The March Gowanus Canal CAG General meeting was held at the St Mary's houses on Carroll Street on its regular last Tuesday of the month at 6:30 PM
In
attendance were EPA Project Manager, Christos Tsiamis and Legal
Counsel, Brian Carr as well as representatives from the Army Corp of
Engineers, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and
US Fish and Wildlife Service. They were there to explain their role as
some of the Trustees in a program called the National Resource Damage
Assessment (NRDA) which helps neighborhoods/communities recover
monetary damages suffered from environmental
accidents/disasters/situations
We were given an update by both EPA representatives:
--4th Street Basin pilot study/design is 50% complete.
--The First Street Basin may begin by late fall early 2018.
--The
5th Street basin has had some work done. some data collected and that
data is currently being reviewed. There should be more updates regarding
this basin at the next general meeting.
There is still work to be done in the design of the upper canal
---
stabilizing the banks of the Canal to prohibit any further
contamination from leeching into the waterway-- a complicated task of
the project since there are multiple properties/owners involved. The
bulkhead construction must come before the dredging can begin and all
legal agreements must be in place for this to proceed.
EPA hopes to begin dredging at the head of the canal by late 2018.
Part
of the discussion turned to some of the financial facts of our Gowanus
Superfund Project. Lately, there has been quite a bit of buzz regarding
the Superfund status of the Canal since the new administration has taken
over.
There have been articles claiming that the funding is endangered--indeed the project could be endangered.
During
the course of last week's meeting, funding (or lack thereof) did come
up. We were told that a particular "basket" of funding would be running
out very soon. This would mean that the work would continue but at an
extremely slowed pace. The slowdown would NOT affect or extend the
consent agreement timeline that EPA has with the City of New York
regarding the April 2020 deadline for the city to acquire the properties
they wish to either purchase or seize at the head of the canal for the
required retention tank placement. But a slowdown in general should be
expected and of course, a slowdown is never welcome.
Shortly after that on March 30th, to be exact, EPA issued the following statement:
"Work
on the Gowanus Canal is expected to continue using funding that the EPA
already has and, as is the goal of the Superfund program, relying on
the work being conducted by those parties responsible for the pollution
at the site. The regional office has not requested additional funding
from EPA's national office.
The
EPA currently has several administrative orders in place which ensure
the completion of design work and a dredging and capping pilot. Under
those orders, work is expected to begin later this year on the pilot in
the 4th Street Turning Basin.
2022
remains the EPA estimated target for completion of the dredging work at
the Gowanus Canal Superfund site, with work on the Combined Sewer
Overflows completed after that."
So, with that good and most welcomed news, things seem to be progressing mostly on schedule.
The
rest of the evening were presentations made by NOAA, US Fish and
Wildlife Services and the Army Corp of Engineers regarding the
possibility of NRDA recovering additional monies from the responsible
parties in order to sort of replace or make up for some of the
environmental damages done to the community because of the polluted
condition of the Gowanus waterway.
The
representatives, explained how this can work by using oil spills in
different parts of the country as examples. So, an oil spill diminishes
or decimates the wildlife in a waterway---the fish/wildlife habitat has
been destroyed or severely damaged, the NRDA program, through the
Trustees, which are people from the attending organizations, as well as
others, works with the community and the facts of the site itself to
determine that there are significant injuries to proceed with an attempt
to compensate the public through monies recovered from the Responsible
Parties for those lost resources.
In
other words, National Grid, City of New York and other responsible
parties would ideally contribute monetarily to pay for the environmental
damages suffered by the community, This is not a sure thing, but it is
possible.
The
community would be encouraged to work with the NRDA Trustees to try to
come up with ideas as how to use those monies in ways to
restore/maintain the habitat. For example perhaps adding softer edges,
where possible, along the waterway to create a "wetland" habitat where
certain types of aquatic life would be encouraged to return and
flourish.
There
are other ideas and all ideas are encouraged. The CAG Land Use
Committee (please see the Gowanus Canal CAG website for the calendar of
meetings) will be having continuing discussions about this and it will
be further discussed at upcoming general meetings as well.
As always, all meetings are open to the public. Everyone is welcome to bring their ideas and voices to the CAG!
CG CORD
CG CORD
