At UN, Contractor Skanska Hits Pipe and Methane Gas Clears Printing Plant, Landfill Blamed as Adlerstein Gives All-Clear

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1methane063008.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 -- As the UN's contractor dug test holes on Friday, a pipe was ruptures and there emerged a smell "like rotten eggs," the head of the UN's Capital Master Plan Michael Adlerstein told Inner City Press on Monday. The UN's publishing section was vacated, and Monday morning the usual UN Journal publication was not available in hard-copy.

In response to questions Monday from Inner City Press, Adlerstein described a period of wonder and worry, in which Con Edison was called to check on a gas leak, and the New York Fire Department also responded. "There was a smell of gas," Adlerstein said. "Con Ed has a gas they add to their gas, a fingerprint" to see if a leak is attributable to them. This one wasn't. Rather it came from "muck... the old Turtle Bay landfill is slowly rotting, and produces methane gas."

Adlerstein described "a little plastic cap on top of the pipe," adding that over the weekend three venting systems were installed. He himself gave the all clear to UN Security to have work continue in the publishing section.

Inner City Press was alerted to the problem by UN workers who asked for anonymity due to fear of retaliation. They stated that only when those working complained for a strong gas-like smell were they allowed to stop working. They now wonder about the safety, going forward, of working with the gasses being released by the drilling of the UN's contractor, Skanska. A dozen or so workers in hardhats were shepherded into the UN on Friday night around 9 p.m., no explanation was given.

In recent weeks, even in the UN's checkerboard-floor lobby, holes have been drilled in the ceiling, sometime blocked off by sheet plastic that falls, flapping, at night. "Is this safe?" a worker asked Inner City Press, pointing at a hole in the ceiling. While UN management insists that safety is being considered, questions are mounting, including about the cost overruns of the Capital Master Plan to vacate and gut-rehabilitate the UN's 40 story tower. Watch this site.

Footnote: As the contract talks between UN Television workers and the UN's contractor, Venue Services Group, go down to the end-of-June wire, Inner City Press asked Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein if VSG could, as people say, get even more business from the UN under the CMP. Adlerstein said that part of the CMP is to moving the broadcast facilities, but that he did not know if VSG could get the work. On the contract, Adlerstein said, "I think they are working toward a solution, I'm hopeful." We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1methane063008.html