Disagreements over building a waste transfer station along the waterfront of Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn raised the possibility of dredging up more than just your standard pollution because possibly hundreds of tons of high explosives may be lurking underneath!
State Assemblyman William Colton argues on behalf of his constituents that required dredging to build a waste transfer station would release toxins like PCB, mercury, toxic ash, and lead out of the muck and back into the water, ruining recreational use of the bay for things like boating and fishing. The Dept. of Sanitation in turn insists that dredging of the bay would be safe and cause no health hazards.
With complaints of potential toxins falling on deaf ears, Colton has pulled out the big guns, or rather the ammo for big guns. On March 6, 1954, 15,000 shells of anti-aircraft ammunition were being unloaded from the aircraft carrier USS Bennington when a storm struck. A barge with the ammunition broke free and capsized. When it was eventually found six miles away, the explosives were missing, presumably dumped along the bottom of the harbor. Navy divers eventually recovered 400 shells, but approximately 219 tons of anti-aircraft shells are still lying at the bottom of the harbor.
Colton says that to dredge an area with thousands of decades-old explosives is unreasonably dangerous. "It's possible that 219 tons of anti-aircraft shells are still out there on the bottom, and we must make sure we're not digging and dredging in a place where they go ka-poof."
