From PMFA: NY State DEC can not be trusted to supervise National Grid's Clean-Up at Public Place

Katia Kelly at PMFA is making the excellent point that NY State DEC can not be trusted to supervise National Grid's Clean-Up at Public Place.

See:

False Claims and Questionable Oversight: Why NY State DEC can not be trusted to supervise National Grid's Clean-Up at Public Place.  https://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2021/03/false-claims-and-questionable-oversight.html

From this thoroughly researched article:

"Finally, after decades of exposing local residents to this toxicity, the site is currently being remediated by National Grid under the supervision of New York State's Department Of Environmental Conservation through the state's Brownfield program.

However, the remediation can hardly be called a clean-up. It would be more appropriate to call it a containment, since most of the coal tar will forever remain deep in the native soil.ƒ

Just recently, the Carroll Gardens/ Gowanus community learned that DEC had allowed National Grid to significantly alter and degrade the remediation, sparking concerns that future residents would be exposed to the remaining contamination.

At a December 2020, Gowanus Superfund Community Advisory Committee meeting, members addressed this issue and proposed a resolution asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review and comment on DEC's changes to the remediation of Public Place. The resolution passed overwhelmingly." PMFA

We at CG CORD are extremely concerned at these troubling new developments. To us they are woefully inadequate clean-up measures for this highly contaminated site slated for residential development.

"When it comes to the environmental clean-up of our community after more than a century and a half of exposure to carcinogens, we need to make sure that it is done to the highest remediation standards we are entitled to by law.

It seems, by its actions and false claims, New York State intends to be more protective of National Grid, the polluter, than of the interests of local residents.

The State agency has not only allowed National Grid to reduce the level of remediation on Public Place, it has also covered up the fact that it helped remove some key aspects of the clean-up such as a vapor barrier and wing walls, specifically put in place to reduce the likelihood that coal tar will migrate out of the site.

NYS DEC is trying to rewrite its own documented history and is playing politics when it asks for Christos Tsiamis of EPA to retract his statements.  It is displaying contempt for public safety when it disparaged his concerns about the remediation.

Facts and science are the only things that should matter when it comes to public health." PMFA

We could not agree more that facts and science are the ONLY things that should matter when it comes to public health.  NYS DEC is, indeed trying to re-write its own documented history and is unfortunately playing nasty politics when it comes to Christos Tsiamis.  Mr. Tsiamis should not be used as a scape-goat with which to ignore the truth of Public Place, a truth NYS DEC itself has proclaimed. This unfortunate and transparent maneuver only makes it that much more obvious that NYS DEC can not be trusted in this matter to do what's right for us as the "public".  We demand better!

CG CORD