Residents Appeal City's OK of Fuel Tanks

 By Barry Owens

A contingent of Downtown elected officials and neighbors of the Western Union building at 60 Hudson St. went to the city's Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) last month seeking to reverse the city's decision to legalize the building's fuel storage tanks, which they say pose a hazard to the neighborhood.

"We believe it to be illegal, a health and safety threat, unwise, and extremely bad public policy," Norman Siegel, an attorney hired by the group Neighbors Against N.o.i.s.e., argued during the Jan. 25 hearing. Siegel and others cited the Sept. 11 attacks and the fire that brought down 7 World Trade Center, which is believed to have been stoked by the fuel stored inside the building.

Norman Siegel, representing residents near 60 Hudson Street, argues before the Board of Standards and Appeals that fuel storage tanks in the building are a neighborhood hazard. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum.

"This is not Chicken Little, this is real," Siegel said, referring to dangers posed by the fuel and the possibility that 60 Hudson Street, a building that houses equipment for major telecommunications companies, could be a target for terrorists.

City code allows for only one fuel storage tank per floor in a building. Last June, the Department of Buildings (DOB) granted the building a variance from the code based on assurances from its owner, GVA Williams, that the tanks would be isolated behind fire-resistant walls and that other safety measures would be taken. The variance legalizes as many as four tanks per floor in a five-floor area. That condition had put the building in violation of city code since at least 2002, according to the DOB.

"It is not unheard of by any means to choose this method to legalize a condition that we have found to be in violation," said attorney Phyllis Arnold, speaking for the agency at the hearing.

Under questioning from BSA Commissioner James Chin, however, Arnold said that the conditions inside 60 Hudson St. made the variance an "unusual" and unprecedented move for the city.

She would not elaborate on the exact amount of fuel stored inside, where and how it is distributed, or if there are other buildings in the city with similar fuel-storage conditions.

"How can we make a decision if we don't know?" asked Chin, who seemed the most skeptical of the five commissioners.

Arnold defended the variance, saying that fire protections that were put in place "made the situation safer than it would have been otherwise."

"We thought we made it better with the World Trade Center and obviously it didn't work out," Chin countered.

"I've never seen a situation like this in my career," said Glenn Corbett, a fire protection engineer and fire science professor at John Jay College, who was hired by the residents to testify.

He said the protections required by the DOB under the variance were adequate to meet the fire code, but that the code itself is antiquated and insufficient to meet the hazards posed by the storage of so many gallons of fuel.

Phyllis Arnold, attorney for the city's Department of Buildings. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum.

There are thought to be 15 tanks on six of the building's upper floors that hold 3,605 gallons of fuel, and up to 80,000 gallons stored below ground.

"We designed the entire Freedom Tower for security reasons," said Madelyn Wils, former chairwoman of Community Board 1 and one of nearly a dozen neighborhood residents who testified against the variance. "And yet eight blocks away we're going to allow this?"

Julie Menin, CB1's current chairwoman, and elected officials including Councilman Alan Gerson, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, State Senator Martin Connor, Congressman Jerrold Nadler and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer submitted testimony opposing the variance.

A second hearing is set for May 9.

"I hope they will finally get an understanding of the illegalities that were going on inside that building," Aziz Dehkan, a Hudson Street resident, said of the BSA, "and decide not to reward them for it."