The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a plan to clean up the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York, one of the nation’s most seriously contaminated bodies of water. The final plan, announced today on the banks of the canal by EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck with Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, state and local officials and community representatives, will require the removal of contaminated sediment and the capping of dredged areas.
The plan also includes controls to reduce sewage overflows and other land-based sources of contamination from compromising the cleanup. With community input, EPA has decided on the option in the proposed plan that will require the disposal of the least contaminated sediment at a facility out of the area rather than building a disposal facility in the water near Red Hook. The cost of the cleanup plan is currently estimated to be $506 million. “More than 150 years of industrial waste, storm water runoff and sewer overflows turned the Gowanus Canal into one of the most extensively contaminated water bodies in the nation, threatening people’s health and the quality of their daily lives,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “The cleanup plan announced today by EPA will reverse the legacy of water pollution in the Gowanus. The plan is a... |
