Red Hook group slams sludge-processing plan
Red Hook residents opposed to a controversial plan to use a location in Red Hook to process toxic sludge from the Gowanus Canal have started an online petition drive.
The petition, on the “No Toxic Red Hook” site, reads, “We are strongly opposed to the processing of contaminated sludge dredged from the Gowanus Canal Superfund Cleanup Site at a facility at the proposed location. The cost savings are negligible, and the Red Hook Ball Fields and Pool are used in public trust. The community does not want to create more land from this contaminated sludge adjacent to one of the most heavily used recreation areas in New York City.”
The petition goes on to say that children, residents of the Red Hook Houses, local athletes who use the ballfields, food vendors and others would be at risk.
The idea was proposed by John Quadrozzi, a concrete manufacturer and owner of the Gowanus Bay Terminal on Columbia Street (the aforementioned Red Hook site), last year. The sludge would be “de-watered, ” mixed into concrete, then dumped into the Gowanus Bay. This would create more land and extend the terminal into deeper waters, according to published reports.