That Smell Is Not Just The Water, It’s The Soil, Too, Says Professor
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
GOWANUS — A recent Columbia University study casts doubt on the safety of building along the Gowanus Canal, one month before the city is expected to announce a developer for 1,000 apartments and a park there.
Thousands of industrial workers punch in along the canal everyday, and the Department of City Planning is also considering rezoning some of the less-utilized blocks for housing.
Patricia Culligan, Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University, said the cleanup method proposed for Public Place, the former site of a Manufactured Gas Plant where the city wants to build housing, has run into problems in other places. She added that even if cleanup is successful, the six-acre site is surrounded by soil riddled with volatile toxins, which give off fumes that pose health risks at any level.
Heavy industrial uses have taken place along the two-mile canal for over 100 years, leaving toxins in the soil so concentrated that in some areas it could be set aflame. Locals and elected officials have been fighting for cleanup for decades, with dreams of the canal becoming a hub of environmental innovation.
Liquid waste known as coal tar, a byproduct of manufacturing gas, is the main toxin at Public Place, found 7 to 150 feet beneath the ground. The state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to remove several contaminated tanks deep beneath the surface, and soil up to 8 feet below ground.
The soil would be shipped away and replaced with clean soil. A barrier wall is proposed to keep the tar, which travels in plumes, from further seeping into the canal, according to the department.
Construction of roughly 1,000 units of housing, ground-floor retail and open space with waterfront access would take place concurrently, said Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. At least half of those units would be below market rate, with an additional 100 units earmarked for much-needed senior housing.
“This professor is making claims about the scope of the work and what time it will take to complete properly, and we just haven’t had time to read that book and analyze those claims. So it’s really premature to comment on whether we think those claims are correct or not,” said Donlin.
Bette Stoltz, executive director of the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation, an industrial advocacy group, said, “It’s recklessly irresponsible to have issued a [Request for Proposals] for housing at this point. You need more than just the reassurance of real estate developers saying they can sell luxury apartments there.”
Stoltz helped chose two finalists out of six development teams that submitted proposals for Public Place. She agrees with re-using the property, vacant for two decades, but fears real estate pressure might result in a less-thorough cleanup, she said.
Culligan said the state commonly uses the cleanup method proposed for Public Place on brownfields elsewhere, yet there was little information available assuring the public these places are safe afterwards, such as the results of long-term monitoring. “Of concern was the fact that no one appeared to know what information, if any, was being collected,” she said.
“Periodically, you’ll probably have to replace the engineered barriers. They don’t last forever,” said Culligan. On other sites where the barriers had been exhumed, “we found they were not performing the way we expected them to perform.”
Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, said, “I have to believe, and have to have faith, in our city that there is no way that they would allow anybody to live on that site unless they were 100 percent sure that it would be safe for residents.”
The organization has long advocated for cleanup along the canal and, as a partner with both development teams selected as finalists, will likely relocate its office to Public Place.
Calls to the state Department of Environmental Protection were not returned by press time.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
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