Gowanus rezoning must not interfere
with cleanup, civic watchdogs say
If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse, New York
law allows you to take action against the perpetrator
and institution that protected him or her.
24 COURIER LIFE, MAY 3–9, 2019 M BR B G
Donate A Boat
or Car Today!
800-700-BOAT ((22662288))
“2-Night Free Vacation!”
www.boatangel.com
sponsored by boat angel outreach centers STOP CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They want a clean guarantee.
The Gowanus rezoning
must not impede the cleanup
of the neighborhood’s namesake
canal, a community
group demanded at an April
23 meeting.
Members of the local
watchdog organization the
Gowanus Canal Community
Advisory Group voted to pass
a resolution demanding that
the city’s Gowanus rezoning
does not compromise the
cleanup effort of the Gowanus
Canal Superfund site by allowing
for taller buildings
and more people, according to
one member, who noted that
city and federal offi cials have
yet to even agree on whether
to mitigate combined sewage
overfl ows coming from the
nabe’s current population
with two tanks or a tunnel.
“Zoning goes in and EPA
and DEP are fi ghting about
tank or tunnel and meanwhile
we still don’t know
what we’re doing. It’s just
silly, the whole thing, when
you just step way back to the
30,000-foot height and look at
this,” David Briggs said at the
monthly meeting of the group
at the St. Mary Star of the Sea
retirement home.
A lack of foresight could
end up biting the city in the
back, much like the complex
repair issues affecting the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway,
according to Briggs.
“Don’t do anything that
jeopardizes the cleanup and
do the rezoning so we don’t
have the triple BQE overpass
problem 10 years from now,”
he said.
The city should also not
include its remediation efforts
mandated under the
Federal Superfund program
as suffi cient for the rezoning
proposal, because these measures
don’t accommodate for
future population growth,
members demanded.
A senior Department of
Environmental Protection offi
cial tried to take credit for
those efforts at a March 26
meeting , saying that the city
is doing more than it had to,
one member warned.
“One of my biggest concerns
from when DEP was
here last month was that Angela
Licata clearly thinks that
they are already doing way
more than they’re required to
do under the Superfund,” said
Andrea Parker. “And it seems
from all the zoning documentation
that’s come out
that they’re just going to say,
‘We’re already building the
tanks so we don’t need to do
anything additional.’ I think
we already deserve the tanks,
we deserve the fl ushing tunnel,
pump station — all of the
upgrades that we’ve already
been promised should not be
part of this package.”
At last month’s meeting ,
the group demanded the city
halt its rezoning plans —
which would allow developers
to erect 22-story towers along
the banks of the Gowanus Canal
— until the Feds fi nish
the clean up.
The city already has to ensure
that current and future
high density residential redevelopment
does not compromise
the cleanup under the
EPA’s Record of Decision on
the Superfund site, a spokeswoman
for the federal agency
told the organization, adding
that the feds would come back
every fi ve years to check on
their city counterparts.
“We come back every fi ve
years and review the remedy
to ensure that it is operating as
designed,” said Natalie Loney.
But another member worried
that the fi ve-year time
frame is not enough and questioned
who the community
should turn to if something
happens within that period.
“A lot can happen in fi ve
years,” said Brad Vogel.
“What do we do when we see
there’s a violation happening
that’s compromising the remedy
and it’s three more years
until the EPA fi ve-year intervention.
How is it all going to
work, who do we talk to, who
do we hold accountable,” he
said.
Loney said it is in the city’s
best interest to maintain the
cleanup after the feds leave so
that they don’t have to pay for
the remedy multiple times.
“It’s in their best interest
to maintain the integrity of
the remedy. Nobody wants to
have to spend money twice, or
three or four times,” she said.
CLEAN DEMANDS: The city’s plan to rezone Gowanus must not compromise
the Federal cleanup of the neighborhood’s noxious canal, members
of the Gowanus Community Advisory Group demanded at an April 23
meeting. File photo by Jason Speakman
/www.boatangel.com
/www.boatangel.com