The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to add the Gowanus Canal to the Agency’s Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). That could mean that the Gowanus Canal will one day be clean and beautiful and not the stinky, toxic mess that it is.
This sounds like excellent news to me and a huge acknowledgment of just how toxic that canal really is. Finally, maybe, something will be done about it.
I wonder how this will go over with Whole Foods, the Toll Brothers and others who plan to develop projects on the canal. Being on a Superfund site may not be great for business. Especially Whole Foods, which sells itself as organic and natural. Views of a Superfund site may not be the best PR.
If the Gowanus Canal is listed on the Superfund list, the EPA would examine contamination at the site and figure out how to deal with the contamination. The Gowanus Canal contains contaminated sediments because of its historic proximity to heavy industry.
Here's what the EPA had to say in their press release:
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.
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).
hey a lot of those toxins are both organic and completely natural; it might be good for business. :)