Changes to Gowanus Green cleanup agreement worry local residents and some local politicians

The former Citizens Gas Works on the western bank of the Gowanus Canal—one of the most polluted sites in all of New York State—is already a jumble of parcels with different owners, remediation plans, and regulatory statuses.

Now, a move by the owners and developers of parcel one—the future home of Gowanus Green, a project that includes an affordable housing complex, open space, and a public school—seeks to further fragment the site.

In an application to amend the current brownfield cleanup agreement, Gowanus Green LLC (a joint venture between The Bluestone Organization, Fifth Avenue Committee, The Hudson Companies, Jonathan Rose Companies, and Mega Group Development), National Grid (the utility company responsible for the contamination at the site), and the City of New York (the owner of the site), requested subdivide the parcel into two.

Subdividing parcel one into two separate sites is “mainly an administrative restructuring that allows applicants to streamline remedial programs and approvals with development phases. Splitting the site will have no impact on the cleanup approaches or extent of contamination that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will require in order to address threats to public health and the environment,” Jeff Wernick, media contact at the DEC, wrote to the Red Hook Star-Revue.

The purpose, according to the DEC, the agency in charge of the State’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which, thus, will ultimately approve or deny the application, is to promote “earlier action in areas that would otherwise be co-dependent on a unified development schedule.”

If the amendment is approved, argued Maureen Koetz, environmental lawyer and former chief sustainability officer with the US Air Force, the developers could use it to clean up the new parcel and start construction, then use that as an argument to continue building on the rest of the site, potentially without proper remediation.

“You can figure how the argument is going to go: Well, we built one building, so might as well build them all,” said Koetz, who has been advising local advocacy group Voice of Gowanus in their efforts for more extensive remediation of the Gowanus uplands. “They’re putting the housing-construction-cart before about eight safety, human health, and environmental protection horses.”

The site has been in the brownfield program since 2009. While remedial activities have occurred on and off since then, Public Place—as the site of the former manufactured gas plant is now colloquially known—remains highly polluted, and no cleanup plan has been fully implemented on any of the four parcels. Remediation requirements were also scaled back some years back. Work has largely been paused since February 2024, after National Grid disagreed with DEC over a set of new directives regarding groundwater contamination.

The proposed amendment adds to what elected officials and Gowanus residents say is a history of DEC allowing National Grid to avoid financial liability at the expense of taxpayers and ratepayers, particularly those living in the vicinity of the site who are most at risk from the pollution.

In a statement to DEC, US Rep. Dan Goldman writes, “I am particularly concerned that the proposed amendment appears to further fragment oversight of a historically unified contaminated site, potentially weakening cleanup obligations, reducing transparency, and shifting financial responsibility away from the identified polluter and onto taxpayers.”

Jo Anne Simon, New York State assemblymember representing Gowanus, wrote to DEC that she is “appalled” by the protracted remediation process and the reasons given for why parcel one should be divided into two.

Simon continued, stating,

“I am offended by the apparent acquiescence of the agency to National Grid’s clearly documented plans to spread out the payment of its remedial liabilities—which it knew full well when it purchased Keyspan—over a period of 47 years so as to secure the NYS Public Service Commission’s approval to pass along the costs of this cleanup to the ratepayers over the next two generations of New Yorkers—including those who are already bearing the brunt of the environmental exposure and their progeny. It fairly boggles the mind.”

We tried to reach the local Councilmember, Shahana Hanif, who succeeded Brad Lander, a major booster of Public Place and the Gowanus rezoning, but she did not return phone calls or emails.

The Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) has been working for housing on Public Place, which was originally promised to the neighborhood as a park, since at least 2005. Lander headed FAC from 1993 to 2003, and was succeeded by Michelle de la Uz, who remains as their Executive Director. Sabine Aronowsky, who worked closely with de la Uz at FAC from 2013 to 2024 is currently employed as Constituent Services Director for Shahana Hanif.

Will charge the public
In a 2024 financial statement, National Grid estimated that over the next 47 years it will incur $3.3 billion in costs for remediating its former manufactured gas plant sites, but that it will recover those liabilities by raising rates for its gas distribution customers. “Management believes that obligations imposed on the Company because of the environmental laws will not have a material adverse effect on its operations, financial position, or cash flows,” the statement reads.

National Grid did not respond to questions from the Star-Revue, but sent a statement, reading, “The Parcel 1A Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) subdivision at the Citizens MGP/Public Place site was initiated by Gowanus Green as part of their redevelopment project at the property. With respect to the remediation, the parties continue to work with DEC on a resolution for the site.”

Community members share the sentiments of their elected representatives. Voice of Gowanus submitted their own letter to DEC as part of the public comment period for the proposed amendment, in it arguing, among other things, that the amendment shared with the public fails to show the public benefit: The grassroots group also asks for financial transparency: currently, it is not publicly known who of the involved parties are responsible for how much of the remediation costs, nor who are receiving tax credits for developing a brownfield site.

“They are making a profit because they are banking the money and dragging their feet,” Linda LaViolette, member of Voice of Gowanus and a neighborhood resident of more than 50 years, said of National Grid.

The Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, in a letter sent to DEC on behalf of Voice of Gowanus, also argued that splitting the parcel without determining if the new site is eligible for the brownfield program “obscures who is receiving public benefits and undermines the statutory structure of the program.”

“Every time you break it into another piece, you splinter the accountability, the transparency, and you make it much more difficult for the community to have confidence that this site is being cleaned up,” said Jack Riccobono, another member of Voice of Gowanus.

The prospective new parcel will be the site of “Gowanus Green Building A.” It will have 188 units of affordable housing, with nearly 60% of the units affordable to low- and very-low-income households.

But letting developers build homes on land where the full extent of the contamination still hasn’t been studied and where so many questions remain regarding the remediation does not sit well with either elected officials or community members. Both Simon and Goldman raised concerns about whether the current remediation plan is sufficient, and Simon went so far as to “strongly urge” DEC to reject the application.

“Where is the moral compass? This is Love Canal without the excuse because all of these bureaucrats should know that this is dangerous and deadly,” LaViolette said.