A toxic stew has flowed through the Gowanus Canal for nearly a century, but the dream of clean water seemed a bit closer this week, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released plans that envision a clear waterway by the end of the decade. And in a meeting in Carroll Gardens last Tuesday, the EPA seemed to have won over some neighborhood skeptics, too.
The plans are not final—the report is the latest benchmark in the long process towards cleaning the canal, declared a Federal Superfund site in 2010.
But the agency introduced seven different proposals for the cleanup to nearly 200 members of the public. Most of the plans focus on dredging and removing waste before fortifying the canal against similar contamination.
The canal, which acts as an occasionally pungent barrier between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, spent the better part of the last century as a depository for overflowing sewage pipes, manufacturing gas plants and street runoff. According to the EPA, the canal is so heavily polluted with PCB’s, heavy metals, and other contaminants that a six-inch layer of unnatural sludge, with the consistency of “mayonnaise,” lines the canal floor.
While the EPA introduced multiple proposals, officials did highlight the two most likely options being considered. Both possibilities involve dredging ten feet of the extremely polluted soft sediment from the canal floor and replacing it with layers of clay, rock and sand. One option would take the additional step of adding a cement-like mixture to prevent further pollution from contaminants that seep up from underneath the waterway.
Both plans would take eight to 10 years, and the EPA estimates that the project will cost between $351 million to $456 million dollars. The first step would be a two- to three-year design phase that is expected to be completed by 2015, with subsequent dredging ending as early as 2020.
When the canal was first designated as a Superfund site, some residents—and the Bloomberg administration—initially opposed the designation, citing the EPA’s bureaucratic nature and the stigma attached to the Superfund name, could discourage new real estate development. But community representatives say the agency’s adherence to deadlines and its willingness to engage with neighborhood residents and representatives have made them more supportive of the project.
Hans Hesselein, director of special projects at the environmental group, Gowanus Canal Conservancy, said the group has been impressed by the EPA’s performance, after some initial trepidation over their involvement. “We think the EPA is doing a tremendous amount of work,” said Hesselein.
Joshua Verleun, an attorney with the water conservation group, Riverkeeper Alliance, says that fact that the EPA has met every scheduled deadline for the past two years makes has made him cautiously optimistic about the work ahead. “I would say that my experience has been very positive,” said Verleun. “We’re moving closer to the goal of a cleaner Gowanus, sooner rather than later.”
Even some in the Gowanus community who remain wary of the EPA seem increasingly optimistic about the area’s prospects in light of the project. Bill Appel, of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, says he was opposed to the Superfund designation, believing it could depress local real estate development, but is now hopeful that the project will finally help to turn the industrial area into a residential neighborhood.
But he remains unhappy about the project’s current condition. “It looks like Dresden in World War II,” Appel said. The canal, he said, “is dividing two vibrant communities.” He remains concerned about how the EPA will safely dredge and dispose of the toxic muck, but he has also become part of the 60-person team on the EPA’s Community Advisory Group, which acts as a liaison between the agency and local residents.
Meanwhile, the Gowanus area has seen a surge in building over the past year. A new luxury apartment building opened two blocks from the canal last year and Whole Foods is requesting a permit to build a store near the waterfront in 2013.
Appel hopes that these new developments and the EPA’s clean up of the canal, will turn Gowanus into a desirable Brooklyn neighborhood. “Change is very difficult, but if you stand still, you die,” said Appel. “For a community, for a city to remain vibrant and competitive there has to be some change.”
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