Last Night At PS 58
Just days after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had placed the Gowanus Canal on its list of Superfund sites, Walter Mugdan, Christos Tsiamis, Brian Carr and Natalie Loney of the agency's Region 2 office, came before the Carroll Gardens/ Gowanus Area residents to speak about what it all means, to explain the clean-up schedule, and to answer questions.
Last night's meeting at PS58 started with a rousing round of applause from the audience. Clearly, the community was pleased by the recent announcement.
Walter Mugdan, EPA District 2 Director, expressed the hope that all parties will now move forward with common purpose.
" Our goal its to get the work done quickly and efficiently, while doing it carefully and thoughtfully."
Christos Tsiamis, the project manager for the Gowanus Canal clean-up, gave a brief outline of the work that lays ahead.
The EPA is currently continuing analytic field work that started in January. The Remedial Investigation includes surface sediment sampling, surface water and air sampling, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
All data will be used to do a feasibility study. By the end of 2011, the EPA will be proposing a clean-up plan. By 2012, another public process will commence, which will allow the community to comment formally on the proposal.
By the end of 2012, the EPA will make a final choice on the remedial plan. From then, it will take about 2 to 3 years to design a selected option. Dredging the bottom of the canal will most likely be required.
The actual work will take about 5 years.
The cost of the clean-up is estimated to cost from 300 to 500 million.
The cost for the clean-up will be recouped mostly from Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) Early in the clean-up process, the EPA looks for evidence to determine liability by matching wastes found at the site with parties that may have contributed to the pollution.
Nine such PRP's have already been identified by the agency, the City of New York being one of them.
In addition, another 20 companies have been sent informational request forms to determine if they are PRP's as well.
Orphan sites, or sites that have been abandoned by their owners will be cleaned up by the EPA and the cost absorbed by the agency.
The EPA will work closely with both the New York City Department Of Environmental Protection, as well as the the New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation.
This will, in my opinion, be a very exciting decade for this area. Decades of neglect are finally going to be addressed by experts, who clearly only have the best interest and health of the community in mind.
I also hope that, as a community, we will stay involved and will look towards the future. As residents of a soon to be clean Gowanus Canal area, we need to take the lead in shaping this future and not let developers decide for us.
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4 comments:
To make the cleaning more efficient, we will have to urge the city to modify the CSO and put pressure on adjacent industry to make them stop littering in the canal.
It's a dawning of a new day for Gowanus. But I do think that there are more battles around the bend. The first I see is reclaiming Public PLace site for the public. It is still oficially on the books for that, you know. There has been no ULURP to change that. I was a little put off hearing that "Gowanus Green" was going for a CAG grant. They're a real estate group for goodness sake (that wants to build their mega-complex on Public Place site, with mostly OUR money!). We've had ENOUGH of those pressures! We need some new visions that REALLY ARE for the community. Frank Verderame Park. No high rises mucking up the Gowanus vistas. Not now, not ever!
Once the Gowanus is cleaned-up we should expect that any and all types of buildings will start to pop-up.
It's not unusual for the "Water Side" of a neighborhood to get tall builings. It worked in Bensonhurst and can work here, as well. Lets be honest, if you're standing on the sidewalk you see buildings, tree trunks & lamp-posts. If you look out your front or back window you're more than likely looking at a mirrored image of your own building. Generally, unless you're standing on your roof, you won't see a Vista. And so the story of Brooklyn has always been.
However, it's when we insert LARGE, oversiiiiiiizzzzed MoNsTeRs in the middle of the neighborhood that we have problems: less natural lighting, no front gardens, no set-backs, no humanity.
The new Subway Plaza Building Height should NEVER have been allowed. However, look at the "Rite Aid Building" on Smith Street. See what it looks like. It's commercial, it has residential apartments, it's set-back and it's not overly tall. As a matter of fact, had it been a story higher it would still be a nice looking building that easily blends.
Then look straight up President (with the park behind you) and you see a botched attempt at OVER-growing an existing building.
Brooklyn (and even Carroll Gardens - back to when it was still Red Hook) has always had mixed styles of buildings. Walk along Union Street and see 2 story 'wood frames' next to 4 story 'sand-stones' next to 8 story apartment buildings.
There's no such thing as "Doesn't fit in" - it's OVER-building and ripping down the old (just for the sake of it) that's wrong.
It's when you build several apartment complexes without 1st adding transportation (ie: express buses, new local buses, using express train tracks)that causes neighborhoods to go belly-up. Such was the case in Rockaway from 1968 to 1995.
But we know better now. For every 5 stories of a building there should be a 1/2 acres of Green. For every 2 'side by side' giants there should be 1 park with a ball field and benches.
Remember that EPA said they will clean up according to intended use, and residential will require the greatest amount of clean-up.
Tall buildings create shadows. Sunlight is the greatest cleaner-upper of bacteria.
No, I don't expect tall buildings to start popping up after the canal is cleaned up.
There are vistas to be had in Gowanus that have not changed for 150 years or more. It is unique in the entire NYC area for that. It is also historic. What we need are some plaques to inform people what/where/when - you go back to the founding of America by the Europeans. And it still feels that way in Gowanus. There is something very precious to protect here. Tall buildings on its banks would forever destroy that. I don't know what you mean when you say you don't see vistas here Raised in Carroll Garden. I see them every day. I am looking at one now as I write this.
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