Movin’ on up — to the Gowanus Canal neighborhood?

Beth Kessenich
Aug 9, 2017 · 5 min read

By Beth Kessenich

New Apartment Building at 365 Bond Street — located right on the polluted Gowanus Canal.

GOWANUS — The luxury residences at 365 Bond Street “will blow you away” said Harold Davis, a leasing agent at the new apartment complex complete with a full service gym, yoga studio, roof deck, and private office space to work from home among other amenities. 365 Bond Street is not the only thing new and cool in the area, there is also a Whole Foods Market, an abundance of boutiques, fancy eateries, bars, and a popular shuffleboard spot that many Manhattanites travel to for a fun activity on the weekends. Ironically, this is all steps away from what the EPA and Federal Government declared in 2010 a Superfund Site: The Gowanus Canal.

One would think being next to one of the most polluted waterways in the United States would not be a desirable place to live but it is actually not affecting the real estate market at all. “The first renters moved in around April 2016 and we are just coming up on people’s one year leases,” Davis said “So if you get an apartment this month, it is nice to know that either no one or only one other person has lived there before you.” Davis explained how the building is almost at 100% occupancy and they have had no trouble at all filling the spots of this Manhattan rent-priced building in Gowanus.

After speaking to a neighborhood resident, Kelsey Moore, 31 said, “the neighborhood is really great, I used to live in the East Village and I find this area to be much cleaner and quieter. And it’s nestled between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens two of the nicest neighborhoods in Brooklyn — I think Gowanus is very up and coming.”

A CSO — combined sewage overflow point where waste can flow right into the Gowanus Canal from the sewage system.

The Gowanus Canal has been heavily contaminated throughout its existence. By the time the canal was completed in 1869 it was a shipping hub that carried many imported goods into and out of New York City. The surrounding area of Gowanus has always been very industrial with lumberyards, coal yards, auto shops, and other factories all originated in that area. With the creation of these factories came with it toxic waste and pollution and ultimately severely damaged the waterway there. One of the biggest problems of the area is its layout. Every type of runoff and waste surrounding it seems to funnel straight into the canal. Environmental agencies and local groups such as the Gowanus Canal Conservancy have made it their mission to be the steward for the Gowanus Canal Watershed and turn the area into a cleaner safer environment for all.

Michael Wasserman, Program Director for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy said one of the biggest issues the canal faces “is the 50 feet of coal tar at the bottom of the canal that people describe as black mayonnaise.” This black tar has been sitting at the bottom of the canal for decades and until the US government declared the canal a Superfund Site “nothing was being done about it” he said. “Rarely do you see activity on the canal — absolutely no one is ever swimming in it because they know how contaminated it is, but you do sometimes see a person on a kayak or a boat,” Wasserman said. “But usually the guy on a boat works for the EPA and he is testing the water or surveying the area.” Wasserman said the GCC has also created community gardens and nurseries, an art lab for the creative types in the area, and other community events to educate the public on the situation there and the need for community involvement.

A community garden located steps away from the Gownaus Canal created by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy group.

The Gowanus Lowland Project is another item the GCC is working on and is described by Andrea Parker, the Executive Director of the GCC, as “a network of parks and public spaces centered on the Gowanus Canal, a much cleaner and greener space where people can enjoy all that Gowanus has to offer.” Parker explains the project in a hopeful way saying, “The EPA is in charge of the cleanup itself, our job at the GCC is to clean up the surrounding community and be the intermediary between the developments happening and the people of Gowanus. Through community engagement and education we want to create a thriving environment for all.”

In March of 2017 when President Donald Trump announced his fiscal 2018 budget, it called for a “$2.6 billion dollar cut from the Environmental Protection Agency.” As of last week, however, the House Appropriations Committee, the group responsible for setting the expenditures of money for the US government, released a spending bill that could cut the EPA budget by only “528 million next year.” Much less then the proposed plan from President Trump. This is not expected to have an immediate effect on the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal and the GCC team and local residents do not seem to be worried about the current administrations commitment to funding the site.

When discussing the current status of the Canal Elias Rodriguez, a public relations director for the EPA said, “our responsibility is to clean it up, anything surrounding is local decision making.” When asked what the Gowanus area will look like over the next few years, he says “that is up to local agencies and community groups, we have no part in that vision.” It is clear there is a disconnect between the EPA and the people of Gowanus. The EPA’s only concern is going through the different stages of remediation and cleaning up the canal. It is up to the local organizations like the GCC and residents of places like 365 Bond to come together and build a cleaner more aesthetically pleasing environment surrounding it.

According to the EPA, the Gowanus Canal is currently in a “remedial design stage,” this means that engineers are currently building the holding tanks for the sewage and the EPA is prepping the canal for intense dredging come fall 2017. Much of the process over the last six months was “waste removal and clearing out debris from the canal” says Natalie Looney, Community Involvement Coordinator with the US EPA. Since 2016, the EPA has been removing large amounts of debris from the canal including an old World War II Navy vessel and other large metal and steel parts that they need to get rid of before they can dredge and build the cement layer at the bottom of the canal.

“Ultimately the Gowanus Canal is a very large and very complicated project,” Looney said. “Although we are aiming for 2022, that timeline may change as the project progresses.”


A booming area in Brooklyn, Gowanus is home to many new luxury apartment buildings and hot restaurants — while being steps away from one of the most polluted and toxic waterways in the US.
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