"The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released its formal, final decision on how to complete the Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, a waterway whose depths contain toxins from long-ago industry and more recent sewage overflows."
"The $506 million plan will involve dredging hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of contaminated sediment and processing it off-site. In the face of community opposition, a plan to treat some of that material in Red Hook was scrapped.
Two basins within the canal where ships can turn around will also be dredged.
Built in 1848 around the footprint of Gowanus Creek, “the canal quickly became one of the nation's busiest industrial waterways,” according to the EPA. Gas and coal companies, chemical and cement manufacturers, paint and ink factories, machine shops and tanneries discharged waste directly into the canal."
Jarrett Murphy reports for the Brooklyn Bureau September 30, 2013.
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