Flushing funds down the drain
City could waste millions if it builds tunnel instead of tanks in Gowanus
four-million gallon tank.
The tunnel would operate
similarly to the tanks, by collecting
storm-water and liquid
waste from local pipes —
after that wet stuff is fi ltered
through the headhouse —
which would otherwise fl ood
the canal during heavy rains.
But it could hold at least
16-million gallons — four
more than the tanks would
accommodate — and could
easily be extended further to
collect even more of the fi lth,
according to Clarke, who said
the city may extend the chute
down Second Avenue or further
along the path of the canal.
“There are several alternatives
to extend the tunnel
further south down Second
Avenue, or making a turn continuing
to follow the alignment
of the canal,” he said. “It
provides additional volume,
and an additional storm-water
outlet.”
And the late-breaking
change in plans would provide
benefi ts to the community beyond
its increased storage
capacity, including less construction,
and creating more
room for the public space
planned for next to the headhouse,
Clarke said.
“Benefi ts of the tunnel are
it increases storage capacity,
it’s easier to construct, there’s
less destruction impact,” he
said. “We do believe the headhouse
associated with the tunnel
would be about the same
size, but there will no longer
be below-ground facilities beneath
the public space, and so
we can be more fl exible with
the design.”
Plus, the costs for the two
projects are comparable, according
to the city engineer,
who said the total cost for the
tank scheme is just shy of $1.2
billion, with the tunnel’s price
tag coming in at $1.25 billion.
And some of the prep work
already done on the tanks
is applicable should the city
move forward with the tunnel,
BY JULIANNE CUBA
The city may fl ush millions
of taxpayer dollars down
the toilet if it moves forward
with scrapping a long in-theworks
plan to bury two massive
sewage tanks beneath
land along the Gowanus Canal,
and instead build a giant
underground tunnel to collect
storm-water runoff in the cisterns’
place.
Offi cials already spent
roughly $30 million on design
work for the water-storage
vessels — infrastructure
required as part of the Superfund
site’s federally led
cleanup — since announcing
they planned to install them
back in 2013 . But a chunk of
that change could go down the
drain if the city now chooses
to scrap the tanks for the tunnel
fi rst proposed last November
, according to a municipal
engineer, who couldn’t immediately
confi rm how much
would be wasted.
“About $30 million,” Department
of Environmental
Protection employee Kevin
Clarke said at a Jan. 22 meeting
of the local Gowanus Community
Advisory Group. “I’d
have to go back and get you a
more accurate number, but it’s
in that order.”
Council in April signed off
on the use of eminent domain
to seize neighboring Butler
and Nevins street lots along
the canal where the city may
still bury the larger, eight-million
gallon tank, which would
go beneath a new fi ltration facility
called a headhouse and
open-air public space adjacent
to it.
But if offi cials decide to
nix the cisterns, they would
instead dig some 125–150 feet
below ground and bore a long
tunnel along the path of the
canal, with one end beneath
the headhouse and the other
beneath city-owned land at
Fifth Street and Second Avenue,
where the Environmental
Protection Department leaders
may still bury the smaller,
TUNNEL VISION: The city now wants to build a massive tunnel to hold
sewage water along the path of the Gowanus Canal, instead of two previously
planned tanks. Department of Environmental Protection
construction of which would
not wrap until 2030 — the
same year offi cials expected
to fi nish installing the second
tank, according to another
Environmental Protection Department
rep.
“DEP continues work on
parallel tracks — already meeting
every milestone towards
construction of the tanks while
we have initiated detailed
planning for the tunnel. Much
of the work done to date for the
tanks will be directly transferable,”
the rep said.
But some locals wondered
if the job couldn’t be sped up if
offi cials are going to spend the
extra cash to change course.
“2030 to me is a little scary,”
said Jerry Armer, who represents
civic group the Cobble
Hill Association on the Gowanus
Community Advisory
Group.
Other residents, however,
applauded the city’s aboutface
with the massive project
— which is not dissimilar to
Gov. Cuomo’s decision to call
off the long-promised partial
L-train shutdown that many
locals uprooted their lives to
avoid three months before its
planned start date.
Those Gowanusaurs
praised the city for anticipating
the need for lasting stormresiliency
infrastructure as
water levels continue to rise at
the same time that Gowanus is
poised for a residential upzoning
to create more open space in
the neighborhood. Still, some
questioned offi cials’ motive
for pivoting on the project so
late in the game, especially after
headhouse and adjacent public
space above where the larger
tank would be buried.
“I appreciate there is more
space,” said Andrea Parker,
who leads the Gowanus Canal
Conservancy. “I think there’s
defi nitely some sentiment that
there’s an ulterior motive here
in announcing this right after
the eminent domain. Essentially,
off this valuable land.”
But Clarke assured that the
land will only be used to create
the much-needed open space.
“I would never want to give
up that property,” he said.
“Sometime in the future we’re
going have to upgrade the facility
to support that construction.”
The federal Environmental
Protection Agency leaders
spearheading the Gowanus
Canal cleanse — who must
sign off on the tunnel plan —
did not attend the meeting, because
were still out of work due to
the government shutdown ,
which ended on Jan. 25.
INSIDE
Hometown heroes
Local creator brings super-stories to Black Comix Fest
By Kevin Duggan He’s written about black powers.
A Bay Ridge comic book creator
will bring his graphic novels
about a superpowered New York City cop
to the Black Comix Expo at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music on Feb. 10. The writer
and illustrator of “Nowhere Man,” who
will join about 20 other artists at the daylong
celebration of comics creators of
color, said he invented the heroic character
because he wanted to read about someone
he could identify with.
“When you look at successful characters
in comic books, it’s often someone the
author can relate to,” said Jerome Walford,
who founded Forward Comix in 2010.
Walford was a big fan of comic books
growing up, but felt like the classics that
inspired him, including Alan Moore’s
“Watchmen” and the Batman story “The
Killing Joke,” did not represent his experience.
Kapow!: Bay Ridgite Jerome Walford (inset) edited the anthology
“Gwan,” and wrote and drew the comic “Nowhere Man,”
about a superpowered cop (above). Photo by Kevin Duggan
In high school, he invented the
character who developed into the star of
“Nowhere Man” — Jack Maguire, a black
police detective who discovers futuristic
technology that lets him walk through
walls, create blasts of energy, and hack
communications, among other abilities.
But the state sees the super-cop as a threat,
and unleashes a paramilitary force to hunt
him down, racially profiling and harassing
black men in his neighborhood.
Walford said that his protagonist
reflects the black experience in modernday
New York.
“In the context of relations between
the African-American community and
law enforcement, I wanted to create a
character that would walk both lines and
‘Nowhere Man’ came about organically,”
he said. “We have this scene where the
chasers go into the communities and use
aggressive tactics to try and hunt down
Jack. We see interactions, and we begin
to realize that this looks very current and
very relatable.”
Walford, who immigrated with his family
from Jamaica during the 1980s, also
created the “Gwan Anthology” in 2016 to
publish the stories of immigrant comics
creators.
Writers and readers from non-white
backgrounds have increasingly been able
to find their own stories reflected in
comics, a trend amplified in recent years
by the release of the blockbuster movie
“Black Panther” and Netflix’s “Luke
Cage,” according to one of the organizers
of the Black Comix Expo.
“Comics play a big part, because for some
readers they are the first visual representations
of some of these ideas,” said Deirdre
Hollman, the founder of the Black Comics
Collective, which co-hosts the event.
Another recent factor, she said, has been
the growth of the Afrofuturism movement,
which envisions a future distinctly shaped
by black culture and tradition.
“It’s an affirmation that not only do
black people survive in the future but they
bring with them the cultural traditions that
have sustained them throughout time,”
said Hollman.
In addition to the comics creators, the
Expo will feature several events inspired
by Afrofuturism, including a virtual reality
experience that puts visitors in the
body of a black woman, and a panel discussion
on black women in science fiction
and fantasy. The event will also include
a superhero cosplay contest and an art
workshop for kids.
Black Comix Festival at BAM Peter
Jay Sharp Building 30 Lafayette Ave.,
at St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718)
636–4100, www.bam.org. Feb. 10; 11
am–5 pm. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 39
Police Blotter ..........................8
Now on Brownstoner .........22
Standing O ............................ 26
Letters ....................................30
The Right View .................... 32
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, FEB. 1–7, 2019 DT
, and for looking at ways
they seized the land for the
the city is trying to sell
— we need the property
it occurred when they
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