These New Yorkers are fuming.

More than 100 residents from a pair of Queens and Brooklyn waterfront neighborhoods slammed a city-contracted asphalt recycling plant near their homes at a tense meeting Tuesday over its smelly, “burning rubber”-like emissions that they fear are making them sick.

The plant, which has operated in Long Island City, Queens, since 2011, was first cited by state officials in January 2024 for spewing fumes that “unreasonably interfered with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property” in violation of the New York State Air Pollution Control Law. 5

But the stench has only gotten worse in recent months, locals said.

“I can’t open the windows because I can taste the toxins, it’s like rubber burning in my mouth,” 59-year-old Long Island City resident Maria

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