May 31, 2016
Re: Gowanus Canal Administrative Settlement Agreement and
Order for Remedial Design, Removal Action and Cost Recovery
Dear Director Walter Mugdan:
I appreciate your administrative team’s effort in trying to
mediate the EPA’s Superfund position with the City of New York and coming out
to Brooklyn to explain it. However, I still believe that Glenn Kelly was on
target with his comment that the agreement between EPA and the City of New York
may very well be “a problem to a solution rather than a solution to a problem.”
I am writing to ask you to consider that possibility and either reject the
agreement or amend it to prevent any delay and move the remediation forward as
stated in the ROD. Please don’t allow the City to alter or change what has been
thoroughly researched, written, approved and signed off in the ROD.
When I started my involvement in community activism, I was
just an observer. As I sat and listened to the many different layers of
viewpoints, I sensed that many community members all have experienced the City’s
evasive tactics for many decades. This
agreement reminded of the day that Cas Holloway from the City of New York
presented the City’s grand Alternate clean-up plans to the community. They
spent thousands of dollars to divert the nomination. It seems that we have
circled back to their plan. If so, I plead with you not to let that happen or
we will lose the timely momentum that have been achieved toward the clean-up already.
Around 2008, I joined a group of grassroots activists to
preserve and protect our community. I had no financial or political aspiration
to get involved, only a love for a neighborhood I called my “home”. During my
involvement, I have been so honored to have met many genuinely kind, generous
and selfless individuals. They have become my heroes and now my extended family
(Pardon Me for Asking blogger, Katia Kelly and her husband Glenn Kelly; CORD
founders, Rita Miller, Triada Samaras, Lucy deCarlos; FROGG founders, Linda
Mariano, and Marlene Donnelly, and so many others) These people matched my
beliefs in wanting to protect and preserve the historic beauty and open space
we were so lucky to have and live in.
Around 2009 a new group of people were added to my list. It
was You and the Region 2 staff (Christos Tsiamis, Natalie Loney, and
Brian Carr). I hung on every word you said. You and your team were
straightforward and sincere to our concerns. You and your team left us feeling
safe. You were known among us as the “white knight on a white horse” here to
finally stand for what you represented as a government agency to protect the
environment and the health and safety of the people. You promised transparency,
you promised to work and listen to our community and you kept those promises. I
created buttons to send out our message and to stand strong with those who were
sent to protect our environment. I wore my buttons proudly and I meant every
word that was written. With your support and guidance, we formed a CAG group
and combined over 60 community organizations and at large members to report
back to you of what we needed. You listened and understood our concerns and
accommodated where you could. When the ROD was signed, sealed and delivered to
us. We all believed this was the LAW, a powerful tool to move the cleanup
forward. We believed the assurance that if a PRP doesn’t take action that the
EPA Superfund takes over and does the work and afterward retrieves 3Xs times
the cost back. The Region 2 team amazed
us with their commitment and their determination we were finally seeing the
light on the other side of the tunnel.
This agreement with the City of New York, however throws me
off that path of hope for a clean canal. I fear that the extended time you
allowed the City the further away our goal to a clean and healthy canal will
be. You and your staff will retire and new members with little knowledge and
commitment will let the time slip further. The agreement is too open for
interpretation and I feel the City will find again another loophole.
I believe and stand by Katia Kelly, PardonMeforAsking
blogger of her thorough analysis of this action you are about to embark into
with the City. This is a land grab and the City is using your sense of fairness
against you and us and it seems that the EPA Administrative team has given up
and dismissed the plead of the whole community.
The amazing CORD ladies have captured and summed up in their
public comment sent to you on May 24, 2016 which bears repeating* (see LINK) all my disappointment, as well as my confusion on the pending
agreement between the EPA and the City of New York.
Yes,” it is all so terribly disheartening and sad.”
CORD founders (Rita Miller, Triada Samaras, Lucy deCarlos),
Katia Kelly, Marlene Donnelly, and Linda Mariano have always spoken “truth to
power” and have always been dedicated to the purest form of community activism.
They continuously fight to do the right thing voluntarily with no political or
financial aspiration. Lately they have
been villainized by nonprofit groups who receive funding from the City of New
York and accused of environmental injustice in order to weaken their creditability.
If you know them as I do, all these false accusations are deterrents. In reality,
they have inspired me to always do the right thing and never give up. They are
the true meaning of Margaret Mead’s quote: “Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it’s the only thing
that ever has.”
If the agreement with EPA and the City is a done deal will
you seriously consider CORD, FROGG and Katia Kelly’s concerns and amend the
agreement accordingly. Will you do the right thing too and stand with us again
to move the full cleanup of the Gowanus Canal forward without further delay?
Yours respectfully,
Maryann Young
Owner/Resident Carroll Gardens, and CORD Alternate, CAG