Buildings Chief Is Mum on Fuel Storage

 by Ronald Drenger

About 50 Tribeca residents, worried about thousands of gallons of diesel fuel stored at 60 Hudson Street, gathered on June 23 for a long-awaited meeting with a city official who they hoped could address their concerns. But they quickly realized that they were not going to get the answers they were looking for.

The forum at New York Law School featured Patricia Lancaster, commissioner of the Buildings Department, which is considering a request by 60 Hudson’s owners for a variance that would legalize fuel storage on upper floors in excess of legal limits.

But in her opening statement, Lancaster said, “Because this is an open application, I will not be discussing details of the variance application itself.”

Patricia Lancaster, the city’s Buildings Commissioner, and Stanley Dawe, the Fire Department’s chief of fire prevention, seated next to her, listen to a question from Tribeca resident Roger Byrom at a forum on fuel storage at 60 Hudson Street. Photo by Carl Glassman.

When residents pressed the commissioner for specifics about fuel in the building, she declined to answer.

“I’m here to listen,” she said to Hudson Street resident Michael Nadel, who wanted to know the amount of fuel being stored.

“Do you yourself know the answer?” asked Charles Komanoff, who lives on Duane Street. Lancaster turned momentarily to a Buildings Department attorney sitting in the front row and then said, “I can’t respond to that question now.”

Madelyn Wils, the chairwoman of Community Board 1 who moderated the meeting, stood to face Lancaster and summed up the residents’ frustrations and worries. The commissioner’s answers, Wils said, “give a lot of us real hesitancy about what’s going on around us and whether it’s safe or not.”
The forum was sponsored by the community board and Neighbors Against NOISE, a residents’ group, which say that the diesel fuel at 60 Hudson Street poses a danger to the neighborhood. The group is urging the Buildings Department to deny a variance for the building and to issue violations to the owners.

Experts believe that the burning of about 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel stored at 7 World Trade Center may have contributed to that building’s collapse on Sept. 11, 2001. At least twice that much is said to be stored at 60 Hudson Street—including 2,200 gallons in eight tanks on upper floors—but city agencies have so far declined to provide complete records to Neighbors Against NOISE, which is represented by attorney Norman Siegel.

Sixty Hudson Street, the former Western Union Building, houses telecommunications companies that require diesel fuel for their huge backup generators.

Lancaster said she could not discuss details about the fuel for public safety reasons. But she said that the variance “would not increase the total amount of fuel stored in the building over the total that would be allowed if the building used the maximum amount permitted by code on each floor.”

If the Buildings Department issues a variance, she said, it can impose stricter safety rules than ordinarily required. “We will not compromise public safety. In fact, we seek to enhance it.”

But community leaders reject that tradeoff, saying the city should en-force—and tighten—existing laws. Siegel said that, if necessary, they will force compliance and fuller disclosure of city records through litigation.

“As long as there’s diesel fuel being stored, you need the maximum fire safety,” said Councilman Alan Gerson.