Queens Co-Op Development Dredged for Asbestos

November 17, 2006 - Residents of the Parkway Village development in the Queens section of New York were surprised when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials showed up last week and started digging up their front yards, searching for illegally dumped asbestos.

Resident John Hannifin told the Queens Chronicle that every morning for the past week, gas-masked EPA inspectors and FBI overseers can be found destroying front yards and “causing innumerable interruptions” in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood.  Bulldozers begin to rumble by 7 am, hauling rocks and dirt, and the chaos doesn’t end until dinner time, residents say.  Neighbors have found doors and windows sealed and have had difficulty entering their homes during this process.

The paper reports that federal officials were “tight-lipped” this week about the progress of the asbestos investigation and residents have no idea when they will leave.

“We have no firm date on that yet,” said EPA spokesman Ben Barry, “but it looks like we’ll be there for at least another week. It all depends on what we find in the ground.”

Last week, after several requests as to the particulars of the investigation, residents were handed EPA “fact sheets” stating the dangers of asbestos, including information about mesothelioma, an aggressive lung cancer for which the only known cause is asbestos exposure. The sheet listed the number for a community liaison in Manhattan who, residents told the Chronicle, politely declined to answer most of their “more probing” questions.