The Bloomberg Administration is planning to take potentially toxic sediment dredged from New York Harbor and dump it in New York public places like the former Yankee Stadium, the Bronx terminal market, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park that runs along the East River waterfront, says Comptroller Bill Thompson. This material, often used to cap old mines in Pennsylvania or formerly polluted sites known as brownfields, contains high levels of PCBs, dioxin, mercury and various heavy metals. Two-thirds of it is currently designated too contaminated by the Army Corps of Engineers to be placed in a federally-designated offshore site, says Thompson. The city plans to "process" the sludge (i.e. clean it up) and dump 200,000 cubic yards at Heritage Field (former Yankee stadium) and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

So far, according to mayoral hopeful Thompson (who makes a point of publicly attacking City Hall just about whenever he can), the mess hasn't been cleaned up and the city hasn't responded to requests from his office to provide details of what's happening. Since 15,000 cubic yards of sludge have already been dumped at the Bronx terminal market, that's cause for concern. Photo via dBTechno.