| Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group (BLARG) | |
| Formation: | 2020 |
| Founder: | Hannah Thomas, Dennis Nix, Monique Fitzgerald |
| Location City: | Brookhaven, New York, North Bellport, New York |
| Key People: | Abena Asare, Kerim Odekon, and Michelle Mendez |
| Website: | https://www.landfillaction.org/ |
The Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group (BLARG) is a grassroots environmental justice organization that is seeking to close and clean up the toxic 140-acre Brookhaven Landfill (1974 - present).[1] [2] BLARG's mission is to support direct efforts to attain environmental justice in the North Bellport community through the implementation of local and regional waste plans that are equitable, sustainable, measurable, and public.[3]
North Bellport is a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood, that also has the lowest life expectancy on Long Island, as well as the second-highest rates of asthma in Suffolk County.[4] Every year, about 720,000 tons of construction and demolition waste and about 350,000 tons of incinerator ash from across Long Island is dumped into the Brookhaven Landfill, which is regarded as being the main reason for the dangerous health effects in the community.[5]
BLARG was cofounded by several North Bellport community members including Hannah Thomas, Dennis Nix and Monique Fitzgerald.[6] This group was officially founded in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd to acknowledge that George Floyd did not have to die and the only way to prevent premature death of black people is to identify what systemic issues are putting black lives most at risk.
In 2021, BLARG helped stop the expansion of Brookhaven Landfill which was a monumental achievement to protect future generations from harm.[7] [8]
In Summer 2021, BLARG began a collaborative effort with local members to haul away food waste on bikes to community composting facilities, and to apply compost education takeaways to its own community on Long Island.[9]
In 2022, BLARG started its own a successful Community Composting Collective that diverted tons of organic waste from Brookhaven Landfill, preventing significant amounts of planet-warming methane gas from being generated and released in the atmosphere.[10]
In 2023, BLARG advocated State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate Covanta Hempstead, a waste-to-energy plant, owned by Covanta in their dumping of ash into Brookhaven Landfill that they were uncertain on whether was nonhazardous.[11] This prompted a multi-year investigation of Covanta Hempstead by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), despite the Town of Brookhaven actually siding with Covanta.