D.E.P. Presents Modifications To Its Gowanus Canal CSO Facility, But For More Than Half A Billion Dollars, Don't Expect The Taj Mahal

Last night's meeting at the YMCA on Third Avenue

Alicia West, DEP Director of Public Design Outreach

Last night, New York City's Department of Environmental Protection came in front of Community Board 6 Parks and Recreation / Environmental Protection Committee to give a presentation on the proposed design for the Gowanus Canal Combined Sewer Overflow Facility at the head of the Gowanus Canal.
The changes to the design of both the 'head house' and the 1.6 acre open space were based on public comments gathered at public meetings in May 2018 and at a North Gowanus Community Visioning session in July.

Before we delve into some of the proposed changes to the design, let us provide some background on this issue:

You may remember that DEP is required by the US Environmental Protection Agency to build an 8-million gallon sewage retention tank at the head-end of the Gowanus Canal to reduce the volume of untreated wastewater entering the waterway as part of the Superfund clean-up.

DEP has taken the requirement for a simple tank to a whole new level by insisting that the C.S.O. tank be built on two privately owned parcels that the City is currently acquiring through eminent domain, rather than to follow EPA's suggestion to site the tank on publicly-owned parkland across the street. Along with the tank, DEP is insisting that it also needs a massive head house to hold debris capture screens, a de-gritter, odor control equipment, as well as an electric room, boiler and other mechanical spaces.   

DEP has estimated the cost for land acquisition of the two lots at $90 million alone, with an additional $500 million for the construction of the facility.

DEP admitted last night that the final cost is expected to exceed $500 million dollars.

For more than half a billion dollars, the community could expect something resembling the Taj Mahal, no?  However,  the Selldorf Architects-designed building looks just like a big box, even if it will be clad in terra cotta Venetian style louvers.  As for the green space above the tank,   DLandStudios designed a pleasing passive-use space, yet it only really provides plantings, some open areas, and benches.

So what changes were made to the project?  The building's footprint has apparently been slightly reduced, it has been pulled back from the lot line at Nevins Street, and its color palette has been softened.

To some residents, the modified design was a great improvement. To others, many of the suggestions or 'asks' from the community were ignored.  The facility, for example, does not include an indoor educational center. There are no provisions for restrooms. There are no active play areas for children, water access for boaters, or covered areas for a makers market.

Most disturbing, many in the Gowanus Community had passionately voiced their desire to preserve the 100-year old former Gowanus Station building at 234 Butler Street and had asked DEP for over a year to incorporate this historic structure into their plan.

Instead, the new facility design calls for the demolition of the building. Only its parapet and a few other elements will be saved and incorporated into a brick wall on Butler Street, around the corner from its current location. 

D.E.P. will be presenting the design to the Public Design Commission in mid-November.

It may be a tad premature.  To date, DEP  has only submitted 30% of the CSO facility's design to EPA. The Federal Agency will have to give final approval of the mechanics and underground tank.

So, while DEP shows us pretty drawings and samples of glazed terra cotta tiles, perhaps it is more important for the agency to prove to us and to the EPA, that their costly facility will actually keep raw sewage out of the canal.

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Developer Alloy Suggests Idea That May Solve Delay Issue And Park Loss Associated With Siting Of Combined Sewer Overflow Tank In Gowanus

At last night's Gowanus Canal Superfund Community Advisory Committee meeting


Jared Della Valle, President of Alloy

Councilmember Steve Levin

Kevin Jeffreys, Brooklyn Parks Commissioner

Eric Landau, DEP Associate Commissioner

Looking at 234 Butler Street and 242 Nevins Street from the Gowanus Canal Side

The Double D Pool at Thomas Greene Park

1928 photo of the former MGP site at Douglass Street, where Thomas Greene Park is now

The park, surrounded by industry, as seen from 4th Avenue 

looking towards the Gowanus Canal in the 1930s.

Alloy Presentation

The discussion of where New York City should be siting the larger of two Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) retention tanks that the US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered New York City Department Of Environmental Protection  (DEP) to construct in Gowanus to capture raw sewage currently being discharged into the canal  has just become a whole lot more interesting.

You may remember that EPA's Region 2, responsible for overseeing the Gowanus Superfund clean-up,  has suggested placing a 8-million gallon tank underneath the Double D pool at Thomas Greene Park. The Federal agency reasoned that  the site is already owned by the City, which would save the cost of acquiring land. In addition, the park sits on top of the former Brooklyn Union Gas Fulton  Municipal Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) which was in operation at this location from 1879 to the early 1930s. Since coal tar is currently oozing under the pool area and flows towards the Gowanus Canal, National Grid, the party responsible for the environmental clean-up, has been asked by EPA to dig up the pool so that the source contamination can be removed. By working in tandem with National Grid, DEP would save money and time. 

The NYC DEP, on the other hand, would prefer to site the 8-million gallon tank on privately owned land along the canal, adjacent to the park.  The sites in question are 234 Butler  Street and  242 Nevins Street.  In addition, the City wants to acquire 270 Nevins Street, which is currently occupied by Eastern Effects Studios, as a staging area.  The City is willing to make use of Eminent Domain to acquire the three  properties if the private owners are unwilling to sell. The necessary legal proceedings involved in making this happen will take time and millions of dollars.

The City wants to place the tank and a 50 feet high head house for the mechanical elements needed for the tank at 234 Butler and  242 Nevins partly because of the proximity to the rest of its Gowanus infrastructure at the head of the canal, and partly to "protect Thomas Greene Park" since the nearby community is underserved when it comes to open space and recreational facilities.

The problem with the City's eminent domain plan is that it will delay the environmental clean up of the Gowanus Canal by about 3 to 5 years, which EPA is very concerned about.

Intriguingly enough,  Alloy, a real estate development firm based in Dumbo, has proposed an alternative solution that may reduce or eliminate the clean-up  delay as well as offset the loss of parkland.

At last night's EPA Gowanus Canal Superfund Community Advisory Group meeting,  Alloy told the community that it had recently signed a binding agreement on a 99 year lease for 234 Butler Street and has been in talks with the owners of 242 Nevins Street,

Alloy is proposing to build an as-of-right commercial development with a 2.0 Floor Area Ratio (FAR)   that will provide much needed creative office space in Gowanus.  Distributing the allowable square footage into two four-story buildings instead of one large two-story structure  would allow Alloy and  the owners of the sites to donate a sizable piece of land to the City. 

According to Jared Della Valle, Alloy's president,  the donation would create additional permanent park land that would exceed the land lost to the head house in the park, if it were placed there.
It would also preserve the properties' tax base and create jobs in the area.

"We believe that our proposal could save the unnecessary time of pursuing eminent domain"Della Valle explained to the Community Advisory Group. "It would also save the City up to a hundred million dollars."

What do Alloy and the owners get out of it?  "No eminent domain. It's that simple," Della Valle said. 

To those who may think that the offer of a land donation to the city is too good to be true, he points out that his firm is confident that there is enough margin to make their project viable even with giving away land.  He believes that Alloy can add some new perspective and help create a meaningful dialog between the parties. "We are offering a resource in this game," Della Valle concluded.

One could imagine that NYC DEP would jump at this chance, but no.  Eric Landau, DEP's Associate Commissioner and Kevin Jeffreys, Brooklyn Parks Commissioner, also attended last night's CAG meeting.  During their presentation to the community, they seemed eager to point out that the'City's recommendation remains unchanged and that it is still pursuing eminent domain.

"It is a very intriguing idea", Jeffreys said about Alloy's proposal, " but it does not eliminate all of the City's concerns. We want to make sure that we do not reduce the current footprint of Thomas Greene Park."  

According to Jeffreys, a head house, if it were built in Thomas Greene Park,  would take up about 29,000 to 30,000 square feet of the total 110,000 s.f. park area. "If you place it in Thomas Green Park, you interrupt the current park program" he stated.  He stated that the land donation proposed by Alloy would only give the City a "marginal increase in park land." (57,000 sf.)

The City's plan would add approximately 75,000 sq ft of open space.

Eric Landau mentioned that construction of tank and head house in the park would take about 8 to 10 years, during which the park would have to remain closed versus 4 years if constructed on the privately owned land.
(One may want to point out here that the EPA estimates that the entire Superfund clean-up will take 12 years. Why it would take the City 8 years to build a pretty straight forward tank is anyone's guess.)

The community reacted with skepticism towards the City, which has been named the # 2 responsible polluter of the Gowanus Canal by EPA.  The City, unfortunately, has been less than transparent in regards to Gowanus.  Landau addressed the deep distrust from the community. "I get that we have a historic credibility problem in the community."  He was quick to blame the previous administration.

Most members of the CAG seemed to be opposed  to any solution that would entail the taking of private land by eminent domain.  There was a genuine interest in the possibilities and solution put forth by Alloy.  One member of the CAG told the City representatives to "get back to the table with Alloy to make it work."  Another member felt that the city had a 'predetermined design' for the tank and for the head house and was failing to embrace more creative solutions that could take care of all concerns.

The sentiment against the City was best expressed by a Gowanus  NYCHA resident, who said: "Right now, the City does not have the money to support public housing.  These people [meaning Alloy] are coming in to give you land versus going to court to do eminent domain. I don't understand going to court because it is going to take money and time to do this." She felt that the money could be better spent on public housing.

Indeed, it is hard to believe that the City is willing to spend $100 + million dollars on the purchase of land and legal wrangling, when there seems to be a perfectly sensible alternative that would increase the overall existing parkland AND keep the Superfund clean-up on schedule.

Sticking to EPA's clean-up timetable is what most CAG members want most. After both the Alloy and DEP presentations, CAG members voted on a resolution urging the EPA, which will have final say regarding the location and design of the required sewage detention tanks, "to make their institutional decisions based on the best recommendations of their project design team and engineers."

You can access Alloy's complete presentation to the CAG here.

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