Real Journalism written by people
Are there treasures untold lying beneath the oily surface of the Gowanus canal? An organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of historical artifacts, Archeology and Historic Resource Services (AHRS), have attempted to answer this question. In a recent report they explored the identity and history of a number of large mystery items found in a 2010 sonar scan of […]
Debris removal from the Gowanus Canal will begin at the end of October the EPA announced at the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group meeting this past Tuesday. Initially, the removal of urban waste items – such as tires, shopping carts and potentially a few mystery items – was expected to begin this past August. However, at Tuesday’s meeting, Natalie Loney, […]
Of all of the mystery items scheduled for extraction from the Gowanus canal at the end October, perhaps the most interesting piece comes in the form of a sunken ship at the fourth street turning basin, beside the Gowanus Whole Foods. Locals may recognize the boat, which pokes out from the canal’s dark waters when water levels are low, along […]
Brad Lander’s office recently sent out via email an announcement reopening his Bridging Gowanus initiative – the “next step” in the reshaping of our neighborhood. It asks to complete a survey. The Bridging Gowanus website has a little button on top labeled, ‘WEIGH IN”—this is not an accident since your opportunity to weigh in can hardly be called a survey […]
At the April meeting of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group (CAG), EPA Director Walter Mugdan announced the results of a long and difficult negotiation with New York City regarding the placement of sewage retention tanks alongside the Gowanus Canal. CAG member Marlene Donnelly and others said not so fast. A public comment period was requested and received. This period, […]
The Gowanus Canal, separating Park Slope from Carroll Gardens, is one of the most polluted waterways in the United States. Over a century of heavy industrial use has left it with a highly toxic combination of coal tar as well as raw sewage deposits. It was added to the EPA’s Superfund list in 2010, which mandated the Federal Government to […]
It is no secret that the Gowanus Canal has been a polluted mess for over 100 years. It should seem that everyone would be on board with a plan to repurpose the canal into a clean body of water, suitable for fishing, swimming and never be a health hazard. A nearby apartment, old or new, looking out over a bucolic, […]
A giant concrete tank, built underground to hold the raw sewage that currently gets pumped in the Gowanus Canal whenever it rains, has become the main focus of attention of the planners of the Gowanus Canal cleanup. The long-polluted canal was cited as one of the most toxic sites in America and declared a Federal EPA Superfund site in 2009 […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was tasked with the job of cleaning up the toxic Gowanus Canal in 2009, following over 100 years of unbenign neglect on the part of New York City. The canal was declared a Superfund site over the objections of New York City, who felt that passive measures, such as building bioswales, would clean the canal […]
A major part of the EPA’s plan to clean up the Gowanus Canal is the prevention of future contamination. In addition to chemical toxins that have leached into the canal as a byproduct of the 19th century gas plants that abutted the canal, organic poisons from sewage overflows continue to contaminate. Overflows happen during rain events when the sewers become […]
It’s been a rough winter for meetings, as the weather has cancelled quite a few, including the January meeting of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group (CAG). The CAG serves as a conduit between the community and the EPA and was set up to monitor the Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal. The January meeting was held February 10 and featured […]
Everyone around these parts knows that the Gowanus Canal is a highly polluted waterway due to a legacy of industrial uses along its banks. Those toxin-generating uses are now gone. This has given us an opportunity to remediate the area and we have seized upon that opportunity. Progress has begun as “flushing tunnel,” which has the ability to draw water […]
The EPA issued a press release today announcing a potential deal with the Lightstone Group regarding remediation of toxic poisons. Lightstone has agreed to spend approximately $20 million to cleanup the land that they will be building on. EPA has the authority to name Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP’s) who then must pay for a Superfund Cleanup. In the case of […]
