Environmental
October 23, 2007
Gowanus Cleanup Update: Time and Money
Last night Community Board 6’s public safety/environmental protection committee held a public meeting about the Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gowanus Canal Ecological Restoration Study. The $5 million partnership to study and spur cleanup of the canal has been going on for six years, and the good news is that it’s starting to result in concrete plans for revitalizing Lavender Lake. The bad news is that the plans the DEP and Army Corps have come up with aren’t exactly going to be implemented tomorrow, and they ain’t gonna come cheap.
Kevin Clarke, the DEP’s chief of Wastewater and Water Infrastructure and Support, gave a presentation about the department’s $125 million water quality improvement plan, which the state is likely to approve and set in motion sometime next year. The DEP intends to modernize the canal’s flushing tunnel and pumping stations so they process a lot more water on a daily basis and reduce the impact of sewer overflow into the waterway; the department projects that updating the two pieces of infrastructure will take almost four years, and they want to start that work by next fall. The plan also calls for preliminary dredging of the 1.8-mile-long Gowanus and periodically sending a boat onto the canal to engage in “floatable skimming” (“floatable” is DEP lingo for street garbage that’s made its way to the canal and decided against sinking). The dredging and garbage boat plans probably won’t come into play until sometime next decade. Mark Lulka, the Army Corps’ project manager, called the canal “a puzzle,” and said the Corps’ preliminary recommendations for ecosystem restoration involved dredging and capping sediments, possibly with wetlands creation. The Army Corps hopes to finish a final feasibility report about the measures by 2009 and begin work in 2012 or 2013. Update: Gowanus Lounge has additional coverage of last night's event here.
October 3, 2007
The Gowanus Canal: From PCBs to STDs
Green Brooklyn links to an excellent Scienceline article that details the Gowanus Canal’s history of toxic pollution and gives an overview of current plans to clean up the waterway. Scientists are debating whether it makes more sense to dredge the canal or cap its toxic sediments, and they’re also examining how to go about remediating the land around the Gowanus. One of the story’s revelations, however, is that researchers have found more than just run-of-the-mill scary stuff like lead, sulfur, cyanide, asbestos, PCBs, mercury and volatile organic compounds in the canal:
Nilofaur Haque, a biologist at the New York City College of Technology, has her students analyze water samples and observe the oily substance that coats the water’s surface each afternoon. “One group of students found gonohorrea in a water drop,” said Haque.
As Green Brooklyn notes, “Can’t wait for the ‘luxury condos.’”
Tainted Lavender [Scienceline]
Sick Oysters In Gonohorrea — I Mean Gowanus — Canal [Green Brooklyn]