Conflict over Gowanus Canal Superfund Status
Add the Gowanus Canal clean-up to the long list of the things the city and the state can’t seem to agree upon. The announcement by the EPA last week that it was considering making the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site at the behest of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has the Bloomberg administration up…
Add the Gowanus Canal clean-up to the long list of the things the city and the state can’t seem to agree upon. The announcement by the EPA last week that it was considering making the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site at the behest of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has the Bloomberg administration up in arms. The city, which has made reclaiming and rezoning the land along the canal a priority in recent years, says that the litigious Superfund process could take decades to play out given the long list of parties that is potentially liable. A comprehensive approach to the remediation of the canal is required, one that will not only cut off all upland sources to the canal but also will include an overall remedy to the canal itself, said a spokesperson for the state. “Of the 1,500 federal Superfund sites to date, no river cleanup has been successfully completed,” countered Daniel Walsh, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation, at a public forum at PS 32 in Carroll Gardens last night. “This is not the EPA’s fault, but it does speak to the enormous complexity of identifying responsible parties and suggests that a cleanup could very likely take more than two decades.” Council Member David Yassky supports the involvement of the Feds, telling WNYC, “If [the canal]’s cleaned up, we can then have housing and restaurants and the whole waterfront life right alongside it. But first we gotta clean it up.” Toll Brothers has already threatened to walk away from its 577-unit project should the EPA step in; Hudson Companies, which is slated to develop the other large development project, is similarly frustrated by the 11th-hour curveball. One of Hudson’s principals, Alan Ball, provided us with this comment:
If the feds are not bringing any money, what do they add to solving the problem?Who are these deep pocket private responsible parties (PRPs) they think are out there? A GE, a Honeywell, an Exxon Mobil? If not, they are only looking at National Grid (Keyspan) and the City of New York and ultimately the tax payers and energy consumers of NYC. And why is this happening NOW after the City has finally after decades of delay – committed the funds to repairing the flushing tunnel and prepared a plan for addressing CSO events, the Army Corps is prepared to start dredging, and National Grid has committed to cleaning up the uplands areas through the NYS Brownfields Program.
The 60-day comment period has now begun. The Observer notes that sites that make it to the comment period “more often than not” end up getting designated.
Gowanus Plan Panned [NY Post]
Developers: Gowanus to Build or Not? [NY Observer]
Photo by emptysquare
This is not the EPA coming in to finally resolve the situation and make things happen. Exactly the opposite. A Superfund designation won’t make the cleanup of the canal happen any sooner. It will just create another forum for litigation. Not that I was really expecting anything to happen there even with a rezoning, but this just makes it certain that nothing will happen there, either cleanup or development, for another twenty years.
gemini is right. it’s like everything these days people like to claim omg11!!1! toxic all our baybays are gonna grow third arms!!1! hello, it really isnt that bad. like the old saying says… what doesnt kill us makes us stronger.
*rob*
Correct me if I’m wrong
but if the canal is so horrible as you say FSRG, then why do many people still work and live in and around that canal and don’t seem to have 3 eyes and 3 nipples?
am not trying to be snarky
Just honestly curious
I mean those business and homes have been on that canal for some 50+ years – wouldn’t the people have developed issues already?
I hope they can clean it up, just not sure if I want to see more condo developements down in that area…..
feral,
OK, you and I seem to have attended the same meeting. I was beginning to wonder if I were in an alternate universe.
tybur6, raw sewage flows into the canal during even moderate rains. During heavy rains the canal can rise above its banks where they want to build housing. The website the feral posted has a screenshot of just some of the contaminants. And yes, the canal leeches onto adjacent properties.
tybur6, I was at the meeting last night (you can find out more at http://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2009/04/at-last-nights-gowanus-superfund.html), and the issues surrounding the contamination are indeed complex (yes, it is still being actively contaminated, according to the EPA).
That’s why we need the EPA to develop a comprehensive plan, instead of any feigned attempts at spot-cleaning the canal.
Thank God- I am as pro-development as it comes but this whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen…..
The Gowanus canal vicinity is not suitable for human habitation, it just isnt….this isnt some B.S. “deadly mold” issue or some imaginary degenerative disease from silicone implants or even an exaggerated peanut allergy epidemic….this is REAL POISON
Over a centuries worth of poisons have been manufactured, dumped, and processed in and around that canal – mercury, lead, PCBs, all of it is in and around there.
And yet the local community, city and state want to allow private developers (who everyone here think are the devil – and who certainly have little Brownfield cleanup experience) to cleanup and build housing.
It is insane – the cost to cleanup this land makes the economics of this IMPOSSIBLE (just look at what happened to Whole Foods – during a BOOM); and even if the state, city, Feds or polluters ponied up the fortune it would take, and even if the contractors actually were able to totally clean up the sites 100% – it is GUARANTEED that lawyers on Court St and beyond would be suing over ever instance of cancer, birth defect, lung disease or unexplainable laziness case that arises in these homes. The Government (and immediately bankrupt developers) litigation expenses will be enormous and cost us for decades. Not to mention how after the first 20/20 expose or 60Min piece (Probably entitled….”Brooklyn’s Bophal”) no insurance Company will ensure the properties and the values will plummet.
All this hassle and expense to build in an relatively inaccessible (by mass transit) area, that has no great amenities.
The city needs light manufacturing and distribution zones as well – the sooner this clean the Gowanus (for residential) nonsense dies – the better.
I was at the meeting last night. I live and own in Gowanus/Carroll Gardens and welcome the proposed EPA clean up.
Isn’t the Hudson Companies also developing Third and Bond? I think they are more worried of what Superfund status might mean for that project more than Public Place.
What happens if the flushing tunnel propeller breaks again? There has already been dredging and repairs which have failed. Why not do a proper and comprehensive clean up? I thought USACE was prepared to dredge the length of the canal many years ago but the problem was disposal of the toxic sludge. If the EPA can resolve disposal why shouldn’t they be involved?
I am not sure whether Toll has even closed on the site. The contract was contingent on obtaining a rezoning but I doubt there is a Superfund contingency. Toll claims to be financially healthy so they can wait it out or resell.
I walked near the canal a few weeks ago on the Union St bridge and there was a swan and two duckies swimming in there.
Having the feds come in and finally address the overall health of the canal is a godsend for people, like me, who live and work along the Gowanus.
I attended last night’s meeting, and there is nothing at all that will prevent the city and state from continuing their own cleanup plans, including the flushing tunnel.
I am so tired of the constant fear-mongering on the part of developers, and now the mayor’s office. You did nothing for us for years, and now your developer buddies are getting screwed after buying warehouses along a waterway that is obviously toxic? Cry me a canal.