Gowanus Superfund Update

As the city prepares to move forward with its plans to rezone Gowanus, community members worry about what that will mean for the Gowanus Canal cleanup. According to the environmental impact study produced by the Department of City Planning (DCP) earlier this year, the amount of combined rainwater and sewage that overflows into the canal is projected to increase almost tenfold after the rezone—from 178,795 to 1,977,302 gallons per day. During a recent virtual meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal entity overseeing the cleanup, local organizers expressed fears that such a dramatic increase would recontaminate the canal after it’s been remediated.

That would happen anyway if the EPA grants the city an extension request on the construction of the two retention tanks meant to stop the overflows. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), charged with completing the tanks, made the request in June, but the EPA has yet to decide whether it will grant it. If it does, the city is bound by a previous agreement to remove any solid waste that reaccumulates at the bottom of the canal in the years that it takes to complete the tanks after 2023, the year the EPA will finish its remediation works.

But at the virtual meeting, members of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group, which liaises with the EPA, were also concerned that, even if completed on time, the tanks will be overwhelmed by the increase in sewage overflow resulting from the rezone. In an October 27th letter to the DEP and DCP heads, EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez reminded the city that it must ensure that the area’s redevelopment does not “compromise the effectiveness of the Gowanus Canal remedy.” Members of the advisory group wanted to know what power the EPA has to hold the city accountable to this.

Christos Tsiamis, the EPA engineer leading cleanup, assured them that the city must detail how it plans to contend with the increase in sewage overflow in a new version of its environmental impact study. “If we make the assessment that these additional discharges recontaminate the canal, then we will require additional infrastructure measures,” says Tsiamis. And even though the EPA can only participate as an observer in the city’s upcoming land use meetings on the rezone, he added, the federal agency can avail itself of additional oversight powers under its Superfund role. “We have not come this far with all of you,” chimed in Brian Carr, the EPA’s assistant regional counsel, “to drop the ball and start celebrating before we get to the end zone.”

Jorge Bello