NEW YORK - Military munitions believed to be sitting on the bottom of a bay off New York Harbor since the Korean War era could endanger the construction of a planned trash shipping facility, a state lawmaker says.

State Assemblyman Bill Colton says he is "deeply concerned" that dredging for the new facility on Gravesend Bay could detonate the shells.

Hundreds of tons of ammunition were being unloaded from the aircraft carrier USS Bennington on March 6, 1954, when a sudden storm caused a barge to capsize and break loose. By the time the barge was found upside down six miles away, it was empty.

About 400 anti-aircraft shells were recovered by divers eight months later, but as many as 14,000 were never found, said Colton.

"It's possible that 219 tons of anti-aircraft shells are still out there on the bottom, and we must make sure we're not digging and dredging in a place where they go ka-poof," Colton said Monday.

A city Sanitation Department spokesman did not return a call seeking comment on Colton's claims.

Colton said the Sanitation Department should conduct an "intense environmental assessment" before going ahead with plans for its waste transfer station on Gravesend Bay, a broad inlet on the southwest side of Brooklyn near Coney Island. The area already has a large fuel oil depot.

The transfer station would move garbage from trucks onto barges for shipment to a disposal site. It would be capable of handling approximately 4,200 tons of garbage a day.