The Gowanus Whole Foods toxic construction site has been inadvertantly open to the public since a fence fell down on October 10. I ask you this: should a health food store be built on top of a toxic site? This from the Daily News.

lA construction site on a toxic brown field slated to become home to Brooklyn’s first Whole Foods Market has been wide open since last month.

Protective fencing surrounding the 2.1-acre brown field near Third St. and Third Ave. in Gowanus has been down for several weeks, angering neighbors and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who called for an immediate repair Wednesday.

“Here’s a contaminated site with a broken fence and kids playing in the area that shows a disregard for safety,” said Gotbaum.

“While we need to take steps to invest in our neighborhoods and clean up toxic sites, we shouldn’t compromise public health and safety in the process.”

Neighbors have called 311 to complain about the fallen fence and to report kids rummaging inside the landmarked Stone Company Building on the site since Oct. 10, but no repairs have been made by the contractor at the project.

“We have a work site that’s unsecure, and naturally that’s always going to be a concern to us,” said Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, who reported the problem to Yoswein New York, Whole Foods’ public relations firm.
J
oe Mariano, a retiree who lives on President St., said he has twice witnessed groups of neighborhood kids walking in and out of the 135-year-old Stone Company building that is on the corner of the site. The door to the landmark is now unlocked, he said.

“I saw kids running in and out, and when I went there one of the kids looked at me and said, ‘Do you own the house?’ and I said, ‘No,'” said Mariano, “and they looked guilty and then scuttled off. I’m scared they’re going to get hurt or start a fire.”
After a 2-1/2-year investigation and the ongoing cleanup, a draft report by the state Department of Environmental Conservation concluded in January that the Whole Foods parcel is no longer a “significant threat to public health or the environment.”
While not all the contaminants – which include benzene, PCBs and the metal cadmium – will be completely eliminated, a cleanup plan calls for removal of two oil drums and tainted soil up to 10 feet below ground.
Whole Foods Market spokesman Fred Shank said the fence would be repaired within days.
“We were recently notified that a portion of the fence at our Brooklyn development site was down, and we immediately contacted our contractor to repair it,” said Shank. “We will make sure that it is repaired as soon as possible.”