Perhaps in an effort to quell concern that its stewardship of the Gowanus Canal would mean a dozen years of bureaucratic delays, the Environmental Protection Agency moved swiftly in the week after adding the waterway to the Superfund list to start naming companies it would target to recover damages to pay for the clean-up. “This is a historical puzzle we’re putting together here,” said EPA regional administrator Judith Enck. “This site has a very long legacy of toxic pollution.” In addition to figuring out which companies dumped which chemicals into the canal, the EPA also has to trace often-complicated chains of corporate ownership to determine who’s on the hook for actions taken decades ago. Some of the big names already getting dragged into the investigation include Bayside Fuel Oil, BP America, Honeywell, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Citibank. “Some of these will be dead ends and they’ll say: ‘Nope, not me.’ Some of them, we’ll get live fish on the hook,” said Superfund director Walter Mugdan.
EPA Eyes 20 More Companies in Gowanus Superfund Hunt [NY Daily News]
Superfund Decision No Boost to Gowanus Rezoning [Brownstoner]
Toll Folds, Hudson Holds In Gowanus [Brownstoner]
Gowanus Superfund Coming to a Head [Brownstoner]
Photo by joe holmes