by Ryan Brady, Queens Chronicle (NY)

To the outrage of some area leaders, Waterpointe brownfield cleanup in Whitestone has been given a certificate of completion by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The agency issued it last Friday, on the last business day of the year, after having previously said that it had expected to issue it by the end of 2017.

Community Board 7 and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) have been highly critical of how the cleanup was conducted. In September, the DEC complied with a request from the Edgestone Group — the owner of the site who conducted the remediation — to change the cleanup track from Track 2 residential to Track 4 restricted-residential, which allows for a higher level of contamination to remain.

The Edgestone Group, which could not be reached for comment, plans on building 52 single-family homes at the site.

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For the entire article, see

http://www.qchron.com/editions/north/waterpointe-gets-completion-certificate/article_172690ab-ecfb-58d6-b319-e234ebfedc17.html