By Cynthia Koons
A College Point marine biologist, James Cervino, contended the boat is leaking what could be harmful chemicals into the area's waterways and has alerted several state and federal agencies to the presence of the barge.The boat's owner, Larry DiGiacomo, said the barge is an old Navy ship from the Gulf War that he bought at a bankruptcy auction and is cleaning for potential resale.The barge is sunken into the bay floor alongside a second boat, almost equal in size. College Point fisherman Rich Susko said he believes the boat is causing silt to collect on the ocean floor. Susko, a Vietnam vet who served in the U.S. Navy, became aware of the debris when the horseshoe crabs he was used to seeing in the waters behind his friends' tackle shop at 110th Street and 15th Avenue began disappearing.He approached Cervino at a public lecture the biologist was giving and expressed his concerns. “I fish these waters. I know these waters,” Susko said. “I don't eat fish, but I give it to my family.”The two paired up to investigate the barge and they began alerting official agencies to the potential harm the boat could be inflicting on the wetlands.Courtney Katz, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said it was notified of the presence of the barge in May, but the Army Corps of Engineers was the lead agency handling the case because the barge was located in an area that was classified as wetlands.Chris Mallery, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the corps had investigated the barge within the last two years. He could not confirm the nature of the investigation, only that it was an “enforcement case” at that location with DiGiacomo's name on the case.Katz said EPA investigators would be going out to the neighborhood to determine if there was any illegal activity going on off the coast of College Point.”We know people are unhappy with the development activities on the shoreline,” she said.State Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Maureen Wren said her agency was also investigating whether DiGiacomo was in violation of tidal wetlands regulations. DiGiacomo maintained in an interview last week that he was cleaning the boat legally. He does marine construction for a living in other parts of College Point and was the former operator of the Bayside Marina. The barge, he said, was used as a minesweeper in the Persian Gulf during the first Gulf War.”The government did research, they did underwater sonar testing and mine detection,” DiGiacomo said. “The research was actually done through the bottom of the barge so that nobody could actually be spying.”Cervino, who earned his master's degree at Boston University at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, believes the presence of the boat may be hindering the growth of natural sea grasses.A microbiology doctoral candidate at University of South Carolina, Cervino tested the waters around the barge and detected what he believed were metal compounds in the water. But Cervino said these results were preliminary and that more extensive tests would be necessary to confirm his findings.DiGiacomo said his barge was not leaking anything into the waters and that in cleaning the boat, he was packaging and sealing the old paint cans located on the vessel before removing them. He said there is a pump on the barge that is draining saltwater from the bottom of the boat in order to keep it afloat.But Cervino said the debris that is on the barge, which he said includes oil drums and paint cans, is the reason the water may be testing positive for metal compounds.Concerned about the quality of the water in the bay around the barge, Cervino approached a federal Environmental Protection Agency attorney who he said is still working on the case.College Point is home to a working-class community where it is not uncommon to see people fishing in the evenings.After airing their worries about the barge in Flushing Bay, Cervino and Susko passed a man carrying a fishing pole who said he was going to the docks in hopes of catching some blue fish. The waters around College Point are also home to eel, striped bass, snapper and flounder in the cleanest sites.”This is one of the last stays for the working-class boater,” Susko said. “This is where the guy comes home, gets on his 20- to 24-footer and goes fishing.”Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
