Last night, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy hosted a debate, moderated by Ted Wolff of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, between SPR’s Dan Chorost and Riverkeeper’s Josh Verleun, on the topic of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to add Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to the Superfund National Priorities List (“NPL”). The Canal borders the communities of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, and empties into New York Harbor. Since the 1860s, the Gowanus has hosted numerous industrial operations, including manufactured gas plants, mills, tanneries, and chemical plants. Decades of industrial discharges from these historic uses, as well as stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows, have resulted in portions of the Gowanus Canal needing to be remediated.
While virtually everyone agrees that cleaning up the Gowanus is an important public goal, its inclusion in the Superfund program is by no means the only, or best, option for achieving that goal. SPR represents several owners and prospective owners of properties on or near the Gowanus, and SPR attorneys David Yudelson and Ashley S. Miller have written a briefing paper arguing that Superfund listing should be undertaken only as a last resort (pdf).
At yesterday’s Gowanus Canal Conservancy debate, Dan Chorost argued that there are better alternatives to a Superfund listing, since an EPA listing would disrupt ongoing cleanup efforts, generate years of lawsuits among potentially responsible parties, threaten much-need private investment in the area, and ultimately delay the cleanup of the Gowanus. The City of New York has prepared a detailed alternative cleanup plan for the Gowanus that calls for EPA oversight without including the Gowanus on the NPL. Josh Verleun of Riverkeeper argued that despite Superfund’s limitations, it is nonetheless the appropriate mechanism for cleaning the Gowanus, and the federal government is best situated to undertake the remediation.
EPA recently extended until July 8, 2009 the public comment period for its proposed NPL listing of the Gowanus Canal. To submit a comment to EPA, click here. For more information on this issue, contact Dan Chorost.
