Let it Salt, Let it Salt, Let it Salt.

The Columbia Waterfront is getting a White Christmas courtesy of ASI - American Stevedoring, the operators of the Container Port. "The Word On Columbia Street" blog has coverage and pics here.

Unfortunately, this is a re-run of a movie we've seen before. In April this year, the Columbia Waterfront District was peppered (ahem, again) with salt from the huge uncovered salt pile that is stored on one of ASI's piers (my post here). At the time, after much uproar from the community, certain representatives took a role in "resolving" the issue. The remedy - now proved to be patently ineffective - was deemed to be covering the mountain of salt with a large black tarp (or something like that).

Here's what I wrote at the time -


"Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Councilman David Yassky have been working on the salt pile issue with Councilman Bill DiBlasio. As Mike McLaughlin in his Brooklyn Paper article stated,

"DeBlasio has been working with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D–Coney Island) and Councilman David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights) to get the port’s operator, American Stevedoring, to control the buffeting problem. Nadler and Yassky are staunch supporters — and large donation recipients — of the port company."

Bill DiBlasio is moving on to take the post of Public Advocate, though, by the look of this "Pardon Me For Asking" story (here and here), he doesn't seem to be doing much preliminary "advocating" for the public - for the people of Carroll Gardens, at least. So, hopefully, Brad Lander, the Councilmember-elect and Messrs. Nadler and Yassky will advocate for a quick resolution to this latest situation. Mind you, judging from the pictures I've seen on "The Word", it looks like the damage is already done.

To me this all gets back to the whole matter of the responsible and equitable use of the piers.

Salt blows over residential neighbors, ships emit their dangerous fumes, trucks pollute our air and congest our neighborhood streets - all avoidable consequences of the activities at the port.

Where's the push for a long-term fix?

As I wrote in my previous post -

"Neither salt nor carcinogenic diesel fumes belong in our back yards."