Monday, December 17, 2012

"Sierra Club tracks Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean-Up" CG CORD and T. Samaras featured

Hello from CORD!

CORD is pleased to announce that a photograph of the flooding Gowanus Canal taken during Hurricane Sandy by Triada Samaras, artist and CORD Co-Founder,  and a CG CORD commentary on the impacts of Sandy on the Gowanus Canal area by Samaras were featured recently in the City Sierran:  A Publication of the Sierra Club's New York City Group (Fall 2012) (page 3) next to an article on the Gowanus Canal clean-up process by Diane Buxbaum.
Samaras's "Brooklynites Worst Collective Dream Come True"  (page 3) describes the night of Sandy
in detail and poses several urgent points including:

) Carroll Garden's flooded Evacuation route (Third Street over the Gowanus Canal) that was entirely impassable the night of Sandy.
2) The chemical and toxic effects of the Superfunded Gowanus Canal waters spilling into the community's streets, sidewalks and basements.
3) The fact that the Gowanus Canal corridor is slated for future development even though it is in Zone A and in obvious harm's way from the Canal floodwater.
4)  The trend of both rising sea levels and super storms all over NY due to global warming trends.

In an article entitled "Sierra Club tracks Gowanus Canal Superfund Clean-Up" (see below) NYC Group Gowanus Canal Cleanup Committee Chair, Buxbaum summarizes the Gowanus Canal clean-up to date, emphasizing that there will be a 60 day public comment period after the EPA releases its plan in December.  The Sierra Club plans to provide info to those who might wish to submit a letter.

Buxbaum writes, one of the main concerns of the Gowanus CAG/Community Advisory Board is that the City of NY insure that the NYC DEP do a complete job of addressing the CSO's (combined sewere overflows) that cause recontamination of the Canal with toxins and materials that will cause continuing sediment deposition from the discharges.  The CIty of NY has opposed the Superfund designation from the outset, and has offered only token CSO proposals.

CORD has also expressed deep concern with the CSO's situation in the Gowanus Canal in a recent post. See http://carrollgardenspetition.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-york-state-decdept-environmental.html



About the Sierra Club:  
In 1892, John Muir and a number of his supporters founded the Sierra Club to, in Muir's words, "do something for wildness and make the mountains glad." Muir served as the Club's president until his death in 1914. Read more about the history of the Sierra Club.  Today, the Sierra Club has over 1.3 million members and supporters and is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. Find out more about the Sierra Club.  LINK


CORD HISTORY:

With the "Protect Our Homes" petition, CORD was formed in May, 2007. This petition arose as an overwhelmingly negative response to the coming of the over-sized 360 Smith Street Development at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place (Aka Oliver House; aka 131 Second Place). This petition, which had well over three thousand signatures, led to a new zoning text amendment in summer of 2008.

To: Our Elected Officials, Community Leaders, The MTA:
(MAY, 2007)

We the undersigned Carroll Gardens homeowners and residents, are appalled by the "as of right" ruling which allows owners and developers to erect buildings in our neighborhood with no regard to the impact they will present to our quality of life and the value of our homes........

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?crlgrdns