Reporter Ariella Cohen reports in the Brooklyn Papers that an underground cloud of toxins is moving from the industrial
neighborhood along the Gowanus Canal toward Park Slope.
An engineer told state officials that a dangerously high levels of benzene — a gasoline byproduct that can
cause cancer if it is inhaled — have seeped into the soil below the
Third Avenue site where Whole Foods is building its first Brooklyn
store.The engineering report traces the Whole Food site’s toxins to a
canal-front parking lot and fuel station owned by Verizon at Third
Street, a block west of the epicurean grocer’s future home (pictured in today’s No Words_Daily Pix).
The ground water in the area of the canal, along with tidal forces are moving contiminants all around in this area. There is another problem on the 5th street Public Place site wher coal gasification was done for decades. There the plume goes up hill from the canal, across Smith Street.