Gowanus Canal - Environmental and Economic Developments

Environmental and Economic Developments

In early 2006, the problem of wastewater management arose during a controversy over a planned Brooklyn Nets Arena in nearby central Brooklyn. The project would include a basketball arena and 17 skyscrapers. The resulting sewage would flow into antiquated combined sewers that can overflow when it rains. The Gowanus Canal has 14 combined sewer overflow points; the fear is that the additional wastewater from the arena would lead to more frequent overflows in the canal.

In 1999, Assemblywoman Joan Millman allocated $100,000 to the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (GCCDC) to produce and distribute a bulkhead study and public access document. The following year, GCCDC received $270,000 from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to construct three street-end public open spaces along the Gowanus Canal through the city's Green Street program. An additional $270,000 was funded by Governor George E. Pataki to create a revitalization plan in 2001 and then allocated $100,000 in capital funds in 2002 to implement a pilot project on the shoreline. In 2003, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez allocated an additional $225,000 to create a comprehensive community development plan. Today this organization relies on community volunteers to maintain and clean these Green Street Projects. The community lacks a community centered redevelopment plan.

In 2002, the United States Army Corps of Engineers entered into a cost-sharing agreement with the DEP to collaborate on a $5 million Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study of the Gowanus Canal area to be completed in 2005, studying possible alternatives for ecosystem restoration such as dredging, and wetland and habitat restoration. Discussions turned to breaking down the hard edges of the canal in order to restore some of the natural processes to improve the overall environment of the Gowanus wetlands area. The DEP also initiated the Gowanus Canal Use and Standards Attainment project, to meet the City's obligations under the Clean Water Act. As of the summer 2009, the joint NYC/Army Corps Feasibility study has not been completed.

As the industrial Brooklyn cityscape evolves, new development plans have been debated for the Gowanus Canal and the land abutting it. The adjacent neighborhood to the east (4th Avenue) was rezoned for high density residential use with a strong commercial component. With brownfield redevelopment incentives offered by the State of New York, developers look to this land as another place to build, with substantial help of public money.

With the popularity of the location, some community groups, led by a funeral director in the area, have raised the dream of Brooklyn's own Grand Canal of Venice tourism.

Paving the way for recreational use of the canal has been the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club (founded in 1999), and The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy (founded in 1998), two organizations that are dedicated to providing waterfront access and education related to the estuary and bordering shoreline of the canal. During the 2003 season, over 1,000 individuals, including more than 200 youths, participated in Dredger Canoe Club programs, logging over 2,000 trips on the Gowanus Canal. The NY Harbor report for that same year showed the Gowanus to have the highest level of pathogens in the entire harbor.

A 9.4 acre (38,000 m²) U.S. Postal Service site on the east side of the Ninth Street canal crossing became available for commercial development. Development groups have not taken their eye off a whole range of possible projects for the site. It has been proposed as the Brooklyn Commons, an entertainment and retail complex featuring a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley, shops and restaurants. After controversy, a lawsuit, and a rival proposal for an IKEA store, a large Lowe's store was built and opened on April 30, 2004, with an adjacent public promenade overlooking the canal. The IKEA company, previously rejected from the Ninth Street location for traffic congestion, opened on the south end of Red Hook on the harbor waterway. That project was objected to by community organizations in the Red Hook and Gowanus neighborhoods.

Another site at Smith and 4th street was taken by the city in 1975 and designated a Public Place, for use as "public recreation space". Despite this legal standing of the Public Place, developers have continually proposed using this site for other possibilities. National Grid is accountable for a cleanup of the pollution left behind on the site after years of coal gas manufacture. Upon completion of this cleanup the site was to be turned over to the parks department. Developers however believe it should be used for a large scale housing project. There is much concern in the community over the possible loss of this much need recreation space.

FROGG, Friends & Residents of Greater Gowanus, and a group of artists carved out a niche in the Gowanus area. The Gowanus Artists are a group of over 100 local visual artists that hang out and paint in the Canal's parks, on its bridges, and in their nearby studios. On the last weekend of every October, they open up their studios for the Gowanus Open Studio Tour, expanding also into Park Slope's Brooklyn Lyceum (227 Fourth Avenue) and Southpaw (125 Fifth Avenue) venues.

In November 2006, HABITATS, a festival dedicated to "local action as global wisdom" celebrated the Gowanus Canal through environmental conferences, collaborative art, educational programs and interactive walks around the area. The canal has been the home to various arts organizations. The Issue Project Room once organized art events, and The Yard, an outdoor concert space, opened in the summer of 2007 near the Carroll Street bridge.

In February 2009, the city of New York granted a zoning change to the developer, Toll Brothers Inc., allowing for a 480-unit, twelve-story, super-block residential project, the first permitted along the waterway. Toll Brothers abandoned this project in 2010 when the Gowanus Canal was declared a Superfund cleanup site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In April 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed that the canal be listed as a Superfund cleanup site. This action was supported by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which had requested help from EPA to address the canal's environmental problems. In May 2009, the city stepped forward to oppose the Superfund listing and offered, for the first time, to produce a Gowanus cleanup plan that would match the work of a Superfund cleanup, but with a promise to accomplish it faster. The city stated that it could now achieve a faster cleanup than EPA because the city would fund the cleanup through taxpayer dollars from the state and city levels, while the EPA would seek its funding from the polluters. On March 4, 2010, the EPA announced that it had placed the Gowanus Canal on its Superfund National Priorities List.

By 2013, the New York City Department of Environmental Plans to reduce the sewage content of the canal by repairing a tunnel that flushes fresh water into the Gowanus. The repair will not eliminate the sewage problem. The EPA has suggested seven plans for the clean up. The Village Voice reported two scenarios as most viable, estimated at taking ten years to complete and costing around $350-$450 million. The first step in the plans is dredging, scheduled to begin 2016. The second is to lay down one of two different proposed "caps". One cap over the still-polluted canal bed would be made of concrete. The second would have first a layer of clay to absorb pollutants, A layer of sand to act as a buffer, and then a layer of rocks to anchor that floor. Some express concern that the clean-up poses a health risk.