Minutes of the January 7, 2025 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG’s Water Quality & Technical Committee

Attendees

Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Facilitator), Katia Kelly, Louis Kleinman, Susan Yung, Erica Eliason.
Guests:  Terri Thomson, Aaron Kaufman, Corinne Brenner

The Committee discussed the following questions and decided which answers from Victoria Sacks (EPA Remedial Project Manager) needed follow-up (I will be drafting a follow-up for Victoria, Erica will put it on a Google Doc for editing by the committee):

1)  What will go in the gap between the old and new bulkheads on the Whole Foods site?

A minimum one-foot layer of AquaBlok will be placed in the gap, followed by gravel to existing grade. For structural stability, the new bulkhead support system requires tieback anchors to be drilled through the face of the wall.

Per Aaron Kaufman:  AquaBlok goes down at the bottom of where the old bulkhead meets the new bulkhead.  The gravel goes up to the level of the parking lot.  The tieback attaches to the new bulkhead and through the old one and deep into the soil (up to 50 feet deep) and the soil holds it in place.  This type of tieback is an industry-accepted standard and has been used elsewhere (in answer to Louis’s question).

2)  Was the Whole Foods site footprint remediated when it was built?

The Whole Foods property is in NYSDEC’s Brownfield Cleanup Program and was remediated in approximately 2013. EPA was satisfied with the remedy at that time. Please refer to the NYSDEC Brownfield Cleanup Program website for further details.

 Although the answer to this question was yes, see the answer to # 3 below – not so reassuring.

3)  Can the new bulkhead be perforated?

Perforations have been made solely to extend existing outfalls. Otherwise, these bulkheads are typically required to be sealed without perforations as a backup cleanup measure in case there was undetected residual subsurface contamination present.

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Minutes of the January 3, 2025 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG Administrative Committee

The Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group’s Administrative Committee met via zoom on Friday, January 3, 2025.

In attendance:
Jerry Armer
Katia Kelly
Louis Kleinman
Joan Salome-Rodriguez

The Committee convened to review a membership application submitted by Mark Yarish. It was decided that the application is complete and should therefore be sent to the full CAG for an interview and vote at our next full CAG meeting (January 2025).

We discussed scheduling official monthly meetings for the Admin Committee at a regular time and then adding an email address for people to ask for that month’s Zoom link, to make sure that the meeting will actually take place.

After some more discussion (after Jerry left the Zoom), we decided that there just is no need for a monthly meeting and that we will continue to schedule meetings as needed. Joan will remind Katia to send Eric the meeting notice with the Zoom link to post on the CAG’s website.

Actions: 

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Gowanus Canal Superfund Cleanup Community Update #6

In December, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), under the supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, began the second phase of construction of the 8-million-gallon combined sewer overflow (CSO) retention tank integral to the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site.

You can read about this work, and other news, in the EPA’s Community Update #6, embedded below and available as a PDF here.

EPA to Host Community Meeting on Head-End CSO Tank Construction Project

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a virtual meeting to update the community on the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) retention tank project (located at 270 Nevins Street) at the Gowanus Canal Superfund site. Check back for additional information about the agenda.

WHEN:  

Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. 

HOW:  

To register for the meeting please use this link: 

https://usepa.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItc-2qrTgtH8iGGNqUAiYTYhGJGoUV6Vo

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about how to join the meeting.  

For additional site-related information please visit:  

www.epa.gov/superfund/gowanus-canal 

For any further questions or concerns, please contact Natalie Loney, Community Involvement Coordinator, at (212) 637-3639 or loney.natalie@epa.gov.

Missed our November 2024 General Meeting? You can review video of the meeting here.

If you were unable to join us on Zoom for our November 2024 general meeting, you can find a video of the meeting here. Enter the passcode 30855914 to access the video.

You can also view video of our October 2024 general meeting here. Please note that the recording did not begin until the meeting was well under way; we apologize for the oversight.

For September’s General Meeting, you can find the video here. For our July 2024 meeting, you can view the video recording of the meeting on EPA Region 2’s Zoom page. Enter the passcode 10340836 to access the video.

And for recordings of all prior general meetings since April, 2020, please visit our Vimeo page at vimeo.com/showcase/gowanuscag and click on any of the videos to view the meeting video.

Minutes of the December 2, 2024 meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG Water Quality & Technical Committee Meeting

Attendees

Members: Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Facilitator), Erica Eliason, Louis Kleinman, Linda LaViolette, Richard Lawrence, Peter Reich, Susan Yung

National Grid: Terri Thomson

The Committee discussed the following items:

1. Follow up about reclassification of the waters of the Gowanus Canal.

2. Put in writing our request for input on the design of the turning basins including requesting responses in writing from EPA.

3. Getting answers from Aaron Kaufman to the questions raised at the November 8 Committee meeting.

4. Linda provided information about a company that apparently adds something to water that seems, from the linked presentation, to add to oxygenation of the water.  We would want to inquire if EPA knows about it and if it would work or even be safe in the Canal.

Minutes of the November 8, 2024 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG’s Water Quality/Technical Committee

Attendees

Members: Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Facilitator), Erica Eliason, Richard Lawrence

National Grid: Terri Thomson

Rep for Community Remediation through the Trust: Aaron Kaufman

Guests: Corinne Brenner (Gowanus Dredgers), Elizabeth Waldran (Park Slope resident)

The Committee’s agenda was to discuss the Turning Basins so that we can make decisions about how they will look, what we lose and what we gain.

Aaron Kaufman gave us information on the main channel bulkheads (next to Whole Foods and running parallel to 3rd and 5th Streets) and the 5th Street Turning Basin at the west side of Third Avenue. He explained that the bulkheads along the north side of the channel are sitting at an angle where the foot of the bulkhead sticks out a few feet as compared to the heads. Because they are not stabilized in any way and cannot hold back erosion of the land behind them, new vertically embedded metal bulkheads are being installed. They will be permanent and, he believes, cannot be cut down because the tie-back rods will be connected to a deadman rod to ensure the structural integrity of the bulkhead. Because of the nature of the design – intervals of deadman rods – cutbacks are not feasible. In order to dredge the area, structurally secure bulkheads had to be installed. (See photos and diagram that is not fully representative of the tie backs and deadmen below).

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Missed our October General Meeting? You can review video of the meeting here.

If you were unable to join us on Zoom for our October 2024 general meeting, you can view the video recording of the meeting below. Please note that the recording did not begin until the meeting was well under way; we apologize for the oversight.

For September’s General Meeting, you can find the video here. For our July 2024 meeting, you can view the video recording of the meeting on EPA Region 2’s Zoom page. Enter the passcode 10340836 to access the video.

And for recordings of the rest of our general meetings since April, 2020, please visit our Vimeo page at vimeo.com/showcase/gowanuscag and click on any of the videos to view the meeting video.

Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group Submits Reclassification Petition to NYS DEC for Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards

At its October 22, 2024 general meeting, the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group passed the following resolution, agreeing to submit the petition for reclassification of the Gowanus Canal’s surface waters (currently designated Class-SD, to Class-SC, meaning the waters shall be suitable for fish, shellfish and wildlife propagation and survival, as well as primary and secondary contact recreation) passed at the September 2024 General Meeting as a comment for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Triennial Review of Water Quality Standards.

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Minutes of the October 8, 2024 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG’s Land Use Committee

Attendees

CAG Members: Diane Buxbaum, Hildegaard Link, Peter Reich, Joan Salome-Rodrguez, Susan Yung, Katia Kelly, Lisa Bowstead

Guests: Brian Carr, Alex Gregor, Aaron Kaufman, Theo Hirsch

The Committee discussed the following: 

– Gowanus neighborhood air monitoring done by NYCDEP and the request for EPA & NYCDEP to release the complete results to the community.

– Lisa’s draft letter to our elected officials regarding a Community meeting.

– The status of National Grid’s lawsuit and their Dispute Resolution with NYSDEC’s request for additional work to be done at the former Citizens MGP Works site.

– The status of NYSDEC’s access to Citizens Parcel 4.

– Whole Foods bulkhead

– Thomas Greene Park

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