Gowanus Canal: Superfund Site?

This still needs some digesting. First heard rumors on this last Thursday, but without any substantive detail. Below is the press release issued by EPA, in full (emphasis added):

Press Release

Region 2 - New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands




Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Proposed for EPA Superfund List


Contact: Beth Totman (212) 637-3662, totman.elizabeth@epa.gov


(New York, N.Y.—Apr. 8, 2009) – Thanks to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to add Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to the Agency’s Superfund National Priorities List (NPL), the waterway will once again become an asset to local residents. The proposed listing would allow the Agency to further investigate contamination at the site and develop an approach to address this contamination. The Gowanus Canal is severely impacted by contaminated sediments as a result of its history hosting heavy industry. EPA is asking for public input on its proposal to list the Gowanus Canal.


“By proposing to list the Gowanus Canal, EPA can ensure that a thorough investigation into the source and extent of the contamination can take place,” said Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “The sooner we get the listing underway, the sooner EPA can begin its work, so that one day the Gowanus Canal can be used again to benefit the people of Brooklyn.”

The 100-foot wide canal extends about 1.8 miles from Butler Street to Gowanus Bay in Brooklyn, New York. The adjacent waterfront is primarily commercial and industrial, and consists of concrete plants, warehouses, and parking lots, with proposed residential use. The canal is also surrounded by residential neighborhoods. The waterway is used for commercial as well as recreational purposes, and a public fishing area just downstream of the canal in Gowanus Bay is fished daily. [Ed. Note: Really? I'll have the chicken, thanks.]
The canal was built in the 19th century to allow industrial access into Gowanus Bay. After its completion in the 1860s, the canal became a busy industrial waterway, acting as the home to heavy industries, including manufactured gas plants, coal yards, concrete-mixing facilities, tanneries, chemical plants, and oil refineries. It was also the repository of untreated industrial wastes, raw sewage and runoff.

Although most of the industrial activity along the canal has stopped, high contaminant levels remain in the sediments. The extent of the contamination traverses the length of the canal. Sampling has shown the sediments in the Gowanus Canal to be contaminated with a variety of pollutants, including pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals and volatile organic contaminants (VOCs), and significant contamination associated with coal tar.


With the proposal of this site to the NPL, a 60-day comment period will begin during which EPA solicits public input regarding this action. For instructions to submit comments go to http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/pubcom.htm or contact Dennis Munhall, Region 2 NPL Coordinator at (212) 637-4343 or munhall.dennis@epa.gov. Once the site is placed on the NPL, EPA will expand its investigations to further define the nature and extent of contamination.

To date, there have been 1,596 sites listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 332 have been deleted resulted in 1,264 sites currently on the NPL. There are now 67 proposed sites awaiting final agency action. There are a total of 1,332 final and proposed sites around the country.


To find out more about the NPL Site Listing Process, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl_hrs.htm. For a Google Earth aerial view of the Gowanus Canal: http://www.epa.gov/region2/kml/gowanus_creek_and_gowanus_canal.kmz. (Please note that you must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the map. To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html).

MTA Fare Hike, Service Cut Rollout Schedule

Second Avenue Sagas has the breakdown.

For anxious Carroll Gardens residents: Fare hike happens May 31st; the B75 sleeps with the fishes June 28 . . . . if the Senate Republicans and the Fare Hike Four (or six, or whatever it is today) don't knuckle down, face reality, and enact the Ravitch Commission Plan or similar.

I've said in other places, the Ravitch Plan could be tweaked slightly by applying the payroll tax to employees, rather than employers. Every economist will tell you, the employees will bear the cost either way . . . this does, however, eliminate the "anti-business!!1!" disingenuous rhetoric from opponents of the plan.

I understand many drivers do not want to pay tolls on the bridges. But the reality is we need the revenue from those tolls. And tolling the bridges will reduce traffic through our residential neighborhoods, giving us safer streets, by eliminating the perverse incentives for commuters to avoid tolled crossings like the Batrtery Tunnel in favor of "free" routes like the Brooklyn Bridge.

CGNA TONIGHT

The big item on tonight's agenda is a forum for elected officials and their representatives to hear from you on the MTA funding crisis and Albany's inaction.

Date: Monday April 13, 2009
Time: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Hannah Senesh Community Day School, 342 Smith St

The Ravitch Commission set forth a clear roadmap, including bridge tolls, to avert the catastrophic fare hikes and service cuts that WILL take place if we don't act. But our elected officials need to hear our voices on this.

What do you think of $3 subway fares and drastic bus service cuts? Come to CGNA tonight.

Robert Guskind Memorial Gathering: Saturday, April 4

From Phil DePaolo by way of CORD:
A memorial gathering to honor the memory of Robert Guskind will be held from 2 pm to 5 pm Saturday, April 4 at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 4th Avenue between Union and President Streets in Park Slope. Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Joan Millman have sponsored a resolution to honor the life and work of Gowanus Lounge founder Bob Guskind.

I am pleased to announce that Resolution 1131 passed in both houses on Tuesday. The video shows Squadron speaking on the resolution. Among the quotes: “He took this new form of communication and really took it to a new level. He was able to take community concerns, describe them, and distill them, and distribute them in ways that never could’ve happened without him. We’re going to miss him sorely.”



Please RSVP if you can, since that helps with planning for refreshments. (There is an opportunity to sign up to speak.)

Please try to arrive around 2 pm. There will be an opportunity to get seats and get refreshments before the program starts. Also, the program will not last until 5 pm, so there will be an opportunity for those attending to talk informally.

If you’d like to make donations in Bob’s memory, four charities have been designated.

Thanks to the many people volunteering their time and donating goods and services. Thanks to Juventino Avila at Get Fresh Table and Market in Park Slope and Rafael Soler of the Red Hook Vendors for generously donating food. Thanks to Eric Richmond of the Brooklyn Lyceum for generously donating the space.

Gary here. Bob was an inspiration to me and many others, and he did a tremendous service to Brooklyn. His legacy deserved to be officially recognized - this was a classy move by Squadron and Millman.

New F Train Cars; MTA Testing 11 Car Trains

Second Avenue Sagas posts on the new subway cars on the F line:

Last week, New York City Transit rolled out some new rolling stock along the F line. Riders from Jamaica to Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. will now enjoy the clean, sterile comfort of the new R160s and the crisp announcements that come along with it.

I've ridden a couple of these new trains, and they are a vast improvement over the old ones.

Meanwhile, the Daily News reports that the MTA has tested an 11 car train configuration on the F line.

"We obviously neither have the capital nor operating funding to implement anything like this in the foreseeable future," NYC Transit President Howard Roberts said.
"We are just looking at feasibility for planning purposes," Roberts added.

My initial sense is that upgrading the signaling would be a better solution than undergoing construction to extend platforms at multiple stations as would be necessary to run an 11-car configuration. But I'm open to the possibilities if the numbers work out.

Brooklyn Greenway: Columbia Street Cleanup Saturday

Come out this Saturday for a fun way to give back to the community by cleaning up Columbia Street:

Saturday, April 4, 10:00-11:30am
Columbia Greenway Clean-Up
Lend a hand at BGI’s monthly cleanup along the new Columbia Street section of the greenway. These cleanups are held in cooperation with the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association, in order to keep the newest section of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway free of trash and other debris.

Tools, trash bags, work gloves provided, but please make sure to dress warmly!
Meet at BGI’s office, 145 Columbia Street between Kane and Degraw
(Ring BGI’s doorbell on left-hand side of residential entrance)
RSVP to Brian: bmccormick(at)brooklyngreenway.org


BGI is doing great work opening up the waterfront and inland communities to pedestrians and cyclists . . . putting a stretch of green through Brooklyn that makes safe public park space more accessible to all of Brooklyn. Join Mia and I on Saturday as we pitch in to help. This is my favorite type of community service.

Photo of Columbia Street stretch of the Greenway from Brownstoner.

Brooklyn Gets A Calatrava!?

And in Carroll Gardens no less.

While the Claret Group has been notoriously tightlipped about it's plans for the Collection on Court between Union and Sackett, word has leaked that the developer has decided to go all in on the property. Apparently banking that star power will pull in buyers even in this recessionary market, Claret has hired starchitect Santiago Calatrava to build a scale replica of the spire project that is currently under construction in Chicago. The new design will also come with a new moniker: InSpired by Court.

Calatrava himself has reportedly likened the project to the scaled down Statue of Liberty on the Seine River in Paris.

Happy April 1st!