Giambusso Progress Memo

I am investigating to see where developers and stakeholders have run afoul of environmental safety concerns in rushing to develop along the Gowanus Canal.

I have interviewed Patricia Culligan, professor of civil engineering at Columbia who co-authored Eco-Gowanus: Urban Remediation by Design. I have also read the book:

Our discussion focused on what kind of pollutants are in the ground at Public Place site, an area that used to house a gas manufacturing plant and is now slated for develoment of residential buildings, commercial/office space and public green spaces.

According to Culligan and her colleagues the type of remediation it would take to make living on Public Place sustainable would involve decades of constant remediation. It would essentially have to be come he local industry.

What state environmental agencies are suggesting however is that the area can be cleaned up and ready to live on within three years. The idea being to clean the top ten feet of soil and sal off everything below to prevent contact with the contamination. Many of the most noxious elements live in pols and plumes over a hundred feet below the surface and can escape into the canal itself or into the air. Moreover, no matter what is done at public Place Site the surrounding site are equally contaminated and the toxins will not behave according to site boundaries.

I have set up interviews with the following:

Gardiner Cross, an engineer at NYS DEC who claims the area will be adequately remediated.

Marlene Donnely, Friends of Greater Gowanus (FROGG)

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6

Bob Zuckerman, Gownaus Canal Communty development corporation

Nydia Velazquez, U.S. Congressswoman, 12th District (The Fightin 12th!)

City Councilman Bill Deblasio, 33rd Council district.