Greenpointers say a nearby asphalt recycling plant is making it tough to breathe

Something stinks in the nabe of Greenpoint.

Greenpoint resident Ian Oberholtzer wakes up every weekday morning to an aromatic alarm: the “acrid stench of burning tires.” The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation identified the odor’s source as the Green Asphalt plant, located across Newtown Creek in Long Island City.

“You crack your eyes open and the first sensation you have is, ‘oh, so they're making asphalt again,’” said Oberholzer, a 14-year Greenpoint resident living a half-mile from the facility. “It's literally just a foul stench over your day, and it's a terrible way to start the day.”

Dozens of residents living near Greenpoint’s McGolrick Park describe a plume of smoke emanating from the stack at Green Asphalt, resulting in a layer of fine white dust that gets inside homes and clings to windows. The facility, which has been operating since 2011, said that nothing has changed about its operations since it opened over a decade ago, but longtime residents said the fumes have become unbearable over the last three years. The Monitor School, or P.S. 110, serves pre-K through fifth grade and is located in the area where the smell is the strongest.

Greenpoint has also changed as the longtime industrial area was rezoned for high-density residential housing 20 years ago. According to NYU’s Furman Center, the area has received an influx of young professionals over the last decade, which is in sharp contrast with its remaining industrial neighbors.

Greenpoint residents have flooded the city and state government with complaints pushing for action to mitigate the odor, smoke and dust.

Green Asphalt said it is actively working to address neighborhood concerns, but declined to comment further on its mitigation work.

”We've done the same operations since 2011. Nothing's changed,” Melillo said. “We have been good neighbors. We have listened to the community, and we are working with DEC to put these changes into place to hopefully make things better for people.”

The state’s environmental regulators are currently investigating the facility for air quality issues, but would not comment on the status of the case.

In January 2024, the DEC sent a violation notice to Green Asphalt for creating “nuisance air quality issues.” In June, the state informed the facility located at 37-98 Railroad Ave. that it had to double its smokestack height to 90 feet by Dec. 11 after approval from the municipal buildings department. After the stack is raised, the facility must also do air monitoring and testing. The mitigation proposal also includes emissions and dust-control measures that were due Sept. 5. The DEC and Green Asphalt would not comment on whether these deadlines were met.

“The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation continues to work with the community to address concerns from the Green Asphalt facility in Long Island City, Queens, and is currently engaged in a pending enforcement process to establish formal compliance deadlines,” DEC spokesperson Denis Slatterly wrote via email.

Green Asphalt is the city’s only 100% recycled asphalt operation, a sustainable and beneficial practice because it reduces waste and reuses material. The facility uses broken asphalt and millings from New York City streets from the Department of Transportation and contractors that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill and increased climate emissions. The process reduces the amount of carbon required to create asphalt by 60%-70%.

The city uses a minimum of 30% recycled asphalt on its projects. The practice reduces truck traffic heading in and out of the city to get new raw materials that would require excavating and refining petroleum to produce.

During the recycling process, the old asphalt is crushed, heated and then transferred into storage silos, where it’s ready for reuse. The smoke cloud coming out of Green Asphalt is likely a byproduct from heating and processing recycled pavement. Green Asphalt recycles around 100,000 tons of asphalt annually that is used in the metro area for both private and public works projects. Using recycled asphalt can cut material costs up to 30%.

“We're creating a useful stream for what would otherwise be a waste product that would be put in landfills,” said Karianne Melillo, spokesperson for Green Asphalt. “Taxpayers are getting more bang for their buck.”

While recycling asphalt has environmental benefits, the process can typically release emissions that include toxic air pollutants such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and hydrocarbons, according to a fact sheet publlished by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

These fumes can be harmful. In the short term, New Jersey’s health department states that the emissions can cause the symptoms that Greenpointers like Oberholtzer have reported, such as coughing, difficulty breathing and headaches. Prolonged exposure can increase the chances of more serious conditions such as cancer and respiratory illness according to the Centers for Disease Control.

These emissions are controllable with filters or modifications in processing, according to the DOT.

“ We just, we really need that facility to behave more in a neighborly manner,” Lauren Comito, a resident of Greenpoint for over 25 years. “We don't expect that they're just going to disappear, but we need them to listen to what the DEC is asking them to do.”

Elected officials will host a town hall meeting with Green Asphalt and the DEC on Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Polish and Slavic Center in Greenpoint. Local elected officials encourage residents to report the fumes to DEC.