Every Brooklynite knows that the Gowanus Canal is a liquid toxic waste dump, so why shouldn't it be a Superfund site?Because this is New York City, where every square inch, even if befouled by a century's worth of toxic sludge, is a potential development site.
Blogger Lost City reports that the bid to Superfund the Gowanus, announced by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in April, is getting serious push-back from developers and their friends in city government -- including the "environment-friendly" Bloomberg administration.
Why, you ask, wouldn't Superfunding be a good thing for the Gowanus? In a word, timing.
Before the Real Estate Bubble popped, the Toll Brothers got approval from the city to build highrise luxury housing on the Gowanus. Superfunding the Gowanus now would delay the development and make the Toll Brothers participate in the cost of cleanup, so they're arguing that the canal isn't that dirty and that they can clean it up themselves.
The Bloomberg administration and local Councilmember Bill DeBlasio side with the Toll Brothers, who spent almost half a million lobbying for the zoning change that let them build on the Gowanus.
Josh Skaller, one of 5 people campaigning for DeBlasio's soon-to-be-vacant City Council seat (DiBlasio is running for Public Advocate), sides with The Carroll Gardens Coalition for Respectful Development (C.G. CORD) and the Friends and Residents of the Gowanus Canal (FROGG) against the developers.
At a recent press conference outlining his position on the Superfund issue, Skaller said the Toll Brothers are using the same environmental "expert" and public relations firm Bruce Ratner hired for his disastrous Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn to challenge the EPA's Superfund track record, while failing to mention that the city has never attempted a cleanup on the scale of the Gowanus.
LC suspects that, if the EPA were to back out, the Toll Brothers would never clean up the canal, nor would the Bloomberg administration, which came up with a cleanup plan only after the Superfund designation was announced.
The Toll Brothers have been flyering the area, trying to turn residents against Superfunding.
The Mayor's Office, without formal notice to the residents of surrounding neighborhoods, has scheduled two meetings on the Superfund issue at 6 PM on June 23 and June 24 at P.S. 32 at 317 Hoyt Street, near President.
Like The Simpsons episode where Marge confronts Montgomery Burns with the three-eyed fish, LC wants to see Bloomberg, the Toll Brothers and DeBlasio prove the Gowanus isn't that bad by taking a swim in it.
The excellent post from Lost City.
More from Found in Brooklyn.
More from Brooklyn the Borough.
(Photo from Pardon Me for Asking.)
