On Monday Citycouncilmember David Yassky and state assemblyman Eric Gioia spoke to the press about somthing that is not right in New York harbor: abandoned barges. And they pointed the finger of blame at the Pile Foundation Construction which has been allowing its barges to sink or decay. They’ve been cited in the past for violations. The following is an excerpt from the New York Times article.

On Monday, two City Council members and a state assemblyman announced their disgust with what they called a growing problem: abandoned construction barges and other vessels left to rust, buckle,
leak and eventually sink to the bottom of remote corners of rivers and
tributaries feeding Jamaica Bay.

In January, the National Parks
Service estimated that about 190 abandoned vessels — many of them small
boats, apparently privately owned — had been left to rot in the 25,000
acres that make up Jamaica Bay. Since then, about 40 vessels have been
removed, said Brian Feeney, a Parks Service spokesman.

In a news conference held by the East River in Manhattan on Monday, City Councilmen David Yassky and Eric Gioia said that abandoned industrial barges had become a threat to the health of city estuaries.

“For too long, it’s been the Wild West in New York Harbor,” Mr. Yassky said.

Since
2006, the officials said, one company in particular has repeatedly
tugged barges into Newtown Creek, in Brooklyn, and other New York
rivers and bays, to let them rot. Mr. Yassky said the company, Pile
Foundation Construction Co., of Hicksville, N.Y., was pursuing what he
called an intentional “abandon-and-sink strategy” within the city, and
must be stopped.