Toll Folds, Hudson Holds In Gowanus
The full real estate ramifications of yesterday’s decision by the EPA to place the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund list won’t be known for quite some time, but the threat of a decade or more of lawsuit-riddled remediation was enough to make Toll Brothers, the developer of one of the two mega sites planned along…
The full real estate ramifications of yesterday’s decision by the EPA to place the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund list won’t be known for quite some time, but the threat of a decade or more of lawsuit-riddled remediation was enough to make Toll Brothers, the developer of one of the two mega sites planned along the banks of the contaminated waterway, to announce it was pulling the plug. “We don’t see any possibility of our doing a project there,” said Toll’s David Von Spreckelsen. “We can’t get financing. We can’t get insurance.” Meanwhile, The Hudson Companies, the other developer with big plans for the area, announced it was going to stick it out. We’re in full support of the project, and we’ll work with the E.P.A., said Aaron Koffman, a spokesman for the Hudson Companies. In related news, McBrooklyn has a round-up of who’s happy and who’s sad about the Superfund listing.
Gowanus Canal Gets Superfund Status [NY Times]
Feds Declare Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site [NY Post]
EPA Adds Gowanus Canal to Superfund List [NY Daily News]
Photo by beau-dog
There absolutely will be ramifications. In 15 years, the canal will be clean(ish).
The superfund designation isn’t making the canal dirtier or smellier. Its an announcement that someone is finally going to clean it. If you want to move because of the superfund designation, good riddance.
Crimsonson — Yeah, I live in the area too, and I want a clean Gowanus. Its been polluted for a long time, everyone knows it, and no one, private or public, has done anything about. I’m not sure why you think all of a sudden that private companies are going to pay to clean up the thing. The Toll Bros were only going to remediate the soil on their building sites, if even that. They weren’t going to clean the canal. Who do you think was going to do this? And I’m not sure you understand how Superfunding works. The federal government does the clean up, but they get the polluters to pay for it, via litigation. The polluters money goes into a fund, a “superfund”, and the EPA manages the studies and the clean-up. Sure some taxpayers funds go into it, the EPA is funded by the federal government, but most of the money for the actual clean up comes from the polluters.
So it appears you’re really just opposed to the feds managing the process? The EPA has proven over and over again that they are capable at the highly technical and complicated task of cleaning up sites like this. Who else do you think would do it? And if you come up with someone, why do you think they haven’t done it yet?
Do people actually believe there will be no ramifications from this declaration?
I am not fatalist like Toll, but it would be naive to say that it will be business as usual financially, legally, and politically for the next 15 years for the people living and doing business in the area.
“While I always knew the Gowanus area was contaminated, there is a big psychological shift when it officially becomes a Super-fund site.”
Miss Muffett, are you for real? You are speaking straight out of the Toll Brothers’ shady talking points. Anyone who didn’t know how polluted the canal was before obviously didn’t want to know, most likely for personal interest.
“Oh gosh, now that it’s a Superfund site, I guess it really is a horrible place to live!” Please. You’re still not going to be able to afford it.
I live in the area Trokenmatt.
It would not be the exact same company doing the clean up :/
And if it was, them cleaning it up would make sense too. No cost to the city and tax payers.
And I’m sure the Feds where doing a great job regulating the pollution back then. Oh wait…
“the ‘private’ sector is the one that polluted it.
Posted by: Petebklyn at March 3, 2010 9:57 AM”
Christopher — Why would the private sector clean this up? No reason. You cite data on how long it takes the EPA to clean up, but then nothing to support why you thinks it would only take two years for some mythical private clean up. How about some examples of a private cleanup in such a short amount of time of a toxic site for which the EPA proposed a longer timeline? No, can’t come up wit one? Shocker.
Crimsonson — Bloomberg’s own private/public non-EPA compromise solution would have been 9 years, and that would have depended on non-guaranteed federal government funding. And if you think it would really only take 9 years for non-obligated private entities to clean up the canal, take a look at how long past the due date we are on the re-building of world trade center site or the development of Atlantic Yards. There is no such thing as a non-federal government solution to an environmental disaster like the Gowanus, where the polluting took place over the course of 100 years by dozens of different polluters, with no single owner of the surrounding land. That’s been the situation for years and nothing’s been done.
Also, I love the McBrooklyn roundup. Those in favor of Superfund status = people who live in the neighborhood and their local elected reps. Those against = developers and polluters.
The Toll Brothers project was a pipe dream. This allows them cover while they back out.
the ‘private’ sector is the one that polluted it.