Gowanus Canal Should No Longer Be Considered Polluted: Petition

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A smorgasbord of Gowanus-area elected officials and community members want the state to officially recognize Gowanus Canal's days as a polluted industrial wasteland are behind it.

The canal should be reclassified for its future 30,000-plus new residents who will live, recreate and fish in the waterway, argued a petition sent this week by the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group.

Reclassification in plain English means changing the canal's status from industrial to a cleaner waterway. The canal currently isn't clean — in fact, it's one of the most polluted waterways in the country — but upping its status would raise the bar on environmental standards that would dovetail with current and future cleanup efforts.

"In order to ensure the long-term health of the Canal and neighborhood residents and visitors, regulations for improved water quality must be in place to protect and enforce non-compliance," the petitionstates.

Industrial sites sprung up along the Gowanus Canal for decades but have largely fallen away, leaving behind contaminated sites and polluted water.

The EPA created the Community Advisory Group in 2010 after the agency classified the canal as a Superfund site in need of long, expensive environmental cleanup. Its members, including 20 community organizations, have long pushed for a reclassification from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation to give cleanup efforts teeth.

Those pushes fell short, but two recent developments could help the effort — the EPA's recent order kicking off dredging in the canal and a long-awaited Gowanus rezoning.

Both are referenced repeatedly in the petition and attached letters of support from various local elected officials.

"The existing classification also does not correspond to the best near-term future use of the Canal, which will see substantial water quality improvements through the Superfund Clean-up, as well as increased access and residential population growth at the waterfront through the City’s rezoning process," wrote state Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon.

The current classification also does not allow for recreation or support growing natural habitats and fish populations in the water, wrote City Council members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin.

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, state Assembly Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz and Community Board 6 also sent letters with the petition or previous recommendations of support.

"We appreciate you taking the time to review these materials and look forward to a response on the timeframe in which this request will be considered," the petition letter states.

The petition can be read here.