In early October, Gowanus residents and agency officials packed into the auditorium of P.S. 372, The Children’s School, for a monthly Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group meeting. The school sits on a site monitored for toxic contaminants by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. With poster boards mapping out testing for contamination in the surrounding blocks, officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation and state Department of Health fielded questions from worried residents about pollution as well as the pace of testing and cleanup across the neighborhood amid rapid redevelopment.
As climate change intensifies, New York City has seen an increase in heavy rainfall from intense storms known as cloudbursts. Gowanus lies in a high-risk flood area with a shallow water table, meaning groundwater sits close to the surface. Residents and experts said worsening flooding, redevelopment and legacy industrial pollution are colliding and being met with inadequate solutions. Advocates have raised concerns about potential contamination in the neighborhood’s groundwater, soil and indoor air.
“All of this points to the same root problem, that DEC still has no plan to address the contamination in Gowanus on a neighborhoodwide basis,” Jack Riccobono, a member of the local advocacy group Voice of Gowanus, told City & State. “They’re allowing these big buildings to be built piecemeal on top of partially remediated land parcels, leaving vast plumes of toxic pollution migrating under the ground.”…