Environment

Environment, Gowanus, News

Public Place battle tamped down by EPA scientist, by George Fiala

After the revelation last month about a provocative letter sent by some Gowanus Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) to EPA heads, some thought that the next monthly meeting would be filled with fireworks (see our last issue). However, Chief Engineer Christos Tsiamis, who has been providing updates to the project almost every month for the past dozen years, diffused all […]

Environment, News

Red Hook surprised by new cruise ships, by Brian Abate

To either the surprise, or the apathy, of local residents, Mayor Eric Adams announced that MSC Cruises will be coming to Red Hook in the spring of 2023 bringing year-round cruise ships to the Atlantic Basin. The terminal was inaugurated in 2006 as the NYC home port for the Queen Mary. Another ship, The Regal Princess, has been using Red […]

Environment, Gowanus, News

It’s complicated: Dirty Development in Gowanus, by Sean Gurl

Christos Tsiamis, Chief Engineer of Gowanus Superfund project. Despite the strong opposition of New York City, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and local Councilman Bill deBlasio, the Gowanus Canal, called one of the most polluted waterways in the world, was finally declared an EPA Federal Superfund site in 2010. This meant that the canal would be subject to federal jurisdiction when […]

Environment, News, Real Estate

Velazquez and Simon convey concerns over Gowanus rezoning report, by Brian Abate

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Assembly member Jo Anne Simon spoke to a frustrated crowd of people in the Whole Foods parking lot next to the Gowanus Canal. They both voiced their concerns about the city’s Gowanus rezoning plan which was approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The rezoning plan would allow real estate developers to build new condos in the […]

Environment, Gowanus, Gowanus Canal, News

Superfund lawyer says Buyer Beware on Gowanus Rezoning, by George Fiala

At the end of March, the EPA filed an Administrative Order making specific demands of the City of New York regarding their unkept promises at the Gowanus Canal cleanup. Christos Tsiamis, Chief Engineer of the project, has said many times in the past that the Federal government, of which the EPA is part of, has sovereignty over city government, which […]

Environment, Gowanus, Gowanus Canal, Land Use, News

Big questions about Public Place remain, by Jorge Bello

Members of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group were smiling in their Zoom squares when Christos Tsiamis, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engineer leading the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup, reappeared on their screens on March 23. Tsiamis had not attended the group’s monthly virtual meetings since December, when he expressed concerns over changes utility company National Grid made last summer […]

Environment, Gowanus, Gowanus Canal, News

Gowanus neighbors try to slow down inevitable construction onslaught

When the city unleashes a rezoning and its accompanying host of contentious public review meetings on a neighborhood, seldom does anything stop it. A coalition of local grassroots organizations led by Voice of Gowanus managed to do so temporarily by suing the city and preventing it from triggering the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month path leading to […]

Environment, Red Hook News

On the eternal mystery of the Beard Street flooding

In early July, contractors for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) dug up a section of Beard Street east of Van Brunt Street, prompting speculation as to whether the project (marked as a “sewer repair” on the adjacent no-parking sign) signaled the beginning of a new effort to mitigate the persistent flooding just down the road at the Richards Street […]

Environment, Gowanus, Red Hook News

New, modern electric generating stations could be coming to Gowanus in 5 years

Two electric generating stations on six power barges, floating along the shoreline of Gowanus and Sunset Park, are looking to be replaced and updated by 2024. Collectively they provide enough energy between one and 1.5 million residential customers in Brooklyn. The barges continued operating during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and were only offline for two hours, due personnel evacuations, according […]

Environment, Health, Uncategorized

Remediation process at manufactured gas plant site begins this month

It’s official – preparation is underway, beginning July 8, for remedial action that’ll address contamination related to the Citizens former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) site under New York’s MGP Program. The site is six acres in size and is composed of two adjoining parcels owned by the City. The site formerly included a third parcel, located at 459 Smith Street, […]