In the Gowanus clean up EM-1 potentially could help everywhere in the plan. It may be in the details of the plan or it may not be.
To add EM-1 to all phases over 8 yrs would add how much to the estimate?
– The current estimate for the clean up is: $506 million dollars total over 8-10 yrs.
– Two retention tanks will keep new storm water out.
Gowanus clean up supporters ask how the mud balls would address the constant flow of new pollution entering the canal and the CSO’s. If these tanks are installed EM-1 solution can be added to these tanks.
– Where else can EM-1 help?
Quoted from the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance e news;
CLEAN-UP IS UPON US
AT GOWANUS“To put this in context,” said Judith Enck, the Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, as she announced the long-awaited clean-up plan for Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, “at other Superfund sites we typically measure toxins in parts per million, parts per billion, even parts per trillion. Here, we measure the toxins in parts per hundred.”
It was September 30, 2013, and Ms. Enck was joined on the banks of the canal by community activists and city, state and federal officials for the announcement. Above, Congressmember Nydia Velazquez takes a turn at the podium.
Ms. Enck described three parts to Superfund clean-up.
600,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment will be dredged from the bottom of the canal and transported to a disposal facility outside New York.
Two retention tanks will be built at outfall sites in the upper section of the canal, to hold excess stormwater so that sewage and garbage does not recontaminate the canal. The EPA estimates that this will reduce combined sewer overflows by 58% to 74%. NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland calls the retention tanks “unnecessary,” but elected officials at the Sept. 30 announcement, including Ms. Enck, Sen. Velazquez and City Council Member Brad Lander, said they expected the next NYC administration to work with the EPA on the matter.
In some areas contaminated with liquid coal tar that bubbles up to the surface, the sediment will be stabilized by mixing it with cement or a similar binding material
The Gowanus Canal is only 1.8 miles long and only 100 feet wide,” said Ms. Enck, “but it is one of the most contaminated urban waterways in the entire nation.”The clean-up will take eight to 10 years, and cost $506 million. The remediation will be paid for by polluters, known as “potentially responsible parties,” including National Grid, the City of New York, four federal agencies and 29 companies. All are listed on the EPA web site.
The Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group (CAG) was hailed as a critical partner in the process. The next meeting of the CAG is scheduled for October 22, 2013 at 6:30pn. Click here for details.
___________________
