Gowanus Canal CSO Facility ULURP Public Hearing, November 27, 6 p.m.

Uniform Land Use Review Procedure Public Hearing – Gowanus Canal CSO Facility

Pursuant to Section 201 of the New York City Charter, the Brooklyn Borough Board will hold a public hearing on the matter of the proposed Gowanus Canal CSO Facility in the Community Room of Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, commencing at 6:00 PM on November 27, 2017. The Gowanus Canal CSO Facility is the second of two items on the agenda.

Calendar Item 2 –– Gowanus Canal CSO Facility (180065 PCK)

An application submitted by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), pursuant to Section 197-c of the New York City Charter, for the selection and acquisition of three privately owned parcels on a site at the head of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Community District 6 (CD 6). Such actions would facilitate the construction of a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) control facility at 242 Nevins Street and 234 Butler Street through site acquisition, with a staging area at 270 Nevins Street that would be leased by the City.

Note: To request a sign language interpreter, or to request Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) services, and/or foreign language interpretation in accordance with Local Law 30, please contact Land Use Coordinator Inna Guzenfeld at (718) 802-3754 or iguzenfeld@brooklynbp.nyc.gov prior to the hearing.

Gowanus Superfund Town Hall, Thursday, November 16, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m

The Gowanus Canal was designated a federal Superfund site in 2010, which initiated a complex, multi-year clean-up. Dredging has started this fall in the 4th Street turning basin and will continue in 2018.

Come to this public meeting for information about the canal clean-up, timeline and what to expect. Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez will give a keynote, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will present an overview and timeline. An audience Q&A session will follow the presentation.

Please RSVP via Eventbrite.

At the Wyckoff Gardens Community Center, 272 Wyckoff Street, in Brooklyn.

Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group Resolution on Preliminary Sites for NRDA Restoration Process

At its September 26, 2017 general meeting, the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group passed the following resolution, originally proposed by the CAG’s Land Use Committee.

Resolution on Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Process for the Gowanus Canal and its Surrounding Environs

Whereas the EPA Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group [CAG] seeks the best possible environmental restoration for the canal and its environs, and an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) of the Gowanus Superfund site was conducted by the EPA;

Resolved, the CAG urges the Natural Resource trustees conducting a Damage Assessment to consider the preliminary sites listed below for actions promoting environmental restoration proposals that have a direct beneficial impact on the canal and its environs.

Preliminary Sites:

• Salt Lot
• Lowes Bulkhead/ Home Depot Waterfront
• Edge of Pathmark Site Along Canal
• Gowanus Bay Terminal
• Street Ends & Turning Basins
• Public Place Waterfront
• Carroll Park & Thomas Greene Playground
• Under the Tracks Playground
• RTA-1 site
• Sunset Park Piers
• Gowanus Canal Bed
• NYCHA and other publicly-owned properties within the watershed
• Bush Terminal Park

Minutes of the September 26, 2017 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group

Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Mary Star of the Sea Senior Apartments, 41 1st Street

Announcements:

Doug Sarno opened the meeting at 6:35 p.m.

The August meeting summary was approved with no revisions.

The Gowanus Town Hall with Nydia Velázquez was tentatively re-scheduled for 11/16.

Project Updates (Christos Tsiamis, EPA Remedial Project Manager)

The second phase of the pilot study in the 4th Street Basin will begin in early October, not in August as previously scheduled. The potentially responsible parties (PRP) will conduct the activities associated with this project. The first phase of the work was conducted last year to remove debris; this phase is designed to study the planned dredging and capping system according to the clean up plan.

There will be equipment and barges in the 4th Street Basin. Preparatory dredging to create enough space to allow access for more equipment further into the 4th Street Basin is planned to begin October 5. The first activities will be to stabilize the shores. Bulkhead work should occur between 10/23 and 10/31 and continue into November. By the first week of December, dredging should be ready to begin. The dredging will occur over at least two months, capping should take place by the end of April or beginning of May 2018. During this work, there will be some barges moored in the canal and the canal will be narrowed, so you won’t be able to access the 4th Street Basin next to Public Place.

EPA will conduct a meeting with the PRPs in November to discuss the 65% design for the cleanup activities related to the dredging and the capping of the upper portion of the Canal. By this design phase, the scientific and engineering questions (e.g. what kind of cap, how will the sediment be treated, where will the sediment go) have to be answered.

By November, the designs of the upper canal bulkheads that have not been completed or planned by private groups will also be released. The PRP group will submit a draft final bulkhead design by mid October.

The aim is to use results from the 4th Street Basin pilot as lessons and apply them to the entire area. EPA will incorporate lessons from the pilot into the 95% design scheduled for February 2019. EPA will try to share the lessons learned from the pilot while the studies are being conducted and compiled. There are lengthy internal reviews.

New York City government’s role in the cleanup may look something like that at the 1st Street Basin, where the city took measurements, did work, and incorporated measures for EPA to review.

Quite a bit of contaminated soil removal is about to be completed at the Powerhouse site. A cap was installed there and reviewed by Brian and Christos from the EPA. This cap is more stringent than NYS Brownfields policy requires for site development, as EPA requires additional work to prove whether any contamination will continue there.

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Dredging and Capping Pilot Study underway in Gowanus Canal’s 4th Street Basin

Earlier this month, contractors working for the Environmental Protection Agency began work on a dredging and capping pilot study in the Gowanus Canal’s 4th Street Turning Basin.

The process involves installation of steel sheeting in front of existing bulkheads, followed by dredging of contaminated sediment from the canal, before the installation of a multi-layered protective cap at the bottom of the canal.

The EPA expects to complete this pilot effort in the Spring of 2018. The results of the study will be used to evaluate and finalize the elements for the dredging and capping of the entire canal.

Download a complete fact sheet here: 4th Street Dredging Factsheet FINAL

 

Minutes of the August 1, 2017 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group

Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Mary Star of the Sea Senior Apartments, 41 1st Street

 

Announcements:

Doug Sarno opened the meeting at 6:35 p.m.

The July meeting summary was approved with no revisions.

 

Project Updates

Natalie Loney, EPA, presented the updates:

  • At the June CAG meeting, there was a question about the PRP group contact list. The list has not been updated yet. Once EPA receives it, it will be emailed out to the CAG.
  • Bulkhead collapse: Langon Engineering will be addressing this latest collapse and this is the same company working with Lowe’s. There is a pre-stabilization report underway, similar to what is happening at the previous collapse. A full site condition report will then be prepared. EPA has no more details as to how it happened right now.
  • The PRP group is set to mobilize into the 4th St Basin on August 22 or August 24.

Questions and Answers:

CAG Member: Will work on the 4th Street Basin occur during the weekend? The Dredgers are planning a “Gowanus Challenge” canoe and kayak event on the canal between the Carroll and Fourth Street bridges.
EPA: We do not know the work schedule yet; we will talk with the Dredgers.

CAG Member: Regarding eminent domain and the property that Alloy was going to develop – if it is going to be taken by eminent domain anyway, why do a brownfield clean up?
EPA: We don’t know the answer to that. The City is in the process of acquiring this property.

CAG Member: The Newtown Creek CAG unveiled new great multi-lingual “don’t eat” street signs (paid for by the PRPs); now that there is a template, can we create similar signs along the Canal?
EPA: There are signs at some of the outfalls.

CAG Member: Were the signs at Newtown a result of a community request?
EPA: Yes. The EPA team did a walk-through and determined how many were necessary. An EPA contractor installed and put them up – they are nicer than the CSO signs because they include EPA on them and appear more official. Signs have not been formally requested at Gowanus. A committee would need to write a resolution

CAG Member: Is there any way for EPA to start laying groundwork for that because it would be past September 26 before it could happen (A Water Quality Committee resolution to create and implement these signs is scheduled).

CAG Member: What is the Length of time for 4th Street Basin work?
EPA: At least several months because they first have to shore up the bulkheads. The work will be conducted similarly to the debris removal, and there will be a fact sheet for the community while the work is happening.

CAG Member: At the Power House site, the vegetation has been cleared away except for the largest cottonwood – do we know that that tree will remain? Can it stay?
EPA: We need to look into it, because I do not know the rationale for why it wasn’t cleared.

CAG Member: Will you be removing the boom or weir?
EPA: We will look into that and get you an answer.

Read more »

Minutes of the June 27, 2017 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group

Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Mary Star of the Sea Senior Apartments, 41 1st Street

Announcements:

Doug Sarno opened the meeting at 6:40.

The May meeting summary was approved with no revisions.

 

Project Updates

Christos Tsiamis, EPA Project Manager, presented the updates.

Two things have happened since last meeting:

  • EPA received a proposal for the Fulton Wall. If you recall, EPA is overseeing National Grid for the construction of the Fulton Wall – we had our first meeting after we issued the order. National Grid has submitted a proposal, which we are currently reviewing and we’ll go on from there, so that process has begun.
  • We finalized the order with the Power House for work we’re going to do there. EPA is overseeing the cleanup work we’ve deemed necessary with regard to the Power House being a potential source of contaminants to the Canal, and also building the bulkhead in front of that property to specifications so it will be able to withstand dredging. We’ve been coordinating closely with the state on the Power House project.

Over Memorial Day there was partial collapse of the bulkhead on the Lowe’s property. We understand the CAG has drafted some language regarding that collapse. Let me explain to you what happened – we were not there, but we were alerted by the community. Natalie and I went there the day after the collapse and inspected the area.

  • Based on the inspection, I issued (through EPA Staff Attorney Brian Carr), a list of required actions that we asked Lowe’s to undertake, which includes the following:
    • Put a turbidity curtain around the collapsed portion of the bulkhead so no further suspended matter goes into the Canal
    • Remove all the large debris (big chunks of concrete and pieces of wood) from the Canal
    • Stabilize the area and reconstruct the entire bulkhead at the Lowe’s property (recommended)
    • Before the above, a plan for how they’re going to go about these actions
  • EPA detected soil erosion behind the existing bulkhead. This is the right time to replace it, since EPA will eventually require them to put in a bulkhead that can withstand the dredging action (the request to reconstruct the bulkhead now is an accommodation). Lowe’s hired Langan Engineering and initial steps have already been taken (the debris is being cleaned up).
  • With regard to the proposed language of the CAG resolution:
    • From our inspection, I don’t know exactly how that bulkhead was constructed but it’s not really an engineered bulkhead; it’s a few layers of cribbing at best, not a bulkhead with deep foundations. At this stage we will require them to install an engineered bulkhead for dredging purposes.
    • All bulkheads we’ve been installing (several so far) are engineered to do exactly what the CAG resolution says.

Read more »

Con Edison Third Avenue Yard to be remediated under State Brownfield Cleanup Program; NYSDEC accepting comments through September 8th

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced recently that the Con Edison Third Avenue Yard will be remediated under the State’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. NYSDEC will accept public comments on the draft Remedial Investigation Work Plan through September 8, 2017.

The Third Avenue Yard is a nearly seven-acre site bounded to the north by 1st Street, to the south by 3rd Street, to the west by 3rd Avenue, and to the east by 4th Avenue. Con Edison currently uses the property as a utility service center, which includes storage, fleet fuel dispensing, a repair garage, parking of fleet and staff vehicles, administrative offices, and a truck flushing area.

The site was a tidal wetland until 1860, when it was covered with fill, and then housed Washington Park, the home ballpark of the predecessors to the Brooklyn Dodgers, until approximately 1918, when it was converted into warehouse space.

The remedial investigation will define the nature and extent of contamination in soil, surface water, groundwater and any other parts of the environment that may be affected. Elements of the investigation will include:

• Installation and sampling of soil borings to determine the extent of PCBs, manufactured gas, petroleum and urban fill contamination.

• Installation and sampling of additional groundwater wells to determine current groundwater conditions.

The investigation will inform the creation of a cleanup plan, which will also be subject to a 45-day public comment period.

The proposed Remedial Investigation Work Plan is available for review at the following locations:

Brooklyn Public Library – Pacific Branch
25 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Phone: (718) 638-1531

Brooklyn Community Board 6
250 Baltic Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: 718-643-3027

Project-related questions and can be directed, and comments on the Draft Remedial Investigation Work Plan submitted, to:
Michael Haggerty
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Division of Environmental Remediation
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-7017
Phone: 518-402-9688
Email: michael.haggerty@dec.ny.gov

Site-related health questions can be directed to:
Gregory Rys
New York State Department of Health
Empire State Plaza Corning Tower Room 1787
Albany, NY 12237
Phone: 518-402-7860
Email: BEEI@health.ny.gov

Click here for a copy of the project Fact Sheet.

More information about the site and contaminants found in its soil and groundwater are available here.

Minutes of the May 23, 2017 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group

Gowanus Canal CAG Meeting
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Mary Star of the Sea Senior Apartments, 41 1st Street

Announcements

Doug Sarno opened the meeting at 6:40.

The April meeting summary was approved with no revisions.

MS 38 7th grade students presented their projects for the Gowanus Canal Thomas Greene Park resiliency project.

Project Updates (Christos Tsiamis, EPA Project Manager)

The first item was regarding the Fulton cutoff wall and activities related to building the overflow tanks and the cleanup of Thomas Greene Park.

  • National Grid has been issued an order and will be working under EPA’s oversight to build the Fulton cutoff wall. The state decision regarding Thomas Greene Park included some cleanup at the park at an appropriate time and the construction of a cutoff wall by the Canal to stop the tar from flowing into the Canal.
  • The EPA’s ROD for cleaning up the Canal had a provision whereby some work was being conducted by the state at the former MGP plants (Public Place, Fulton, Metropolitan). The ROD stated that under certain circumstances, EPA might have to assume the lead for that work, and that’s what’s happened now. One of named circumstances was a matter of coordination. What changed from the time the state issued the ROD and now? A subsequent agreement between EPA and the City about the placement of the retention tanks. In that consent agreement, it was agreed that the City would have the choice of building the tank right next to the Canal or at Thomas Greene Park. The City’s preferred site was the head of Canal but that’s private property and there are complications. EPA put time limit on that decision in order to ensure that the cleanup can move forward and required the City to prepare two parallel designs. Right now, the City is moving under the premise that they’ll be able to acquire or take by eminent domain the location next to the Canal. There is certain work required to build the tank, including environmental investigation and construction, and the City is responsible for these things.
  • In the state decision, National Grid is obligated to build the wall and we will have two different entities working on this: National Grid will work under state supervision and the City will work under EPA supervision for installing the tanks. To improve coordination, the state and EPA agreed it would be best for EPA to take the lead, which is the rationale for the National Grid order. In two weeks, EPA will meet with National Grid to discuss the specifics of building the wall and then will move on and brief the CAG.

Read more »

Minutes of the July 18, 2017 Land Use Committee Meeting

The Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group’s Land Use Committee met on Tuesday, July 18, 2017, in the offices of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy at 543 Union Street.

Committee Members present:

David Briggs, Rafael Gomez de Luna, Andrea Parker, Peter Reich, Buddy Scotto, Sue Wolfe

Item 1

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) shared their recommendations for potential NRDA restoration projects on the Canal: Salt Lot, Lowe’s Bulkhead, edge of Pathmark site along water, Home Depot waterfront, and GBX site. Other locations to be considered: street ends, turning basins, Public Place waterfront, Carroll Park, Thomas Greene Park, and Under the Tracks Playground. RTA-1 (retention tank and head house at the north end of the canal) is a possible site if it can be demonstrated that it benefits the ecological restoration of the canal.

Action

Committee will inquire at next CAG meeting if NRDA process is moving forward and if sites have been selected by the NRDA trustees.

Item 2

Temporary community facility for D&D Pool and Thomas Greene Park.

Action

Committee will draft a resolution that urges city agencies to identify the potential sites under consideration for the temporary pool and park facility.