Gowanus Canal Superfund: EPA Releases List Of 'Notice of Potential Liability' Recipients

photo credit: Brooklyn Public Library 

The Environmental Protection Agency has just released a document revealing the names of companies  that have been sent  notices of potential liability and information request letters as of January 2012.   In addition to the twenty-eight companies that have received such a notice,  New York City, the US Navy, the US Postal Service, the US General Services Administration have also gotten word that they may be Potential Responsible Parties (PRP.)
The list includes such known companies as Amerada Hess Corp., Kraft Foods Global, Inc., ExxonMobil Oil Corp.,Verizon New York Inc. and Honeywell International Inc.
As per the agency's document:

"EPA has taken various other enforcement-related steps related to the Canal. In April 2010, EPA entered into administrative consent orders with New York City and National Grid to provide work in support of EPA’s remedial investigation. In September 2010, EPA entered into a judicial bankruptcy consent decree with Chemtura Corp. under which Chemtura paid EPA $3.9 million to resolve its liability with respect to the Site. Chemtura also agreed to perform cleanups at their former Court Street facilities in Red Hook under the oversight of the NYSDEC." 

The information on PRPs includes the following paragraph:

It should be noted that a notice of potential liability is not a legal determination that a party is in fact responsible, only a warning that EPA believes this may possibly be the case as of the time of the notice. EPA may revise a party’s status as additional information is received. A notice letter is also intended to provide a party with an opportunity to participate in the Superfund process.

To read the entire document on EPA's Region 2 web site, click here.

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Historic District Council And Preservationists Continue Push Against Shrinking Coignet Building Site In Gowanus

’Historic District Council (HDC), the Citywide Advocate for New York's Historic Neighborhoods, is currently circulating a petition to be sent to the NYC Council's Landmarks Subcommittee in regards to the landmark Coignet Building on the intersection of Third Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus.
HDC is asking the Landmark's Subcommittee to not grant Whole Foods Market, the owner, a special dispensation from the New York City Landmarks Law that governs the historic building.
Whole Foods wants to annex part of the Coignet building site to make the design of their proposed food market fit on the adjacent site "without any consideration given to how that new structure will impose itself on the designated landmark building." If granted, there will only be a five-foot “buffer zone” between the Coignet building and the new WF bi-box retail store.
On January 24th, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to reduce the size of the lot.
The Council's Landmarks Sub Committee (chaired by Councilmember Brad Lander)  will vote on this matter soon, before it is taken up by the entire Council.
HDC's petition reads:
"The Coignet building must be given the proper protection it currently has under the Landmarks Law. Whole Foods should comply with this law just as any owner of a landmark is required to. Whole Foods must make a proper Landmarks Public Hearing that shows just how their proposed development will relate to the Coignet Building."
If Whole Foods is allowed to alter the landmark site in order to avoid the normal Landmarks Preservation Commission review process, this will opens the way for all who want to build upon a landmarked site and avoid any LPC oversight. Maybe St Bart's Church can request a "Whole Foods" ruling and start building that glass tower they wanted to cantilever on their landmark church site 30 years ago.
We ask that City Council not damage Landmark Law by allowing any developer to manipulate and thus avoid the law in this manner."
On January 24th, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to reduce the size of the lot.The Council's Landmarks Sub Committee will vote on this this week, before the matter will be taken upthe flu Council.
To sign HDC's petition, click here.

A brief history of the Coignet building from HDC:

"The New York and Long Island Stone Company Coignet Building was constructed as a show case for what the manufacturer’s product could do, create a strong, elegant, detailed building at a cost less than real stone. It is easy to forget that this is the earliest known concrete building in New York City, and one of the earliest in the country, due to the fact it has been primarily covered over with faux brick. Areas of the west and south façades though are uncovered and the building’s reason for being, concrete, is visible. While these two walls are certainly secondary to the main façades on Third Avenue and Third Street, they are not plain and instead some of the same detailing including arched windows, quoins and stringcourse are carried over. The west façade also includes a bay identical in design to the bays on the primary façades. It is troublesome that after years of planning by Whole Foods, the company is only now dealing with the fact that it owns a designated site and is asking the landmark to bear the brunt of the project. As shown in renderings, plans and elevations presented to the Brooklyn Community Board 6 Land Use Committee in August, the Coignet Building would be engulfed by new structures, while the other half of the block would be a parking lot. Obviously there are other arrangements on this block that would be more appropriate for the landmark. Although buildings were once unfortunately built up against the Coignet Building, probably in the mid-20th century, as their ghosts on the side walls show, they were shorter. Other factory buildings on the block were described by Brooklyn Daily Eagle in June 1872 as 32 feet tall – about 20 feet shorter than the planned Whole Foods buildings. The Coignet Building was always allowed to retain its prominence on the block. HDC urges you to keep the boundaries as they are so that any alterations to the sight are overseen by LPC and sensitively help preserve one of the few landmarks in Gowanus."

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340 Court Street Construction Project: A Community Update From Alchemy

Construction of the 7 story, 32 unit condominium building at 340 Court Street has been progressing swiftly in the last few months. The steel frame has been completed and a new phase of construction is about to begin.  In addition, excavation of the town homes on Sackett Street will commence soon.
Below is a community update on the 340 Court Street construction site from Joel Breitkopf of development firm Alchemy Properties Inc.   According to Breitkopf:
"We are placing concrete floors 7 and 8 and stairwells of condo building. There will be a pedestrian walkway change on Court and Union streets as we will be placing concrete and back filling for temporary sidewalk and hoist on Court and Union Streets. We will be commencing the hoist installation along Court Street. Finally, excavation will start for the Sackett Street Townhomes. Trucking and soil removal via the Sackett and Union Street gates."

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Picture Of The Day: Looking Downhill

One of my favorite blocks in the neighborhood:

2nd Street, looking towards Bond.

What's your favorite?

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An Unusual Back Yard Visitor In Carroll Gardens

My friend Joe was a bit startled to find a this large bird of prey in his Carroll Gardens backyard over the week-end.  The raptor was perched on an old clothesline pole, snacking on a bloody carcass.
Joe thinks it was a Peregrine Falcon.  To me it looks more like a hawk.  Any experts out there who can identify it?


**Reader and friend Phyllis was kind enough to forward the photos to bird expert Bob Candido, who replied:
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperi) - feed primarily on small birds in our area.
This photo shows a juvenile (first winter) female.
These hawks occasionally breed in NYC. They have bred in the Bronx and Staten Island in the last 10 years...they are very common winter residents in NYC - frequently seen in backyards where they like to catch birds at bird feeders...
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Best Selling Author Patrick Taylor To Come To Carroll Gardens Public Library In Exclusive Appearance

Bestselling author Patrick Taylor, best known for his “Irish Country” series, will visit  the Carroll Gardens branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, 396 Clinton Street, on Wednesday, February 29 at 7 p.m. for an exclusive appearance to discuss and sign his novels. The event is hosted by Friends Of The Carroll Gardens Library. The group writes:

 “We are so excited that Patrick Taylor will be visiting not only the library, but Brooklyn for this event,” says Friends of the Carroll Gardens Library secretary and event organizer Diane Saarinen. “We can only hope our ‘little village’ of Carroll Gardens is half as interesting as the Ballybucklebo that Taylor depicts in his colorful novels.”

Taylor , author of the bestselling An Irish Country Village, A Dublin Student Doctor and more, is also looking forward to the February 29 event: “Although I have visited New York often, I am really looking forward to my first visit to Brooklyn--even if Ebbets Field is gone and the Trolley Dodgers who hired Jackie Robinson in 1947 have long been in LA,” the author says. “And where better to go than a library in a borough that has 58 branches of its Public Library system? I hope what I have to say will be interesting and entertaining.”

Seating is limited and those who wish to attend this exciting event must register for tickets here.  A donation of $10 per person at the door is suggested. Signed books will be available for purchase. 

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Tonight, General Meeting Of EPA's Gowanus Canal CAG

The EPA's Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group is holding its general meeting tonight.  If you missed EPA's presentation on the Feasibility Study last week,  this is is your opportunity to hear  Christos Tsiamis, the project manager for the Canal, explain the different clean-up options for the polluted waterway. 

EPA Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting

Monday, January 30

at Borough Hall from 6 pm – 9 pm

 Agenda includes:

· Discussion of Feasibility Study

· WQ/Technical Committee report-out

· Technical Assistance (TAG and TASC)· Other business

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Battle For Brooklyn: Free Screening At Issue Project Room In Gowanus

If you have not yet seen "Battle for Brooklyn" by husband-and-wife-team Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, here is your chance. 

Gowanus Institute, Rooftop Films and Issue Project Room present:

Battle for Brooklyn

the Oscar shortlisted and critically acclaimed documentary film about the Atlantic Yards project

Tuesday 31 January 2012 

Doors open 7:00, Screening 7:30 

Free admission. 

Run time 93 min. Panel discussion and Q &A to follow 

Issue Project Room at The Old American Can Factory 

232 Third St corner Third Ave Gowanus, Brooklyn

  Battle for Brooklyn follows the story of reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for a professional basketball arena and the densest real estate development in U.S. history. Along the way, he falls in love, gets married and starts a family while living in a vacated building located at the heart of the project site. Over the course of seven years, Daniel spearheads the movement against the development plan as he and the community fight tenaciously in the courts, the streets, and the media to stop the abuse of eminent domain and reveal the corruption at the heart of the plan.

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A Moment In Time: Hurrying Home

Hurrying home before dark

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'Burger On Smith' Opens In Former Faan Space On Smith Street

Burger on Smith at 209 Smith Street just opened its doors a few days ago in the space once occupied by Faan, one of the first Asian-Fusion eateries on Restaurant Row. 
The menu features a selection of  burgers, wings, fries and shakes, but as Kyle Huebbe and Blessing Schuman-Strange, the culinary team behind this new farm-to-table eatery, will point out the food is "New American, but elevated."  The burgers are made from grass-fed beef, ground daily and supplied by a local butcher.
The selection includes the 'Friday Night', which is topped with fried egg, caramelized onions, oven roasted tomato, arugula, truffle vinaigrette.  There's also the "Left Coast",  topped with gruyere cheese, avocado, oven roasted tomato, arugula and garlic aioli. 
For lighter options, there are turkey, lamb, chicken and trout burgers, and for vegetarians, the menu includes a nut-vegetable-quinoa burger.
Don't see what you want?  You can create your very own, by choosing from various toppings.
Kyle Huebbe, a Ditmas Park resident obviously knows a thing or two about food and burgers. He is a former short-order cook with stints at restaurants like Picket Fence.  In 2009, he beat out four other contestants to win Brooklyn Paper's first Burger Bash contest..
Blessing Schuman-Strange, a Brooklyn native, who moved to California five years ago, just came back East to help his best friend Huebbe with Burger on Smith.  "My background is more in fine dining" he told me.  "Mine is in burgers and wings" chimed in Huebbe.
Sounds like a perfect team.  
Good luck, guys!

Burger on Smith

209 Smith Street

718 694 2277

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P.J. Hanley's Sanitation Inspection Grade Not Quite So Pending

One of my readers recently pointed out to me that P.J. Hanley's at 449 Court Street at the corner of 4th Street, has been displaying a sign in its window indicating that its Sanitation Inspection Grade from the New York City Department Of Health was 'pending'.  
The sign, according to the reader has been there for quite some time, although the Health Department has issued the bar/restaurant a C grade in August 2011, when Hanley's earned 33 violation points during an inspection.  A re-inspection on January 4, 2012 did not improve matters.  It was still issued 32 violation points for, amongst other things, adulterated, contaminated raw and cooked meat, as well as evidence of mice and filth flies.
Just a few days ago, someone else sent me a photo taken of a make-shift open fire pit, which had been assembled on the sidewalk last week-end right in front of Hanley's.  (When I walked by two days ago, it was disassembled and stored in the side courtyard.)  
Besides pointing out the obvious health and fire hazard, the reader wrote: "I can't for the life of me understand why this community puts up with their flagrant abuse of the law."

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Bococa's Café on Court Street Bids Farewell

"Bococa's lease has finished" reads the simple announcement on the door of this small café at 195 Court Street.  Its doors had been closed for the last few weeks, but the handwritten note only appeared a couple of days ago. The large "Store For Lease" sign from Cpex, on the other hand, has hung above the storefront for a while now.

As I peeked into the place, a man sitting on the bench in front of the defunct café said: "The landlord wouldn't renew the lease."

Cpex's listing for the retail space reads: Opportunity to expand commercial space up to 1,500SF or a 1,200SF backyard for outdoor seating.
The Triple Net Lease is $5,900 per month. 
Bococa, according to another sign in the window, had been operating in this space since 2005. Before that time, it was 'Mazzola Bakery and Café', which was affiliated with the bakery at 192 Union Street, at the corner of Henry Street in Carroll Gardens. Read more

A Moment In Time: Exchanging Notes

This afternoon in front of the 2nd Place Subway entrance.

Four police officers exchanging notes.

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EPA Region 2 Presents Gowanus Canal Feasibility Study To Community

Walter Mugdan, EPA Region 2's, 
Director of the Division of Environmental Planning and Protection

Christos Tsiamis, EPA Region 2 project manager for the Gowanus Canal

Patty White, geologist for CH2MHill

Natalie Loney ,EPA Region 2 Community Involvement Coordinator

Brian Carr, EPA Region 2 lawyer

The Environmental Protection Agency's Region 2 team responsible for the Gowanus Canal Superfund clean-up hosted a public information meeting last night at PS 58 to present the Feasibility Study, which was released in late December 2011.

Walter Mugdan, Director of the Division of Environmental Planning and Protection, started the meeting by pointing out that his agency is on schedule. "This job is being done 2 or 3 times faster than it was plausible to expect, but the heavy lifting is yet to come, of course." he told the audience.

Mugdan praised the tremendous effort of the site's manager, Christos Tsiamis, who "is a stern task master. "  The audience gave Tsiamis a rousing round of applause.
Mugdan also acknowledged the very engaged members of the Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the Gowanus, the largest such group in the country.

Patricia White, geologist for CH2MHill, an independent contracting firm hired by the EPA, started off the presentation by reviewing background information about the site. She also explained the Feasibility Study process, which includes:
-Develop remedial action objectives
-develop preliminary remediation goals
-define remediation target areas
-identify and screen remedial technologies
-develop and screen remedial alternatives
-evaluate remedial alternatives in detail
White also pointed out that one of the key Feasibility Study consideration is re-contamination of the canal after the cl were source control from the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSOs) and storm water discharges, discharges from the three former MGP sites, contaminated groundwater discharge, street runoff and discharges from unpermitted pipes.
Christos Tsiamis took over the presentation to speak about the various technologies that were retained and combined into seven remedial alternatives and screened according to effectiveness, implementability and cost.
The sediment dredging and capping alternatives all include dredging of the highly polluted soft sediment at the bottom of the canal, but while some alternatives call for solidifying the top of the native sediment, and capping either with a two-layer cap or a three layer cap.
So far, alternatives 5 and 7 have been retained for further detailed evaluation.
The EPA is also currently evaluating the best treatment and disposal alternatives for the dredged sediment.
The alternatives include offsite disposal, offsite or onsite stabilization with beneficial use, thermal desorption, offsite cogeneration or offsite or onsite stabilization and disposal in a constructed Confined Disposal Facility (CDF)
Of course, Tsiamis pointed out, the Gowanus Canal cannot be cleaned effectively without eliminating the CSO discharges from New York City's sewer system as well as the coal tar oozing from the three National Grid MGP sites lining the canal. The CSO discharges "cannot go on from our perspective" Tsiamis stated.
New York City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been given a schedule by DEP. Tsiamis will meet with the City to discuss this matter further in February.  ***It is important to note her that the City, one of the major Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP) has not yet signed a consent order to take responsibility of their part of the clean-up.
As for the former MGP sites, EPA is coordinating and prioritizing with National Grid, which is responsible for the clean-up and NYS Department Of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the agency in charge of overseeing the remediation of those sites. According to Walter Mugdan, DEC has been very aggressive in moving forward.

Walter Mugdan diplomatically added: "In due course, we hope that all the involved agencies will recognize what needs to be done."
The next step? A proposed remedy will be presented to the public in 6 to 8 months, and a remedy will be selected by the end of 2012.
Last night's EPA presentation can be viewed online here.


**In one final note, it was announced last night that the EPA Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) for the Gowanus Canal Superfund was awarded to Friends And Residents Of Greater Gowanus.Congratulations to Marlene Donnelly, Bette Stoltz, Linda Mariano, Margaret Maugenest and Diane Buxbaum and all the members of FROGG for their hard work on behalf of the community.

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