BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city’s proposal tanked!
Federal authorities have
rejected a city scheme to build
a massive tunnel to store sewage
under the Gowanus Canal
— opting to install two gigantic
storage tanks instead.
The city’s tunneling plan
would have lead to catastrophic
delays that would be detrimental
to Gowanusaurs’ health,
according to an Environmental
Protection Agency rep who
blasted the plan in a Sept. 20 letter
to city environmental honchos.
“Delays to the remedy that...
would be caused by shifting to
a tunnel would result in much
longer continued human health
and environmental exposures
that have been determined...
to be unacceptable,” wrote the
agency’s regional administrator
Peter Lopez.
Rather than undertake a
massive tunneling effort beneath
Brooklyn’s Nautical Purgatory,
fed will instead install
two retention tanks in an elaborate
scheme designed to collect
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stormwater and liquid waste
that would otherwise fl ood the
canal during heavy rains.
The back-and-forth between
the different levels of government
is just the latest installment
in a years-long disagreement
over how to best care for
the Gowanus.
The disagreement began in
2013, when the feds originally
proposed a version of their tank
plan — arguing for installation
of an eight-million gallon
underwater vessel near Butler
and Nevins streets, and fourmillion
gallon container at the
Fourth Street Turning Basin.
In 2018, the city fi red back
with their own proposal for
the 16 million gallon tunnel
that would run along the same
stretch, 125 to 150-feet below the
canal, but could hold 4 million
gallons more than the tanks
and — more importantly —
would save money in construction
costs.
“To be perfectly honest, it
came down to cost,” Department
of Environmental Protection
offi cial Kevin Clarke said
after the tunnel was proposed
last year. “As that cost continued
to increase, the tunnel
looked more attractive.”
The feds spent over a year
studying that tunnel proposal,
before ultimately rejecting the
scheme in favor of the tanks, according
to Lopez, who claimed
that the tunnel plan would delay
cleanup by at least two extra
years.
“In light of many considerations...
the EPA believes that
the tunnel, as proposed, would
likely be screened out of any
focused feasibility study,” said
Lopez in his rejection letter.
In addition to being faster,
the feds’ plan would also create
more than enough sewage storage
to deal with future population
increases stemming from a
possible rezoning of the canal’s
namesake neighborhood, said
Lopez.
But the tank plan may end
up being redundant, as the project’s
manager claimed that city
regulators will attempt to force
large real estate developers to
manage their own stormwater
runoff and sewage treatment,
citing agency’s original Record
of Decision .
“The developers will have
to assume responsibility for not
compromising the cleanup,
and we stand by that,” said
Christos Tsiamis.
But Tsiamis stopped short
of issuing a full commitment to
holding development bigwigs
responsible for sewage overfl
ows when pressed at a Gowanus
Community Advisory
Group meeting on Sept. 24.
“We’re going to look at these
problems on a one-by-one basis,”
he said. “We’re going to
look at the problem, and see
what it requires.”
Tsiamis answer left some
members of the group skeptical
that giant new development
in Gowanus would not further
entrench the issues with the
public sewage system, leaving
questions about whether the
city’s massive tanks were truly
enough.
“I’m really skeptical about
anything that’s not in black and
white,” said Diane Buxbaum. “I
don’t believe the developers or
the city will impose anything
when it comes to real estate development.”
PIPE DREAM Feds shoot down city’s tunnel proposal for Gowanus Canal cleanup
FLUSHED: The feds axed the city’s proposal to build a giant, underground
tunnel along the Gowanus Canal instead of installing two massive water
storage tanks, including one below the headhouse, seen here.
Department of Environmental Protection
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