{"id":16834,"date":"2026-08-16T13:59:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gowanuscag.org\/?p=16834"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:59:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:59:42","slug":"minutes-of-the-august-3-2026-meeting-of-the-gowanus-canal-cags-water-quality-technical-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gowanuscag.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/minutes-of-the-august-3-2026-meeting-of-the-gowanus-canal-cags-water-quality-technical-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Minutes of the August 3, 2026 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG’s Water Quality & Technical Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attendees, CAG Members: Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Moderator), Erica Eliason, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Yarish, Susan Yung<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guests: Irene Baker, National Grid; Aaron Kaufman, Gowanus Remediation Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can view a video recording of the meeting here<\/a>. Please enter code NTkd4^^x when prompted for access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Survey<\/b> \u2013 checked to see if all had done survey \u2013 yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Reviewed emails and responses so far and decided to send follow up questions on some:<\/b>

a. Basement flood water testing<\/b>. DEC & DEP, DOH \u2013 the agencies all pretty much punted but DOH (Scarlett) sent this: the pages below should direct people affected by floods on some steps they may take following a flood and who to contact.

Weather Emergencies<\/a>
Flooding Quick Reference Guide<\/a>

Closed out this issue.
* Note: Eymund said at a prior meeting that if you have repeated flooding, take samples to him and he can have testing done down at the Navy Yard.

b. Real-time canal monitoring\/public reporting<\/b> DEP \u2013 Alicia West this may deserve a resolution and a presentation \u2013 We will have a presentation from Riverkeeper at the General CAG meeting in September when they have more info from DEP as to what they are planning to do. Joan followed up with Alicia 7\/29. The City has asked for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals so the standard response was received that the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.

c. Bond-Lorraine Sewer<\/b> \u2013 DEP Alicia West \u2013 See the relevant section of her July 31 in the addendum<\/a>. Basically – The DEP\u2019s plan is to re-sewer all of Carroll Gardens\/Gowanus, from Court Street to the Canal, and from Douglass Street to 4th Street at Public Place. It will eliminate the old brick Bond-Lorraine sewer, including the section under Public Place, and that work will be DEP work, not developer work. Appears DEP will run the sewage from Smith to the canal northwards to the Pumping Station, while they run the storm water from that area south where it will be dumped into the canal at Public Place. Design planned to go to DDC by year\u2019s end.

d. CSOs<\/b> \u2013 DEP Alicia West, EPA Victoria Sacks \u2013 We got an answer from DEP regarding its Long-Term Control Plan. See the addendum<\/a> for full answer but importantly there is no LTCP for the CSO tank results and re-dredging would only happen if EPA orders it. At that point, DEP and other PRPs<\/b> would be required to dredge. Unsure what other PRP\u2019s we are talking about. No answer from EPA yet \u2013 Tom Mongelli to respond. Joan followed up 8\/10\/2026. The attendees decided this response deserved follow up beyond Joan just asking for Tom\u2019s response. Mark Yarish prepared some questions that Joan sent to Tom Mongelli on 8\/9\/2026.

e. NAPL leaks and remediation at the head of the Canal<\/b> \u2013 Joan followed up to obtain Victoria\u2019s answers to our questions (see addendum<\/a>) that Tom Mongelli read out at the CAG meeting 7\/27 (see addendum<\/a>). It seems a lot of what is going on is based on suspicion of what is going on but is also exploratory if EPA has it wrong. Work is in progress. Victoria\u2019s full response is included in the addendum<\/a>. A series of follow-up questions was sent to Victoria on 8\/9\/2026. See addendum for details<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

3) Housekeeping:<\/b>

a. PowerHouse<\/b> walkway at TB1. No update.

b. Mounding<\/b>: We will follow on the mounding studies once EPA presents on them again. Issue is forward-looking \u2013 climate change. No update yet.

c. Dissolved Oxygen Levels<\/b>: Any acknowledgement from Fagel, Waldron or Smith to our resolution re: DO levels, Erica? NOT YET \u2013 Erica followed up 8\/3\/2026.

d. Operation and Maintenance Plan<\/b>: What is EPA\u2019s demand for responsible parties to maintain an operation and maintenance plan (OMP) for the Gowanus Canal Clean-up strategy? Who will ensure that the OMP is done going forward? Will EPA continue to check that the water quality remains good and that the cap is intact? Does EPA have an OMP? Where is it? Katia was not present. We will follow up at the next meeting.

e. Hydrology<\/b>: Aaron responded (see below) that DEC hopes to have the survey complete by 1st quarter 2027. Current hydraulic conditions, including groundwater elevations and flow direction. DEC study. We know they are not including toxins in the study<\/i>.

Suggestion \u2013 overlay the map<\/i>. \u2013 Now that Jason has created a tool, can DEC use it once its survey is done? Can we use it? If DEC does not want to use our tool, can we layer their survey results into our map?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Future or today?<\/b>

a. Has DEP started to measure how much of first flush<\/b> the new buildings are capturing? We did not cover this yet.

b. Did the scientific projections in the LTCP<\/b> account for the results of climate change? We eventually will ask questions about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addendum: E-Mails sent & responses<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attendees, CAG Members: Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Moderator), Erica Eliason, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Yarish, Susan Yung Guests: Irene Baker, National Grid; Aaron Kaufman, Gowanus Remediation Trust. You can view a video recording of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[96,12,4],"tags":[84,73],"class_list":["post-16834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-committee-meetings","category-frontpage","category-water-quality-technical","tag-meeting","tag-water-quality"],"yoast_head":"\nMinutes of the August 3, 2026 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG's Water Quality & Technical Committee - Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gowanuscag.org\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/minutes-of-the-august-3-2026-meeting-of-the-gowanus-canal-cags-water-quality-technical-committee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minutes of the August 3, 2026 Meeting of the Gowanus Canal CAG's Water Quality & Technical Committee - Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Attendees, CAG Members: Joan Salome-Rodriguez (Moderator), Erica Eliason, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Yarish, Susan Yung Guests: Irene Baker, National Grid; Aaron Kaufman, Gowanus Remediation Trust. 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