The Gowanus Superfund Site Explained
If you were unable to join us on Zoom for our October 2023 general meeting, you can view the video recording of the meeting – as well as recordings of all of our general meetings since April, 2020 – on our Vimeo page.
Just visit vimeo.com/showcase/gowanuscag and click on any of the videos to view the recording of the meeting.
Please join us for our October 2023 General Meeting, on Tuesday, October 24, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., conducted via Zoom video conference.
In order to join the meeting, you must pre-register, here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkcOCgqjkoH90-v5NGc7ArmMMT5UIbzsLg
DRAFT AGENDA (all times are approximate)
6:30 – 6:45 p.m.: Welcome and CAG Member Introductions
6:45 – 7:15 p.m.: EPA Updates and CAG Q&A
7:15 – 7:45 p.m.: Land Use Committee Proposed Resolution on Former Citizens MGP Works Site
7:45 – 8:00 p.m.: Public Comment/Questions
8:00 – 8:30 p.m.: CAG Business and Committee Updates
8:30 p.m.: Adjourn
8:35 p.m.: Prospective Members Interviews
Guests are always welcome to comment and ask questions using the chat function. The next Gowanus CAG Meeting will be on Tuesday, November 28.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has scheduled a community availability session on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at PS 372, 512 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215, at which it will discuss the community-wide investigation and cleanup activities planned for Brownfield sites in the Gowanus area.
You can find more information about the session, and ongoing cleanup efforts in the Gowanus neighborhood, here: https://www.dec.ny.gov/data/der/factsheet/gowanusupdate0923.pdf.
The Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group’s Administrative Committee met via Zoom conference on Friday, September 15, at 3:00 p.m.
Committee members attending:
Katia Kelly
Louis Kleinman
Rita Miller
The committee discussed five membership applications submitted between 2019 and 2021. These applicants will be contacted by Admin to see if they are still interested in CAG membership. If any or all of them are still interested, they will be reviewed at an Admin Committee meeting in October, exact date to be determined.
The committee reviews the following three applicants from 2023:
Danny Smith – recommended by committee
Allen Bullock – committee conflicted with no hard recommendation
Chris Girgenti – recommended by committee
Proposal by Admin to the general CAG:
That EPA provide a Zoom account for the CAG where all general and/or committee meetings may be recorded and stored for access by all CAG members. May also be stored on the website for all.
A reminder to the general CAG that the CAG Charter, including both addendums as they were approved, are now listed chronologically on the website.
Admin wlll resend the FAQ’s re:CAG membership to Eric and Celeste at Outreach. These were FAQ’s submitted to Outreach a while back for possible inclusion on the CAG website (only after full CAG approval, of course).
Finally, CAG general meetings have really not included a comment period for the public since we began exclusively using Zoom. It is an important component of the general meeting to include the community’s remarks, questions and concerns. Admin would like to see a block of time included in the general meeting agenda for publc comment.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a new community update regarding Brownfield and State Superfund cleanup activities around the Gowanus Canal.
The update includes information on a public availability session that NYS DEC and the NYS Department of Health will hold on the evening of October 3rd, and details on plans for soil vapor intrusion investigation in locations surrounding the canal.
Click the image below to access a PDF version of the full four-page community update, or visit this link: https://gowanuscag.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/NYSDECGowanusUpdate0923.pdf.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued a response to the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group last month to a letter sent in March by the CAG’s Land Use Committee requesting more information on a number of topics, including the migration and dangers of coal tar beneath the Gowanus Canal and nearby sites, potential plans for air monitoring, requests for a hydrology study, and more.
You can read the NYSDEC response in full below.
EPA Region 2’s Joel Singerman sent the following note to the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group today regarding efforts to address low dissolved oxygen levels in the canal while the flushing tunnel is not operating.
“In an effort to alleviate the low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the upper portion of the canal during CSO events while the flushing tunnel is offline, on August 16, 2023, the PRP Group reactivated an air curtain at the 3rd Street bridge. The air curtain is a bubbler that is located on the sediment bed and releases air to serve as a turbidity curtain that vessels can pass over. The sparged air will likely boost DO levels. The air curtain may also discourage the menhaden from swimming into the low DO level areas of the upper canal, and, thus, reduce the likelihood of another fish kill. The air curtain had been switched off for several months, as it was not needed during the capping operations. The PRP Group will operate the air curtain during working hours and monitor the effect on the DO levels. If the air curtain has a positive effect on DO levels, they will operate it during periods of suppressed DO levels in the canal. Because it has not been determined if operating the air curtain at the 3rd Street bridge will have sufficient impact, the DO levels will need to be monitored to decide whether to maintain the air curtain at the 3rd Street bridge, move it, or obtain an additional air sparge setup, which could be as simple as using perforated pipes connected to air compressors.”
Following our July General Meeting, the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group wrote to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation requesting that the state provide indoor air-monitoring equipment to all buildings near the 49 State Brownfield and Superfund sites along the Gowanus Canal.
You can read our letter to NYSDEC here.
Following the retirement of long-time Gowanus Canal Remedial Project Manager Christos Tsiamis in June, EPA Region 2 has announced the appointment of three individuals to succeed him in supervising the Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal.
Victoria Sacks, Mark Granger, and Tom Mongelli, all experienced hands at EPA, will jointly oversee the Canal’s ongoing remediation. Sacks’s expertise is in sediment remediation, while Granger will focus on the three former Manufactured Gas Plants and other upland sites. Mongelli has been managing the cleanup of the Wolff-Alport site on the Brooklyn-Queens border, which contains radioactive materials among its harmful contamination.
Read more about the Gowanus Canal’s new Remedial Project Managers below, courtesy of EPA Region 2.
If you were unable to join us on Zoom for our July 2023 general meeting, you can view the video recording of the meeting – as well as recordings of all of our general meetings since April, 2020 – on our Vimeo page.
Just visit vimeo.com/showcase/gowanuscag and click on any of the videos to view the recording of the meeting.