Students visit Gowanus Canal Superfund website
On June 30, students in Columbia University’s Environmental Science and Policy MPA program took a guided tour of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site and surrounding communities.The Class of 2023 was guided through one of the most polluted website in the country.
Professor Musso’s opening remarks for the Class of 2023 provided an opening remark on the background of the Superfund project at the EPA and Gowanus sites.
The Gowanus Canal Superfund site spans 1.8 miles across Brooklyn, passing Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and the Red Hook neighborhood, and flows into New York Harbor. Built in the mid-1800s, the canal was used as a major industrial transport route.For decades, gas plants, paper mills, tanneries and chemical plants have run along and discharged into the canal, along with sewage overflows, which continue to carry Domestic waste from households, stormwater from storm drains and industrial pollutants. Contaminants present in Gowanus include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals including mercury, lead and copper.
David, a tour guide from friends and residents of Greater Gowanus, offered his outlook on the state of the Gowanus Superfund site as the students gathered just a short walk from his home.
Restoration work has been ongoing at the Gowanus Canal site since it was added to the Superfund National Priority List in March 2010. A remediation investigation report was published in February 2011, followed by a feasibility study in December 2011, and a remediation plan in December 2012. New York City and National Grid have been identified as the primary potential responsible parties for the Superfund site. A plan signed in September 2013 divided the canal into three sections, each of which would be dredged to remove highly contaminated sediment. Following dredging, the plan calls for replacing contaminated sediment with cleaning materials to restore the basin to its pristine state and cap any remaining contaminants so they don’t contaminate the cleaning materials.
The Gowanus community, including FROGG guides, played a major role in driving EPA’s remediation of the Gowanus Canal. Nearly 200 people attended a public meeting to discuss EPA’s proposed plan and preferred remedies, and 100 people attended a second meeting.
While visiting Gowanus, students from the Class of 2023 learned about the background and current state of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site. Additionally, FROGG guides – David, Marlene, Miranda and Mark – offer their own perspectives as those who have lived through Gowanus restoration for nearly a decade. Students were also lucky enough to witness restoration work in action, discovering dredging equipment and professionals actively working on the restoration site.
While the remediation continues, the FROGG guides shed light on their most recent community organizing work: They oppose a rezoning proposal that would add thousands of new apartments in Gowanus.As recently as February 2022, the Voice of Gowanus, FROGG and district residents filed a lawsuit strongly disagree Gowanus’ rezoning cites a range of health and safety risks associated with it, as well as the pervasive persistence of environmental injustices. The lawsuit slams failure to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, and claims that rezoning-related environmental impact statements violate the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, the Environmental Protection Act, and the New York State Conservation Act. Nonetheless, the rezoning of Gowanus remains an ongoing issue for the community.
FROGG guide David points to the dredging equipment located across the canal while standing at the foot of the Gowanus Canal itself.
During Gowanus’ trip, news broke that the Supreme Court recently West Virginia v. United States.EPA, which weakens the Clean Air Act and will limit the EPA’s power to regulate emissions from existing power plants. When learning about the success stories involving remediation, the devastating news spread quickly among the crowd. These students, and those who came before and after, must now rise to the challenge of ensuring we continue to fix pollution, clean the environment and advocate for greener policies.
Anika Becker is a 2022 MPA graduate of Columbia University’s Environmental Science and Policy Program.
