Great news! The Enviromental Protection Agency proposed the Gowanus Canal right here in Brooklyn be added to the list of SuperFund sites.
Superfund is the federal government's program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups.
The Superfund cleanup process is complex. It involves the steps taken to assess sites, place them on the National Priorities List, and establish and implement appropriate cleanup plans. This is the long-term cleanup process. In addition, the Agency has the authority
-to conduct removal actions where immediate action needs to be taken
-to enforce against potentially responsible parties
-to ensure community involvement
-involve states
-ensure long-term protectiveness
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke hosted a Public
Information Forum with the EPA to answer questions on April 14th. The EPA explained how the Superfund program works and the nomination process. BGT will keep you posted of the nomination results.
Keep your fingers crossed!
2 comments:
This is wonderful news. Finally a Gowanus cleanup that will do something about both the smell and the water dead zones.
Could the Green Team come up with a carbon foot print number for the kind of brownfield cleanup that will need to take place to make Gowanus Public Place fit for human homes?
They plan to truck away at least 8 feet of soil from over all of the 6 acres of the site. Then drive it some place in Pennsylvania where it will be incinerated.
Doesn't that seem an extravagant expense of energy? Aren't there other methods that achieve a cleaner soil?
Post a Comment