CURES 2024 Report to the Community
CURES 2024 Report to the Community
The Civic Associations that started CURES began working together in 2009. From the beginning our mission has been to improve the community’s public and environmental health through the use of up-to-date railroad technology that is proven to abate toxic locomotive pollution, noise, and the waste blowoff, leachate, and odors from rail cars and containers.
As we come to the close of 2024, how much progress have we made?
• Legislation was passed to contain waste in rail cars in 2023, and went into effect in January 2024: Thanks to the leadership of our Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. and Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, the containerization law passed unanimously in the Assembly and with strong support in the Senate. Governor Hochul signed it. However, on January 8, 2024, the Association of American Railroads, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, and National Waste & Recycling Association’s New York State Chapter sued in federal court to stop the law’s implementation. This law gives residents and workers a measure of protection from toxins and odors that have been coming out of rail cars since the filthy new waste-by-rail industry started in 2008. Waste export has become such good business that international investors have bought out Construction and Demolition Debris transfer stations on Long Island. The lawsuit effectively asserts the right of these companies to pollute our neighborhoods — forcing our families to keep subsidizing their profits with health and quality of life degradations. CURES is very pleased to report that NYS Attorney General Letitia James is vigorously defending this modest, long-overdue law in court.
• LIRR still has not purchased any Tier 4 locomotives (photo, right), but has $26 million in hand for their procurement: Thanks to the leadership of Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi since 2013, the NYS Legislature has appropriated a total of $31,000,000 for Tier 4 freight locomotives. LIRR has had an “active procurement” open since 2018. However, more than $26,000,000 remains unspent. The old, high-polluting freight locomotives still used by LIRR as work trains and New York & Atlantic Railway’s locomotives emit the NOx pollution of more than a million cars. LIRR is purchasing some new Tier 4 passenger locomotives. So we pray that 2025 will be the year that LIRR purchases Tier 4 freight locomotives too, and our families have cleaner air to breathe.
• Because of the steadfast leadership of Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. and NYC Council Member Robert Holden — and CURES’ decade-long partnership with the Queens College Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment — the necessary resources are in place to monitor pollution from rail operations. Council Member Holden provided $20k in NYC Council Discretionary Funding to purchase air quality monitoring equipment. The Queens College scientists initially installed the equipment and a weather station at the Westhab Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center. in 2025, this equipment will be relocated, and more monitoring sites will be established as part of the NYC Department of Health’s New York City Community Air Survey network. This work has been made possible because of a generous CREST grant from Senator Addabbo.
• In 2024, CURES made sure our community health problems and environmental injustices due to pollution from old locomotives were included in state and national initiatives. As a result, the NYS Department of Conservation’s Air Quality Division recognized locomotives as a particular pollution source in Queens as part of its report on air quality monitoring mandated by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. As a member of US EPA’s Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee, CURES was part of a Locomotive Workgroup that recommended actions to reduce locomotive pollution.
If you have questions or are interested in being part of CURES’ team, please contact us at civicsunited@gmail.com. Please visit our Facebook Page: CURES – Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions. May God bless you and yours in the coming year.
