DONE!: The Feds recently completed a pilot cleanse of the canal.
S herbee Antiques Est. 1940
COURIER L 18 IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 DT
TUNNEL
Protection unveiled designs
for the headhouse — which
will go up on the Butler Street
land where the ancient Gowanus
Station building currently
stands — and an adjacent
open-air public space on
the Nevins Street plot, along
with plans to bury the smaller
tank on city-owned land near
Second Avenue and the Fourth
Street Turning Basin.
But now, the environmental
agency wants to ditch its
cistern scheme, and instead
build one long tunnel 125 to
150 feet below the dirt, which
would run along the path of
the waterway from beneath
the headhouse to the proposed
site of the smaller tank.
The tube would function
similarly to the tanks, collecting
storm-water and liquidwaste
from local pipes that
would otherwise fl ood the canal
during heavy rains, after
the fi lthy wet stuff is fi ltered
through the headhouse. But
the tunnel could hold roughly
16-million gallons of water —
four million more than the
tanks can accommodate, according
to a city engineer.
“What we have essentially
proposed is a tunnel that basically
starts at the land that
we recently acquired — then
we’d bore towards the other
site,” said Department of Environmental
Protection offi -
cial Kevin Clarke. “The storage
volume would be more
than the combined storage of
the two tanks.”
The city proposed swapping
tanks for tunnel to try
and shave some costs off the
project, as well as to reduce
the amount of construction
involved and to build infrastructure
that can store more
water, according to Clarke.
“It came down to cost,” he
said. “As that cost increased,
the tunnel looked more attractive.
That was a lot of our motivation,
potentially pivoting to
the tunnel could add some benefi
ts to scalability, additional
sewage and water capture,
potentially less footprint.”
The original plan, including
the land acquisition, construction
of the headhouse,
creation of the public space,
and installation of both tanks,
would cost a whopping $1.2 billion.
Clarke, however, did not
give a price tag for the tunnel.
One local member of the
Advisory Group cheered the
tube proposal, because he
said it could help preserve the
Gowanus Station building —
most of which is now slated
for the wrecking ball, except
for parts of its brick facade
that offi cials said they will
incorporate into the future
headhouse.
“Obviously moving everything
20 feet south and saving
the whole building, would be
the entire adivsory group’s
preference,” said Peter Reich.
“If we’re going conceptual after
years of frustration about
exactly what piece furniture
can go on top of the tank, and
now there is no tank, we’d really
love to save the building
and reconsider the placement
of everything just a little bit.”
But others questioned the
city’s motives for proposing
what is essentially an entirely
new project after spending
years peddling its previous
billion-dollar tank plan.
“It is surprising to hear
of this ambitious project this
late,” Mark Karkowski said
during the meeting.
Offi cials did not give a
deadline for their decision on
the tunnel versus the tanks,
but must make up their minds
soon to prevent further delays
to the slow-going cleanup
of Brooklyn’s Nautical Purgatory,
according to an Environmental
Protection Agency
bigwig, who said engineers
are already at work on designs
for the cisterns.
BY JULIANNE CUBA
It’s a bright spot for Brooklyn’s
Nautical Purgatory!
A section of the fetid Gowanus
Canal is now cleaner
than it has been in more than
a century, after workers last
month fi nally wrapped a pilot
dredging-and-capping
program as part of the channel’s
federally led cleanup.
The program in the
Fourth Street Turning Basin
kicked off more than a
year ago, in October of 2017,
and fi nished more than six
months after its initial April
2018 deadline — but the delay
is a small price to pay for fi -
nally removing some of the
toxic “black mayonnaise”
from the canal’s fl oor, the
man leading the scrub said.
“It’s the fi rst time that a
portion of the canal has a
clean bottom in 150 years,”
Environmental Protection
Agency project manager
Christos Tsiamis told local
members of the Gowanus
Community Advisory Group
at a Nov. 27 meeting.
And now that the pilot is
done, Tsiamis said the leaders
of the cleanse know how
to prevent delays during similar
work as they move forward
with the job.
Continued from cover
One clean Canal!
Gowanus is cleanest it has been in decades
File photo by Jason Speakman
POT of GOLD
Sherbee Antiques is a family-owned business that has been
serving the tri-state area for over 60 years.
We buy from the full contents of homes and estates
to single items. We specialize in high-end goods such as
antiques, art, fi ne porcelain, lighting, bronzes and sculptures.
We have particular interest in fi ne jewelry, timepieces,
diamonds, gold and silver.
If you call we will come to you, free of charge, and evaluate
what you are selling. We know the value of your possessions
and are willing to pay top dollar on the spot. Please feel free
to call seven days a week for a free same day consultation.
You may be sitting on a large fortune.
Call Sherbee Antiques. They’ll tell you how much.
CALL TODAY 917-748-7622 OR 718-762-7448
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