EPA Updates Gowanus Canal Cleanup At Superfund Town Hall

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A host of elected officials, Environmental Protection Agency workers and community stakeholders gave a major update on Thursday night about the progress of cleanup at the Gowanus Canal

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from Brooklyn, flew in from Washington to speak with the community, and a team from the EPA gave a presentation before taking audience questions.

The event was held at Wyckoff Gardens on Wyckoff Street in Gowanus.

If you couldn't make it out, catch up on what you missed by checking out updates from our live blog below:

6:30 p.m.

We're here and settled in, and folks are still filing through the door here. We should be under way shortly.

6:45 p.m.

And here we go. U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez gets things started noting that she just landed from Washington (where she was a "no" vote on today's big tax bill vote).

She starts by thanking a laundry list of people and groups who put tonight's event together. Project Manager Christos Tsiamis gets a big round of applause.

6:50 p.m.

Velazquez now going over the history of the site, noting that she started in 2000 asking the federal government to help clean up the canal.

After an initial study, she remembers, "We found out that the level of contamination and pollution, and the level of dredging and capping that needed to happen to remove the contaminants, and turn this canal into a jewel that we could be proud of, required more than just a bunch of engineers and heavy equipment."

6:53 p.m.

Velazquez dryly notes that she was warned not to encourage the EPA to designate the canal as a "Superfund" site because "it would bring real estate values down."

"Really?" she says to laughs.

6:58 p.m.

Velazquez calls on the EPA to create a "Superfund job training initiative" that would give job training to locals.

And she says that in President Trump's proposed budget — and the audience boos when Velazquez mentions the president's name — won't cut funding from this project.

"For 2017, the funding for the Superfund was $1.08 billion, and we are on track to approve a similar amount or slightly higher." No one should be concerned that Superfund won't have the money to continue the work going on here, she says.

7:08 p.m.

Velazquez introduces EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez and says she can only stick around until 7:45 or so. There's a truck of supplies leaving for her native Puerto Rico from Sunset Park, and she wants to be there.

Lopez recognizes the members of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group and emphasizes the commitment the EPA has to this site. "We want people to be safe. We want people to have a good quality of life."

Lopez then turns the floor over to Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon.

7:10 p.m.

Simon keeps things short. "My role tonight is not to be speaking." She says she and her office are committed to this project. "We are here. We are happy to work with you."

7:13 p.m.

EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Natalie Loney kicks off the EPA's presentation going over the history of the canal.

An interesting note: The canal was a major source of trading, and "much of brownstone Brooklyn can be traced to the Gowanus Canal." Of course, all of that industry eventually led to the pollution that's still there today...

7:22 p.m.

Now we're talking about the contamination and pollutants we see today.

"The contamination is so concentrated in some parts of the canal that it has migrated into the original sediment at the bottom of the canal." The sediment is typically anywhere from 10 to 20 feet thick and as deep as 100 feet at some places.

7:25 p.m.

And there are ways people come in contact with these contaminants. The canal can flood when it rains, people boat on the canal and, of course, the man who went swimming in it.

Loney says, "He told me the water tasted like baby diapers and gasoline. Which begs the question — you actually tasted the water in the Gowanus Canal?"

7:29 p.m.

The EPA's Superfund Director for Region 2, Walter Mugdan, is up now talking about the actual cleanup.

He says at most Superfund sites, the agency measures it in "parts per million" or even billion or trillion. But in parts of the canal, Mugdan says, "We can measure coal tar in parts per hundred."

It's so intense in those parts that the EPA has to drill into the sand and mix cement into it to create a hard barrier to help get the coal tar out.

7:33 p.m.

Mugdan is now talking about two big storage tanks that will be installed in the canal to hold sewage runoff when it rains heavily.

One tank that holds 8 million gallons will be placed at head of the canal and another one to hold 4 million gallons will be placed near the Whole Foods.

7:36 p.m.

The canal cleanup will be divided into four sections, starting from the top and running out to the harbor. You can (sort of) see those in the photo above.

7:38 p.m.

And here's the "cap" that will go down at the bottom of the canal, once the floor has been successfully dredged of the toxic material.

Mugdan also told a, um, disturbing story. When conducting a study, an EPA worker found some fishers fishing in the canal. They apparently told the worker that when they had a good day fishing, they'd sell the excess to nearby restaurants. [vomit emoji]

7:48 p.m.

Mugdan gets applause from the crowd when he says that work to remediate the ground under the pool at Thomas Greene Park won't begin until a replacement pool is built nearby.

7:53 p.m.

And now for the timeline: Mugdan, of course, can't say definitively how long this massive project will take. But he said work on that first canal zone at the top could start in 2020 and be done in a couple of years.

If all goes smoothly, he says, full cleanup would take about 10 years, but that isn't always how the world works.

7:57 p.m.

And now we're to the question and answer portion of the night. The first question is about the new Fourth Street basin and access to land if someone accidentally falls into the water.

Mugdan says the bulkhead will be flat, and the canal will not be easy to get out of.

"If someone falls into the water, it's not going to be easy to get out. This is not a waterway that people should be doing anything near that could allow them to fall into the water."

8 p.m.

And now a question about how long these improvements will last once they're completed. Mugdan says the "stabilized cap" on the floor is designed to last 100 years. The tanks should last 70 to 100 years but will have to be maintained. And Mugdan says disruption at Thomas Greene Park will be very temporary.

8:04 p.m.

A property owner along the canal asks about the definition of "Superfund" site. His property was included in that designation after the canal was. Mugdan says it's an "elastic" process as the EPA looks at what parts are contaminated.

8:14 p.m.

The next question is about new development polluting the canal and whether the EPA could mandate big developers have their own treatment facility to not overload the system. Mugdan says the federal government has little control over the local sewage system.

"I'm afraid to say that we do not have the authority to do what you just said."

8:20 p.m.

A Gowanus resident asks three questions. First, on diversity in job training, Mugdan says, "The job training that we do is local people and people who had a really difficult time getting employment. People who were incarcerated, had a problem with drugs or alcohol. Those are the people we're going to be focusing on with job training."

Then, about odors on Fourth Street now that work has begun: "If it's close by, you may smell like a petroleum odor. What you're smelling is that coal tar. Unfortunately, there will be some odors."

Finally, on sewer systems getting backed up during heavy rains, Mugdan again defers to the local government.

8:25 p.m.

Now a question about the health effects about the tanks. "The tanks will significantly improve the health and well being of people in this area," Mugdan says.

And on doing outreach to area public housing residents, Loney notes that the CAG has representation from Red Hook, Wyckoff and Gowanus Houses. She also says she wants to talk about more engagement with those residences.

8:28 p.m.

Another resident again complains about the smell and how to keep people safe who can smell something. Mugdan says that just because you smell something doesn't necessarily mean you're in danger.

"It's actually the case that you can smell this stuff at much lower levels than levels that will be dangerous to you," he says.

"There will be times when it's unpleasant." And if it aggravates someone's asthma, for example, they should get away from it.

8:35 p.m.

Some more concerns about air quality. Mugdan says there are five monitors around the Fourth Street basin work checking those levels. If it ever exceeds levels that are unsafe, the project will immediately be shut down so the workers can leave the area.

And, according to Project Manager Christos Tsiamis, the air quality levels would never be so bad that it would cause harm to the nearby residents and businesses. Any toxic air would dissipate very quickly past the immediate work area.

8:41 p.m.

Will there be a smell associated with the overflow tanks? No, Mugdan says.

8:43 p.m.

And that wraps up the evening. Thanks for following along!

Photo by Marc Torrence, Patch Staff