requested budget for fiscal year 2025 is continuation of this friend, and we urge the city council to intervene.
5:40:06
Far from actualizing the vision of a renewable bikers, DOC seems intent on keeping bikers open and petuating the carceral and environmental injustice that lives there.
5:40:15
For example, the gas powered cogeneration plant that powers the island has been operating under an expired Title 5 air permit since 2018 for 6 years.
5:40:25
DOC has applied to have that expired permit renewed and modified seeking to lift the emission caps on nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter.
5:40:34
Nitrogen oxides alone are harmful to human health.
5:40:38
And when emitted can react with other chemicals in the air to form additional particulate matter and ozone.
5:40:44
Compounding risk for those that have to breathe this polluted air, the people that are kept on rikers and in the surrounding environmental justice communities.
5:40:53
We are deeply concerned about the attempts to pollute more at Rikers Island, which can and should be transformed into a clean energy and thriving green jobs hub as the latest feasibility studies show it can be.
5:41:06
We are troubled.
5:41:07
We are also troubled that according to the DOC's own documents, this request for an increase in emissions is just to reflect what the plant is already currently emitting, meaning that they are already exceeding the limits of their 6 year expired permit.
5:41:23
This shows us once again that the DOC believes they can act beyond the bounds of the law.
5:41:28
DOC is budget over $3,000,000 for maintenance of this power plant on Rykers.
5:41:32
It's a lot of money, but it's just a small size of DOC's staggering budget.
5:41:37
The consultancy and other costs that DOC may be paying to pursue changes to the existing power plant are not shown in the agency's budget documents.
5:41:45
Yet there are even more costs posed by this power plant and this proposed modification.
5:41:50
There are the costs to human health of more nitronoxide and PM10 10.
5:41:55
They're the cost of human life and dignity of detaining people in Bikers Island, a place that has become synonymous with cruelty and injustice us.
5:42:03
And if I may briefly conclude beyond this enormous unnecessary and costly proposed budget, there are the unknown future costs that come with every decision that locks in continued operations at Bikers Island and the human cruelty and environmental injustice that comes with it.
5:42:17
Thank you.