In a racketing up of the tensions, Stephen J. Cassady, President of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the Fire Department was guilty of improper practice and retaliation, following an incident whereby UFA Health and Safety Officer, William Romaka, was excluded from certain Fire Department meetings. Cassady said Romaka was excluded due to union activity.
The firefighter’s union and Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta have been engaged in a bitter dispute following the August 18, 2007, fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, which killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino.
An investigation following the incident concluded that the two firefighters were left in the building for over an hour without water, due to dismantled fire connections and a broken standpipe in the basement.
In February, Beddia’s sister, Barbara Beddia Crocco, filed suit in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the LMDC and several private companies in charge to the Bank’s demolition. According to the New York Times, “the conditions created by the defendants were too much for Beddia to withstand, and he was killed by toxic smoke, unable to escape because of the stairwell barricades erected by the defendants.”
Five days following the fatal blaze, the UFA disclosed the lack of proper Fire Department inspections at the forlorn site, which had not been inspected since March 2006. Cassidy said Scoppetta was made aware of the dangerous Deutsche Bank conditions as far back as three years prior, when Chief William Siegel recommended a specific fire and inspection plan for the site.
Three months prior to the blaze, while the Bank was undergoing demolition, a 22-foot length of steel pipe fell from the building onto the roof of local Fire Engine 10/Ladder 10. While no one was injured at the time, the accident failed to produce requested safety measures at the site.
Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on Sept. 8 and three Chief firefighters were reassigned and the 15-day inspection schedule came under close scrutiny. In November, Cassady said the Commissioner knew the Deutsche Bank was a toxic mess and that the inspection cycle was unfeasible, but that month, Scoppetta’s added a third day to the firefighter’s building by-monthly inspections.
In January, Battalion Chief John J. McDonnell told the New York Times that it would be impossible to check every construction or demolition project under the 15-day schedule, even though the city had increased the time from six to nine hours each week, in which firefighters are given to perform inspections.
Cassady said, “In an obvious attempt to gloss over their
failures, the Department leadership has decided to add a
third day of building inspections to an already
overburdened firefighter's workload.” “This fiasco is called
’Building Inspection Safety Program (BISP),’” he said.
The backdrop to this ongoing battle is a fight for high-rise safety and accountability in the shadows of the
September 11, 2001, when the lives of 341 firefighters were taken.
While New York City is experiencing its largest construction boom in decades, fire chiefs said the inspection rule has been one of the hardest to enforce for decades. One persistent issue is that fire commanders are not officially notified when the city issues permits for construction or demolition. Instead, local engine companies drive around to determine which buildings need to be inspected.
On December 12, the City Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee requested an oversight hearing with respect to the Fire Department’s building inspection program. The Committee said they wanted to determine the staffing levels of these units, the training and qualifications of the inspectors, the equipment available to the inspectors, and the universe, scope and frequency of inspections being conducted.
The Committee inquired how the level of inspections had varied in recent years, the scope and frequency of the inspections being conducted, how and why the decision was made to increase the level of inspections and the impact that decision may have had on response times and safety. Scoppetta testified that fire response times had actually decreased since the new inspection plan was instituted, but provided no supporting data or statistics.
In December, Cassidy said the number of fire engines on building inspections increased by 50 percent. While the acknowledging the Fire Department’s responsibility to manage the City’s building inspection program, Cassidy said, “Every firefighter knows that his response times are negatively impacted.”
Glen Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the New York City fire department’s 15-day building inspection schedule has since become a hot-button issue. Days after the blaze, he said, “due to the scrutiny of this building, the lack of a pre-fire plan is unbelievable.”
Cassady said, “Rest assured, the Department’s actions will not stop the UFA from shining the light of truth on the Department when their policies endanger our members.”
UFA Ltr re Failure of FDNY Leadership: http://www.ufalocal94.org/pdf/db11_20.pdf
City Council Oversight Hearing re: FDNY Building Inspection Program: Dec. 12, 2007
http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/81351.htm?CFID=1569427&CFTOKEN=55706348
NYT: Feb, 14, 2008 Beddia lawsuit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/nyregion/14deutsche.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Complaining complainers and those who complain them
Dear anal Bob Woodwards (but not washed-up Carl Bernsteins),
A certain arch-complainer who will go unnaDAVID GIAMBUSSO told me the links to the talks from last Friday weren't working. I can confirm today that speculation is true.
Here are the links again:
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-10h31m12s_INV_Alyssa_Giachino_talk.wma
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-12h52m45s_INV_Joel_Kupferman_talk.wma
I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Neil Diamond on my mp3 player.
Much love & cheesecake,
Zeigler
A certain arch-complainer who will go unnaDAVID GIAMBUSSO told me the links to the talks from last Friday weren't working. I can confirm today that speculation is true.
Here are the links again:
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-10h31m12s_INV_Alyssa_Giachino_talk.wma
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-12h52m45s_INV_Joel_Kupferman_talk.wma
I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Neil Diamond on my mp3 player.
Much love & cheesecake,
Zeigler
Quotes
Here are some quotes from a retired firefighter:
"Motorola radios were ineffective on 9/11 and many firefighters in North Tower never heard the call to evacuate after the South tower had collapsed."
"Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology.Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology."
"Fires in hi rise buildings are dangerous. Studies are being conducted to help in fire safety in these buldings,, but we are in the still equally in danger before 9/11 and thereafter."
"Motorola radios were ineffective on 9/11 and many firefighters in North Tower never heard the call to evacuate after the South tower had collapsed."
"Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology.Firefighters are more than willing to adapt to any new technology."
"Fires in hi rise buildings are dangerous. Studies are being conducted to help in fire safety in these buldings,, but we are in the still equally in danger before 9/11 and thereafter."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Draft copy format
Here's a good model for the draft copy format of your project story that I want to see in the revised version we'll work on Friday. Note that it includes a list of sources at the end. Put your byline in and a working title.
Andrea Galyean – Investigations in Depth
Professor Jan Barry
News Story – 4/13/08 - stairs
TALL BUILDINGS, SKINNY STAIRS?
How wide are you?
I just the measured the widest part of me (my shoulders) and I’m 16 inches across. Add a couple inches on each side for normal sway, and I need at least 20 inches of width to walk down an office hallway or stairwell. But I’m a good bit smaller than the average Manhattan office worker. In fact, a salesman at the Wall Street location of the popular Men’s Wearhouse stores reports that the shoulders on the most commonly sold suit size in his shop (a 48) are 23 inches across when filled out by an actual person.
So if this suit-wearing average guy and I wanted to walk down a stairwell at the same time – if there was a fire in a high-rise, for instance, and we were trying to get out – we’d need 47 stairwell inches. Two people closer to his size would need 54 inches. But what if, instead of people filing downstairs side-by-side, there were firefighters coming up at the same time? Firefighters wear big suits and carry a lot of gear, so they take up more room. How wide would that stairwell need to be?
The current New York City building code for office buildings – in place since 1968 - requires that most stairwells in commercial high-rises be 44 inches wide. That assumes two lanes of traffic using 22 inches each. But does it work that way in reality?
The largest building evacuation in New York City was when 15,400 people escaped from the World Trade Center (WTC) towers after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. That event demonstrated how the assumptions of the building codes translated into real-life.
John Labriola, a WTC survivor who used the stairs to escape from the 71st floor of the north tower, contributed his recollections of that day to the Smithsonian Museum’s 2002 exhibit, September 11: Bearing Witness to History. “We walked down two by two,” Labriola said in his statement. “Whenever necessary we would press ourselves into a single file line to let [injured] people get by… Around the 35th floor we started meeting a steady stream of firefighters walking up and had to press into single file again.”
Labriola also took photographs during the evacuation. One of the most famous, taken within the stairwell, shows civilians flattened against the wall as firefighters pass. The stairwells in the north tower were 44 inches wide.
Glenn Corbett, a fire sciences professor at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a consultant to the New York Department of Buildings Committee that proposed post-WTC changes to the city’s building code, thought the message was clear. "Out of all the issues, one of the no-brainers was the issue of stairway width," said Corbett. He refers to Labriola’s images as evidence; "If you look at those photos, with firefighters coming up and civilians coming down, the people have to turn sideways."
The 44-inch standard was developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 1927 and was based on the width of the average U.S. World War I soldier’s shoulders – a bit under 22 inches – and the idea that building evacuations would be orderly events with everyone marching in neat rows. But Corbett and other fire safety experts say that the WTC evacuation proved that the measurement isn’t wide enough. “Even if the standards ever were adequate, people have changed since then,” said Corbett.
U.S. Department of Health reports back Corbett up. Over the past few decades, Americans have grown significantly heavier. Now the average man is over 5’9” and 190 pounds – and gaining. In addition to being wider, most people are also less physically fit, which means that they tire more quickly when walking down several dozen flights of stairs. If the stairwell isn’t wide enough to pass, said Corbett, “then you’re only as fast as the slowest person ahead of you.”
Concerned about larger, slower people and the congestion caused by incoming firefighters – called counterflow - Jake Pauls, an internationally recognized fire safety specialist from Silver Springs, Maryland, has been lobbying for wider stairs in high-rises. After years of research – including scrutiny of the WTC evacuations, Pauls concluded that the speed of building evacuation “varies directly—and linearly” with the width of a stairwell. In a 2005 report, Pauls said that “the traditional [44-in.] nominal minimum width for exit stairs was flawed, and known to be flawed a few decades ago.”
Based on his studies, Pauls proposed that the NFPA change its requirements for exit stairs in high-rise buildings to a minimum 56-inch width. As Corbett explained, "56 inches gives you the ability for counterflow, the ability for people to pass. It's an obvious solution. Any four-year-old can figure that out."
The NFPA incorporated Pauls’s recommendations into its 2006 Life Safety Code, but the code is only a guideline and does not have any legal mandate. Since the new measurements were announced, they have been opposed by major real estate development groups, such as the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and the federal General Services Administration (GSA) due to concerns over construction costs and lost rental income.
During recent task force hearings on updating New York City building codes, the Real Estate Board of New York joined BOMA and the GSA to argue against adopting the new NFPA recommendations. Patricia Lancaster, the city’s Building Commissioner, explained the developers’ position in a Sept. 9, 2006 article in the New York Times: “If you increase a stairwell by one inch at the top of a 90-story building, you are giving up dozens and dozens of square feet of rentable space."
The 2008 New York City Building Codes will go into effect on July 1. The required minimum width for exit stairwells will be: 44 inches.
##
Sources named: - Glenn Corbett: c: 201-993-2814; gcorbett1@ix.network.com- Jake Pauls: w: 301-933-5275; bldguse@aol.com
- Ray (last name withheld), Men’s Wearhouse Wall Street: w: 212-233-0675
Articles cited:
- New York Times, “9/11 Has Spurred Only Modest Changes in New York City and National Building Codes,” by Sewell Chan, September 6, 2006
- “Minimum Stair Width for Evacuation, Overtaking Movement and Counterflow Technical Bases and Suggestions for the Past, Present and Future,” by Jake L. Pauls, John J. Fruin, and Jeffrey M. Zupan, June 2005
- 2008 New York City Building Codes, Chapter 10, “Means of Egress”
- “Statement from John Labriola, World Trade Center, September 11, 2001,” by John Labriola, courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, September 2002
Web sites consulted:
- http://www.boma.org
- http://www.nist.gov
- http://www.nfpa.org
- http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection
- http://www.iccsafe.org
- http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob
Andrea Galyean – Investigations in Depth
Professor Jan Barry
News Story – 4/13/08 - stairs
TALL BUILDINGS, SKINNY STAIRS?
How wide are you?
I just the measured the widest part of me (my shoulders) and I’m 16 inches across. Add a couple inches on each side for normal sway, and I need at least 20 inches of width to walk down an office hallway or stairwell. But I’m a good bit smaller than the average Manhattan office worker. In fact, a salesman at the Wall Street location of the popular Men’s Wearhouse stores reports that the shoulders on the most commonly sold suit size in his shop (a 48) are 23 inches across when filled out by an actual person.
So if this suit-wearing average guy and I wanted to walk down a stairwell at the same time – if there was a fire in a high-rise, for instance, and we were trying to get out – we’d need 47 stairwell inches. Two people closer to his size would need 54 inches. But what if, instead of people filing downstairs side-by-side, there were firefighters coming up at the same time? Firefighters wear big suits and carry a lot of gear, so they take up more room. How wide would that stairwell need to be?
The current New York City building code for office buildings – in place since 1968 - requires that most stairwells in commercial high-rises be 44 inches wide. That assumes two lanes of traffic using 22 inches each. But does it work that way in reality?
The largest building evacuation in New York City was when 15,400 people escaped from the World Trade Center (WTC) towers after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. That event demonstrated how the assumptions of the building codes translated into real-life.
John Labriola, a WTC survivor who used the stairs to escape from the 71st floor of the north tower, contributed his recollections of that day to the Smithsonian Museum’s 2002 exhibit, September 11: Bearing Witness to History. “We walked down two by two,” Labriola said in his statement. “Whenever necessary we would press ourselves into a single file line to let [injured] people get by… Around the 35th floor we started meeting a steady stream of firefighters walking up and had to press into single file again.”
Labriola also took photographs during the evacuation. One of the most famous, taken within the stairwell, shows civilians flattened against the wall as firefighters pass. The stairwells in the north tower were 44 inches wide.
Glenn Corbett, a fire sciences professor at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a consultant to the New York Department of Buildings Committee that proposed post-WTC changes to the city’s building code, thought the message was clear. "Out of all the issues, one of the no-brainers was the issue of stairway width," said Corbett. He refers to Labriola’s images as evidence; "If you look at those photos, with firefighters coming up and civilians coming down, the people have to turn sideways."
The 44-inch standard was developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in 1927 and was based on the width of the average U.S. World War I soldier’s shoulders – a bit under 22 inches – and the idea that building evacuations would be orderly events with everyone marching in neat rows. But Corbett and other fire safety experts say that the WTC evacuation proved that the measurement isn’t wide enough. “Even if the standards ever were adequate, people have changed since then,” said Corbett.
U.S. Department of Health reports back Corbett up. Over the past few decades, Americans have grown significantly heavier. Now the average man is over 5’9” and 190 pounds – and gaining. In addition to being wider, most people are also less physically fit, which means that they tire more quickly when walking down several dozen flights of stairs. If the stairwell isn’t wide enough to pass, said Corbett, “then you’re only as fast as the slowest person ahead of you.”
Concerned about larger, slower people and the congestion caused by incoming firefighters – called counterflow - Jake Pauls, an internationally recognized fire safety specialist from Silver Springs, Maryland, has been lobbying for wider stairs in high-rises. After years of research – including scrutiny of the WTC evacuations, Pauls concluded that the speed of building evacuation “varies directly—and linearly” with the width of a stairwell. In a 2005 report, Pauls said that “the traditional [44-in.] nominal minimum width for exit stairs was flawed, and known to be flawed a few decades ago.”
Based on his studies, Pauls proposed that the NFPA change its requirements for exit stairs in high-rise buildings to a minimum 56-inch width. As Corbett explained, "56 inches gives you the ability for counterflow, the ability for people to pass. It's an obvious solution. Any four-year-old can figure that out."
The NFPA incorporated Pauls’s recommendations into its 2006 Life Safety Code, but the code is only a guideline and does not have any legal mandate. Since the new measurements were announced, they have been opposed by major real estate development groups, such as the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) and the federal General Services Administration (GSA) due to concerns over construction costs and lost rental income.
During recent task force hearings on updating New York City building codes, the Real Estate Board of New York joined BOMA and the GSA to argue against adopting the new NFPA recommendations. Patricia Lancaster, the city’s Building Commissioner, explained the developers’ position in a Sept. 9, 2006 article in the New York Times: “If you increase a stairwell by one inch at the top of a 90-story building, you are giving up dozens and dozens of square feet of rentable space."
The 2008 New York City Building Codes will go into effect on July 1. The required minimum width for exit stairwells will be: 44 inches.
##
Sources named: - Glenn Corbett: c: 201-993-2814; gcorbett1@ix.network.com- Jake Pauls: w: 301-933-5275; bldguse@aol.com
- Ray (last name withheld), Men’s Wearhouse Wall Street: w: 212-233-0675
Articles cited:
- New York Times, “9/11 Has Spurred Only Modest Changes in New York City and National Building Codes,” by Sewell Chan, September 6, 2006
- “Minimum Stair Width for Evacuation, Overtaking Movement and Counterflow Technical Bases and Suggestions for the Past, Present and Future,” by Jake L. Pauls, John J. Fruin, and Jeffrey M. Zupan, June 2005
- 2008 New York City Building Codes, Chapter 10, “Means of Egress”
- “Statement from John Labriola, World Trade Center, September 11, 2001,” by John Labriola, courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, September 2002
Web sites consulted:
- http://www.boma.org
- http://www.nist.gov
- http://www.nfpa.org
- http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection
- http://www.iccsafe.org
- http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob
Parkins Progress Memo
I interviewed architect JC Calderon, who was a consultant to the Skyscraper Safety Campaign (though less propagandistic), and he elucidated the issues involved with changing skyscraper design and standards and, the systems involved in making it happen. The main issues are below:
1. Accountability – The World Trade Center site is governed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, ad not subject to the city’s building codes. It is a semi-private/semi-governmental organization over which no city agency has jurisdiction. The Department of City Planning, NYPD and NYFD could make suggestions and cite violations but it is the Port Authority’s choice to comply- part of the reason why the World Trade Center towers were able to be built so high in the first place.
2. All of the building code changes brought about by the World Trade Center attacks, do not affect the buildings that will be rebuilt on the site.
3. Structural engineers have been very instrumental in thinking bout design of buildings and creating safety measures for the structure and thinking about egress. Measures include, but are not limited to, the widening of stairwells, the introduction of sky lobbies, and elevators that firefighters can use in case of an emergency. However, engineers are very cognizant of not working under the assumption of terror. First and foremost, the buildings have to function and they need to figure out the best ways that can happen.
4. Architects worked on the building codes to include low-cost measures such as phosphorescent safety strips that can light the way to safety when the power shuts off and the requirement of sprinkler systems.
5. Everyone had to compromise on what they wanted or did not want to do- architects, engineers and yes, the almighty real estate community. They may not want to lose square footage, but there are other measures they can build in to their costs and the city is now requiring that new buildings include the new safety measures and that old buildings are brought up to code in the next five years. The new building codes go into effect on July 1, 2008. If developers have to do something, they know how to work it in to the budget or how to pass the costs off to someone else. It is about money, and they know how to manipulate it.
6. Other issues have quickly taken over that of terror and safety. Sustainable development is the hot-button issue that most designers and engineers are focusing. Though not mutually exclusive to the issue of safety, it is the pressing, tangible threat the community is thinking about.
7. Buildings are complex organisms that the general public does not understand or question. Rarely do they understand the role of the architect. Public pressure would have pushed changes in building codes and design faster (in this instance however, September 11 was a good catalyst).
Calderon showed me the (very large) summary of the new building codes and let me know I can get the slide show from the Department of Buildings, my next step.
Seven years later, it is interesting to see what is important when thinking about building design and safety. My last interviews and steps will be:
1. Speak to developers or the Real Estate Congress of New York
2. Ask the Port Authority what standards they will comply with in the rebuilding of the site
3. Speak with someone on the design team of 7 World Trade Center at SOM for their story behind the building
4. Ask people on the street what they think is the biggest safety concern with skyscrapers and if they knew changes would be cheap and better for them in the long run, would they care.
1. Accountability – The World Trade Center site is governed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, ad not subject to the city’s building codes. It is a semi-private/semi-governmental organization over which no city agency has jurisdiction. The Department of City Planning, NYPD and NYFD could make suggestions and cite violations but it is the Port Authority’s choice to comply- part of the reason why the World Trade Center towers were able to be built so high in the first place.
2. All of the building code changes brought about by the World Trade Center attacks, do not affect the buildings that will be rebuilt on the site.
3. Structural engineers have been very instrumental in thinking bout design of buildings and creating safety measures for the structure and thinking about egress. Measures include, but are not limited to, the widening of stairwells, the introduction of sky lobbies, and elevators that firefighters can use in case of an emergency. However, engineers are very cognizant of not working under the assumption of terror. First and foremost, the buildings have to function and they need to figure out the best ways that can happen.
4. Architects worked on the building codes to include low-cost measures such as phosphorescent safety strips that can light the way to safety when the power shuts off and the requirement of sprinkler systems.
5. Everyone had to compromise on what they wanted or did not want to do- architects, engineers and yes, the almighty real estate community. They may not want to lose square footage, but there are other measures they can build in to their costs and the city is now requiring that new buildings include the new safety measures and that old buildings are brought up to code in the next five years. The new building codes go into effect on July 1, 2008. If developers have to do something, they know how to work it in to the budget or how to pass the costs off to someone else. It is about money, and they know how to manipulate it.
6. Other issues have quickly taken over that of terror and safety. Sustainable development is the hot-button issue that most designers and engineers are focusing. Though not mutually exclusive to the issue of safety, it is the pressing, tangible threat the community is thinking about.
7. Buildings are complex organisms that the general public does not understand or question. Rarely do they understand the role of the architect. Public pressure would have pushed changes in building codes and design faster (in this instance however, September 11 was a good catalyst).
Calderon showed me the (very large) summary of the new building codes and let me know I can get the slide show from the Department of Buildings, my next step.
Seven years later, it is interesting to see what is important when thinking about building design and safety. My last interviews and steps will be:
1. Speak to developers or the Real Estate Congress of New York
2. Ask the Port Authority what standards they will comply with in the rebuilding of the site
3. Speak with someone on the design team of 7 World Trade Center at SOM for their story behind the building
4. Ask people on the street what they think is the biggest safety concern with skyscrapers and if they knew changes would be cheap and better for them in the long run, would they care.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Giachino and Kupferman talks
Here they are, as promised.
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-10h31m12s_INV_Alyssa_Giachino_talk.wma
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-12h52m45s_INV_Joel_Kupferman_talk.wma
For those of you who complained the link to the last talk wasn't working: I think it's working now.
Nitey nite,
Andrew
Ps.: All these audio files will be labeled "talks" instead of whatever crazy crap I was doing before. AG
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-10h31m12s_INV_Alyssa_Giachino_talk.wma
http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-12h52m45s_INV_Joel_Kupferman_talk.wma
For those of you who complained the link to the last talk wasn't working: I think it's working now.
Nitey nite,
Andrew
Ps.: All these audio files will be labeled "talks" instead of whatever crazy crap I was doing before. AG
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.
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.
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