a pollution history of the gowanus canal superfund site

The Gowanus Canal Superfund Site A Quick Overview of it’s Pollution History

“Sludgie” Superfund mascot: Anna Martin 2009

From a beautiful marsh .. to this ? What happened ?

Gino Muskratelli, Superfund Mascot interview candidate, drawn by Vince Mussachia, 2011 Aerial: 14 March 2012, Doc Searles, via Public Laboratory

Manhattan

Gowanus Watershed

The Canal

Historic Landfilled Tidal Marsh (sponge)

Massive Landscape Transformation From Ecological Food Basket to Post Industrial Wasteland

“Sludgie” Superfund mascot: Anna Martin 2009

1766 Historical Watershed Modeling by Lucas Kronawitter, 2011

1640

2012

THE GOWANUS CANAL IT’S IN A VALLEY WITH A HISTORICAL SPONGY MARSH THAT GOT LANDFILLED AND HARDENED

THE CLEANUP

PLAN:

1850’s to 1900’s Extensive Landfilling on top of Tidal Marsh: 19 Feet on Average, with a New Canal straightening historical meandering Creek

1950’s Side Canal Basins were filled in with ash, dirt and toxic waste ...

How did it get this way ? What polluted it ?

Gowanus Coal Tar floating on Canal, Robert de Rosa, 2011

Humans Discover the Miracle of Chemical Change

Tribal Fire in “Tor” by Joe Kubert, 1953

Gowanus Smokestack by Triensee, 2010

5 major Human Energy Use Phases Define Gowanus landscapes

Pre 1600 : Agricultural

1650 - 1800: Tidal

1800 - 1950: Fossil - Coal

1950 - 2000: Fossil - Oil

1950 – 2000: Digital Data

BIOLOGICAL CARBON RESOURCES, INCLUDING LUMBER

MECHANICAL TIDAL DAMS CAPTURE WATER ENERGY TO GRIND GRAIN

ERIE CANAL & STEAM BOAT – THE NEED FOR WATERFRONT LOTS

NEW MOTORS: FROM WATER TO THE ROADS AND AIR

HIGH SPEED DATA MAKES WATERFRONT WAREHOUSES OBSOLETE REPLACED BY CONTAINERIZATION, AND “JUST IN TIME” SHIPPING – GOWANUS NOW FACES NEW LAND USES AS NATURAL WATERFRONT IS REDISCOVERED

www.welikia.org

Humans have a capacity for complete ecological transformation

GOWANUS

Clearing of forests as first humans burn trees to improve hunting and plant fields

2007

Bob

Gus

skin

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Landscape also changes back: Gowanus Whole Foods site during remediation:

Gowanus Creek was a Rich Tidal Estuary

1766 Ratzer Map, New York Public Library

1635 Dutch Settlers start appropriating the rich Indian agricultural lands A main industry is growing grain for local tidal mills and distilleries

"I was going by the house of Lubbertse, and saw many little hills in the way from the house to (Brower's) Mill along the neck and (when I) inquired what the hills were ... was answered that it was the Indian corn lands.” Maritie Bevors, 84 years old, 1741 New Amsterdam Court Trial Proceedings, as quoted in "Indian Paths in the Great Metropolis", Reginald Bolton, 1922

Cristina Kelly “Maize Field” Bergen Street

27 August 1776 – Battle of Brooklyn Growing colonial wealth leads to resource conflicts America’s First Battle for Independence took place here “Provincials Drowned Here..”

1777 London’s Gentleman’s Map

1776 - Ongoing Resource Conflicts… The Battle of Brooklyn

1776, 27 August - Delaware Regiment_fighting in Battle of Brooklyn_painting: Domenick D'Andrea

1836 BROOKLYN EXPANDS SOUTH EUROPEAN GRID PLAN REPLACES TOPOGRAPHIC INDIAN TRAIL SYSTEM

1837 LANDFILLING OF MARSHES STARTS AS GARBAGE DUMPED INTO “WASTE LANDS”

1844 BERGEN, COBBLE, BOERUM HILL & MILL PONDS START DISSAPEARING HILLS BECOME LANDFILL MATERIAL FOR MARSHES

THE BIG CHANGE: The Industrial Revolution and Coal

Student Internship - circa 1906, Pennsylvania

IMPACT OF COAL ENERGY ON URBAN GROWTH OF NYC AND GOWANUS

1807 – Fulton’s Steam Engine : Makes possible long distance movement of coal and inland goods.

1800’s Onward : City allows Speculators to claim wetlands and underwater lots if they fill them in, typically with garbage, soils from hills and excavations & industrial wastes: The Era of Waterfront Industry begins

1815 Steam Boat 1825 Erie Canal

Regional Plan Association, Waste Management Plan, 1967

1825 ERIE CANAL The “Wedding of the Waters” linking inland lakes to coastal cities means a “divorce” for the City’s natural systems

1848 MAJOR DOUGLASS CANAL PLAN LEADS TO DREDGING AND HARDENING OF GOWANUS CREEK

DEVELOPMENT!1840s – 1860s the creek is converted into a 1.8 mile long canal

1849!2004, USACE Cultaral Resources Assessment for the Gowanus Canal, Hunter Research, Raber Associates, Northe Eastern Ecological Associates

1879 – GOWANUS MARSHES FILLED IN

1879, Currier & Ives

1922 – Coal Barges at entrance of Gowanus Canal

OLD MAPS TELL US WHAT WAS MADE WHERE .. AND POLLUTION IMPLICATIONS EXAMPLE – MUNITIONS FACTORY ON TOP OF OLD GOWANUS STREAM BED

CHEMICALS.. WHAT WAS USED ?

The Gowanus Canal Marshes now saturated with large pools of coal tar.. HOW DID IT GET THERE ?

June 2010 – Superfund Project Manager Christos Tsiamis with the Star of the Gowanus Sludge Sample

Photo by Katia Kelly, Pardon Me For Asking

1920’s Metropolitan Gas Works Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) Site, Gowanus Canal Picture courtesy of National Grid

1924 Public Place Citizens Gas Works Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) Site These huge steam punk steel lungs “breathed” up and down as gas was used during day This also helped push coal tar residues deep underground…

Picture courtesy of National Grid

Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club – SUPERFUND TOURISM MAP

= Really Icky Stuff ( Underground Coal Tar Plumes ) Come check em’ out by canoe !

Street Rain Runoff a major water pollution source Many Bus and Oil Depots around Canal

6 & 24 MARCH 2011 Heating Oils pouring down Second Street at Gowanus Canal

Coal Tar Sheens (different from street runoff) as they come from underground plumes left by old Manufacturing Gas Plant process

Picture courtesy of Christos Tsiamis, USEPA, circa 2008 (?)

The Coal Tar bubbles up to Gowanus Canal water surface via soil gases Picture courtesy of Pericles

Surprisingly stuff survives – above native Gowanus Yellow Aster / Goldenrod – but most plants are “synanthropic” – meaning they have adapted to human disturbance and are mostly from Europe and Asia so can survive higher heat and new Gowanus Canal concrete jungle ecology

Picture courtesy of Sean Hanley

1922 Public Place / Citizens Gas Works MGP Site

Gas Manufacturing Process used massive amounts of water for gas cleaning, releasing it back into Canal with pollutants

1922, National Grid Archives

1906 Water Sample Chart showing Gowanus Canal water was 90 degrees in FEBRUARY – the coldest month of the year

THERMAL POLLUTION Led to massive transformation of water ecology. This has changed dramatically in a century

1906_Charles F Breitzke & Gerhard, The Investigation of Sanitary Conditions of the Gowanus Canal, MIT

The Gowanus Canal still gets over a million gallons a day of sewage. The Superfund Plan will require sewage overflows to be dramatically reduced.

WHAT ARE COMBINED SEWER OVERFLOWS ? 13 Combined Sewer Overflows pour 330 million gallons a year of diluted sewage into the Canal - Up to 200 other outfalls, which Superfund is in the process of identifying - Proposed 170 Million Flushing Tunnel & Sewer Repairs will reduce Overflows by 34% - National Grid’s agreement to rebuild bottlenecked Bond Lorraine Sewer Line back to 72” diameter capacity (was 56”) may reduce CSO’s by another 20 to 30% - New Storm Drains on Carroll Street & 3rd Ave may help further

CURRENT CLEANUP PROPOSALS STILL LEAVE 132 MILLION GALLONS OF SEWAGE TO ELIMINATE .. SEA LEVELS ARE RISING

THEY KEEP SEWAGE FROM FLOODING YOUR BASEMENT & ALLOW TOILETS TO WORK DURING HEAVY STORMS

Cities are 6 degrees warmer than forests

THE GREENHOUSE

EFFECT

CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING …

Population: Temperature Difference: 10,000 4 degrees celsius 100,000 6 degrees celsius 1,000,000 8 degrees celsius 10,000,000 10 degrees celsius (Oke, 1973)

Pollution continues: Moves from Water to Air

2011, 2nd Street & Gowanus Canal Truck Yard

2009 Air Pollution the brown stuff makes you cough

2009 New York City Community Air Survey

2011 Environmental Protection Agency “Superfund” Investigation Comparison of Different Sediment Layers at bottom of Gowanus Canal

Sediment Layer

BTEX (mg/kg)

PAHs (mg/kg) PCBs (mg/kg) Lead (mg/kg)

Surface soft 0.36 527 0.43 533

Deeper soft 188 3,490 3.5 770

Native 233 2,920 0.026 14

Meaning the mud smells like oil when I try to make tunnels in it..

Tables courtesy of Christos Tsiamis, USEPA, 2011

Gogo the Gowanus Muskrat, picture by Adam Katzman June 2011

BTEX = benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes PAH = polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PCB = polychlorinated biphenyl (because I can never remember what the acronyms mean besides that they cause brain damage..)

Pre 1850

1850-1950 (worst time)

1950 - now

Surface Water Sampling Results Constituents Exceeding Screening Values Dry Weather Wet Weather Type Ecological Human Health Ecological Human Health

VOCs None Benzene None Ethylbenzene PCE

SVOCs None Benzo(a)anthracene Benzo(a)pyrene Benzo(b)fluoranthene Benzo(k)fluoranthene Chrysene Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate

None Benzo(a)anthracene Benzo(a)pyrene Benzo(b)fluoranthene Benzo(k)fluoranthene Chrysene Dibenz(,h)anthracene Indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene Naphthalene

Metals Cobalt Copper Nickel

Arsenic Chromium Cobalt Copper Mercury Thallium

Cobalt Iron Lead Nickel

Arsenic Chromium Cobalt Lead Mercury

The Canal gets a CRAP load of chemicals !

Gino Muskratelli, by Vince Mussachia, Six Packed Panels, Red Hook Star Revue, 2011

Tables courtesy of Christos Tsiamis, USEPA, 2011

Don’t forget the Estrogen and Methadone ( from pain killers and birth control pills flushed down the toilet )

How the pollutants move around in the Canal

www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/gowanus/

Columbia University 2007 “Eco Gowanus” Sanborn Mapping Study systematically analyzed industrial uses by chemicals used and studied pollution dispersal patterns

2007 edited by Patricia Cullinan & Richard Plunz & prepared by students from the Columbia University Urban Design Program

circuit boards

But there is hope… The Superfund Relight

LAND (non naturale)!

1776!2009, Eymund Diegel, Potential Extent of Superfund Area, based on Culligan Columbia Sanborn Study

TOXIC AREA: +/- 178 Acres “Superfund site” is Canal only: 1.8 miles x 100 ft wide; Rest is State Brownfields Cleanup Program “2020 Vision” A clear cleanup time table = proposals for new housing

Superfund Salad: Gowanus Metallophyte Plants have adapted to heavy metals in human environments

ALL EDIBLE (IF YOU LIKE HEAVY METALS)

http://urbanomnibus.net/2010/11/from-brownfields-to-greenfields-a-field-guide-to-phytoremediation/

FOR RECIPES:

COMMUNITY / COMMUNITIES DEFINED BY LAND USE CHANGES OLDTIMERS VS NEW COMERS OWNERS VS RENTERS WHERE WILL BE COMMON GROUNDS ?

Will Eisner – On The Waterfront

GOWANUS STAKEHOLDERS

GOWANUS CANAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY

GOWANUS DREDGERS

GOWANUS & WYCKOFF HOUSES

DEVELOPERS (HUDSON, AFRICA ISRAEL)

ELECTED OFFICIALS

COMMUNITY BOARDS

ANNUAL GOWANUS ARTISTS STUDIO TOUR

OWNERS

RENTERS

BUSINESS PEOPLE

OLD

YOUNG

ENVIRONMENTALISTS

FACTORY OWNERS

TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

RECYCLING INDUSTRY

SOUTH BROOKLYN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

REMEDIATION PROFESSIONALS

STATE (NYSDEC)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (USEPA)

CITY (NYCDEP)

PLANNERS

RESIDENTS

RICH

POOR

NIMBYS PRESERVATIONISTS

5TH AVENUE COMMITTEE

OPEN SPACE ADVOCATES

PROTEUS GOWANUS

AMERICAN CAN FACTORY

BROOKLYN LYCEUM

GOWANUS ALLIANCE

FRIENDS & RESIDENTS OF GREATER GOWANUS

CARROLL GARDENS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

FILM & ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

FRIENDS OF THOMAS GREEN PARK

GOWANUS BY DESIGN

CEMENT INDUSTRY

BIG BOX STORES (FAIRWAYS, STORAGE)

MAYOR

FISH & BIRDS & INSECTS

WHO ARE THEY ? WHAT WILL BE THE COMMON GROUND ?

SOCIETY

ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT

HOMELESS

POT SMOKERS

HOOKERS

LIVING CITY BLOCK

CENTER FOR URBAN PEDAGOGY

How is the COMMUNITY CHANGING ?

Is it something in the Water ? NO. Just boring demographics. People are having babies, Suburbs Suck and the abandoned inner city is repopulating 2011 ARIANA & JOEL WEDDING LIZ & NED ENGAGEMENT

NEW YORK CITY SEX HEAT MAP “THE DEEPER INTO BROOKLYN YOU GO, THE KINKIER PEOPLE GET”

The darker the color, the more likely a neighborhood’s residents are to respond to contact on OkCupid NY Magazine, June 2011

THE GOWANUS CANAL

Lily Frances – Carroll Gardens Patch

Gowanus Ecology is improving and we expect a massive increase in fish populations and health with opening of Flushing Tunnel in Spring 2013 Type Species Small prey fish Atlantic Tomcod

Hake Mummichog

Blue Crab Blue Crab Larger Fish American Eel

Striped Bass White Perch

2010, 29 June _Local Gowanus kids with captured Jellyfish photo: Ava Chin, NY Times

1900’S FLUSHING TUNNEL DESIGNED TO CLEAN STAGNANT & POLLUTED GOWANUS

As stream diverted to sewers, no longer enough water to flush Gowanus Creek by tides alone. Engineering Measures needed to Solve Problem Tunnel motor broke in 1960 - to be fixed by 2013

Brooklyn Public Library, via Kevin Clarke, NYCDEP

2012, 8 February _ Cormoran at OH 007 Combined Sewer Overflow next to the Gowanus Canal Conservancy Rain Gardens – photo: Patrick Verek

Heartbeats in the Muck

2010, 30 August – Night Herons at !st Street Floating Gardens Photo: Adam Katzman

You can’t stop happiness … June 2010 – Smoking Gowanus Canal Fisherman with striped bass

Photo courtesy of Christos Tsiamis, USEPA, 2011

BETTER BANK FINANCING & SUPERFUND POSITIVE IMPACT : TOLL BROTHERS HOUSING NOW LIGHTSTONE APARTMENTS

Denton’s Mill Site Getting information out there so that developers view historical sites as an asset not a liability

Ate Atema Architects Conceptual First Street Basin redevelopment proposal

POWERHOUSE ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS CENTER DEVELOPMENT (NEW)

NEW CONCEPTS BEING EXPLORED FOR CANAL WATERFONT

“GOWANUS GREEN” PROPOSAL FOR FORMER PUBLIC PLACE / CITIZENS MANUFACTURING GAS PLANT BROWNFIELD SITE

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (pronounced Eeeepah)

General Plans for Remediation

WHAT’S THAT ABOUT ?

As adapted from “Simpsons, the Movie” , 2007

PROPOSED GOWANUS CANAL CONTAMINATION CONTAINMENT DOME BUT FIRST …

In a nutshell … The Gowanus Canal gets about 5 truckloads of crap a year from sewers & pollutants The Superfund Plan will dig out +/- 30,000 truck loads of this muck from bottom of Canal, put it on barges and haul it away Line the sides with steel, cap the bottom with a liner, and MAKE IT ALL PRETTY AND GREEN (if community gets it’s way) + they are putting corks in all sewer pipes (maybe)

REVERSE THE PROCESS

A CENTURY OF DUMPING …

TOXIC SLUDGE (est. 30,000 barge loads) from bottom of Canal taken to Red Hook where it will be first cleaned to make landfill park (may also go elsewhere)

Sites in BROWN are major cleanup sites being dealt with by NY STATE, Site in BLUE being cleaned by EPA. Private Polluters pay for the cleanup MILLION GALLONS A DAY OF SEWAGE REDUCED BY 34%

SIDES OF CANAL TO BE LINED WITH STEEL TO KEEP POLLUTION FROM SHORE TO FLOW BACK INTO CANAL

THOMAS GREENE PARK BROWNFIELD SITE

Flushing Tunnel BRINGS IN 220,000

GALLONS OF CLEANER WATER A DAY FROM EAST RIVER

Gowanus Canal Superfund Cleanup

Landscaping Sponge Park Concept by dlandstudio / Gowanus Canal Conservancy

From East River

PUBLIC PLACE BROWNFIELD SITE

LOWES BROWNFIELD SITE

WHOLE FOODS FORMER BROWNFIELD SITE (now under construction)

General Concepts discussed at Community Advisory Group meetings

SEWAGE OUTFLOW FROM WEST OF CANAL (ELIMINATED)

SEWAGE OUTFLOW FROM SOUTH (REMAINS)

SEWAGE FROM EAST OF CANAL (REMAINS)

X

COMMUNITY ADVISORY GROUP WANT SEWER OVERFLOWS BROUGHT TO ZERO, EITHER BY NEW STORM DRAINS OR SEWER HOLDING TANKS

CONTAINMENT STRATEGY: AFTER DIGGING OUT UP TO 30 FEET, BOTTOM OF CANAL WILL BE LINED WITH CLAY AND POLLUTION BARRIER TO PREVENT DEEPER (130 FEET DOWN) COAL TAR OILS FROM BUBBLING UP

REMOVAL STRATEGY:

1999  Flushing Tunnel reactivated Gowanus Dredgers founded 2000 Vacant Lots attract Developers 2007 Gowanus Community Plan Gowanus Canal Conservancy founded NYC Gowanus Rezoning Plan initiated 2009 Flushing Tunnel shut down for more repairs 2011  $ 500 million Superfund Cleanup program begins 2012  $ 175 million Flushing Tunnel Reactivated 2013  Bond Lorraine Sewer Rebuilt 2014  Gowanus Green Housing Built ? 2022 Superfund Cleanup completed

2011 Scale Free Network 2011 Eymund Diegel

DECAY REBIRTH

A failure to make long lasting life style changes

PROBLEMS …

FLUSHING TUNNEL CENTENNIAL 2011 A failure to get our city to work more efficiently

June 2011 Canoer picking up flowers thrown into Gowanus Canal water during Flushing Tunnel Centennial Celebrations

$ 2400

2011 DontFlush.Me, Leif Percifield

A failure to design sustainable cities

COMMUNITY GROUPS ARE BECOMING SELF SUFFICIENT The City’s grassroots movement is growing back..

But there is hope..

OPPORTUNITIES…

Flooded Conservancy tool box – Clean up within 48 hours with no City or Federal help

GOWANUS CANAL CONSERVANCY SANDY FLOOD CLEANUP – 31 OCTOBER 2012

2011 Citizen Kite Photo Program

Goal: make the Gowanus Canal swimmable

What Kind of Water Quality Do You Think We’ll Need ?

What ?! Are you Crazy ? Not Really. By improving Canal we improve water quality for ALL our beaches.

RECONSTRUCTING THE PATH OF THE GOWANUS WATERSHED’S HISTORIC STREAM… How can we get rainwater out of the sewers and back into the historical stream system ? We need more research…

ArcHydro Gowanus Watershed Flow Map by Eymund Diegel, 2010, based on a 2004 Digital Elevation Model. The blue lines represent the way rainwater would flow if their were no buildings or street drains. Though hypothetical, the flow directions gives clues to the path of historic stream beds, major street regradings, and potential underground aquifer flows. The blue blobs represent “sinks” or pools in the contours where rainwater would tend to pond. These all represent “opportunity sites” for Green Infrastructure to improve the Canal’s water quality. I have found this model accurately depicts why my neighbor’s basement floods on Sackett Street (the old Bergen Creek watercourse)

Bergen Creek

Brouwer’s Brook

Sassian Stream

Denton’s Spring

Denton’s Pond

Coles Pond

Vechte’s Spring

HISTORIC GOWANUS TIDAL MARSH

POTENTIAL STREAM OUTFLOW SITE

Brouwer’s Spring

HISTORIC GOWANUS STREAMS

ECOLOGICAL (HISTORICAL) WATER CYCLE

URBAN WATER CYCLE

IT RAINS

WATER GOES INTO PIPE

CONDENSATION

EVAPORATION

INFILTRATION & HISTORIC STREAM RESTORATION

IT RAINS

SOME WATER GOES INTO PIPE

WHAT WE WANT 2011, Lukas Kronawitter, Terreform One, Water Sensitive Urban Design for the Gowanus Canal

Volunteer Groups are Improving the Canal …

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE NOW PART OF PLANNING CONVERSATION

FORMERLY OPPOSED COMMUNITY GROUPS ARE FINDING COMMON GROUNDS

Lisanne, Found in Brooklyn November 2010

2007: COMMUNITY PRIORITIES & OPPORTUNITIES OUTLINED

COMMUNITY PLANNERS

How can we help see “decay” as a better way to design cities ?

What do YOU think will be the way forward ?…

Gowanus Canal Dredgers Canoe Club Sunset – photo by Torsten Kjellstrand for the Oregonian, 2012, 8 June