As we were watching footage of Hurricane Irene's effects on New York City, Joy and I saw footage on NY1 that looked like the Gowanus canal flooded pretty high, flowing around vehicles. Those who aren't familiar with the unique smell of the Gowanus canal may not realize how gross that thought is. The Gowanus Canal is one of America's most polluted waterways, including both the water itself and the soil around it, saturated by years of pollution.

Local developers, Mayor Bloomberg, and many local politicians had wanted to develop the Gowanus Canal with hotels and luxury housing. Now this COULD be a good idea if it wasn't for the all that pollution. Thanks to considerable efforts on the part of community activists, the Gowanus Canal has been declared a Superfund site, so it is finally getting cleaned up. Here is what the EPA has to say:

As a result of years of discharges, storm water runoff, sewer outflows and industrial pollutants, the Gowanus Canal has become one of the nation's most extensively contaminated water bodies. Contaminants include PCBs, coal tar wastes, heavy metals and volatile organics. The contamination poses a threat to the nearby residents who use the canal for fishing and recreation.

In fact, since the EPA declared it a Superfund site, it has found that the site is even more contaminated than everyone thought!

Sounds like a perfect place for hotels and a Whole Foods (which is still being built!).

Here is YouTube footage of the flooding near the Gowanus canal near Smith and 9th St:

Joy and I went walking with Jacob to check out the canal after the waters had receded. To give an idea what is right across the street from the future site of Whole Foods, here is a picture Joy took of the water on the shore across by the 3rd St. Bridge:

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Well, perhaps soon my wife's pictures of the slime in the Gowanus canal (we beat the NY Times to it by more than a year) may become a thing of the past. Today the United States Environmental Protection Agency finally designated the Gowanus Canal as a Superfund site, designated for cleanup. I think we can all greet this with relief, with the exception of developers who wanted to develop the site with stink and slime intact for reasons which I cannot understand unless their greed has just decayed their common sense. I can only imagine real estate agents trying to move luxury apartments as that Gowanus stink wafted on the breeze.

But now a real cleanup is in the works thanks to Obama's EPA. Here is the Press release from State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, an early supporter (along with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab) of Superfund designation as the best way to clean up the canal:

Senator Velmanette Montgomery on EPA Superfunding the Gowanus Canal:
THANK YOU!  read more »

As Joy, Jacob and I strolled along Union Street, we noticed that even in the middle of winter (Feb. 20, 2010) the Gowanus Canal stank. And when we neared it, this is what we saw.

Photos by Joy Romanski

View from Union St. Bridge over the Gowanus:

Closeup 1:

Closeup 2:

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Josh Skaller, candidate for the 39th City Council district, was one of the leaders in supporting Obama's EPA and Superfund status to finally clean up the Gowanus Canal. Josh's campaign has issued this statement regarding Governor Paterson's recent comments on the Gowanus Canal:

Statement from City Council Candidate Josh Skaller (D-39th District) Regarding Governor Paterson's Remarks on the Proposed EPA Superfund Designation of the Gowanus Canal

"The Gowanus Canal has been polluted for as long as anyone can remember. At long last, it looked like we might be headed toward a solution through an EPA Superfund designation - but now our governor, like so many other would-be leaders, has buckled under pressure from a developer-loving mayor. I'm disappointed to see such indecisiveness when it appears we may be finally on the cusp of achieving what everyone wants: a clean Gowanus Canal.  read more »

Today my wife wore her new "Superfund the Gowanus" T-shirt today (why did they use a whale on the shirt?...a whale in the Gowanus would be in serious trouble even if it wasn't a toxic waste site). This reminded me that I needed to update my coverage of the drive to clean up the Gowanus Canal through the EPA's designation of it as a Superfund site.

[UPDATE: I should add that State Senator Daniel Squadron has also added his name, alongside Senator Velmanette Montgomery, in urging Superfund Status for the Gowanus.]

What strikes me in this battle is that some pretty serious experts are declaring in favor of Superfund status. I previously mentioned that the EPA, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, The Army Corps of Engineers, Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab, Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club all support Superfund designation for the Gowanus. I have been criticizing the Republicans for nearly a decade now for ignoring the expert advice of scientists. Now I find the same situation in Brooklyn: people want to ignore the expert advice of what seems like a pretty amazing coalition of organizations. If it was just FROGG and Sierra Club, well, I might be less certain. But when you add Riverkeeper (an excellent organization), the Army Corps of Engineers, Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab and the EPA, I become pretty certain that Superfund is the way to go.

I will review my previous information below. But first I want to highlight another expert opinion: that of Tom Angotti, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Community Planning & Development at Hunter College. Another voice I would hesitate to ignore! Here is part of his statement from an excellent piece for Pardon Me For Asking on May 22, 2009:  read more »