In April 2009, the EPA announced a proposal to make the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site, beginning a public comment period that ended on July 8, 2009.  The Gowanus Canal is a 1.5 mile-long waterway extending northward from the Gowanus Bay in Brooklyn.  Historic uses along the canal have resulted in sediment contamination.

The plan proposed by the City would clean the canal to the same standards as Superfund.  The City shares the same goals for the Gowanus Canal as the EPA to: protect human health, clean up the contaminated sediments, restore canal water quality, and halt land discharge of contamination into the canal. 

In its comment to EPA, the City developed an Alternative Cleanup Plan for the Gowanus Canal that will achieve the same cleanup as Superfund but would not require a Superfund listing.  The City actively worked with EPA and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to develop this plan, and both agencies would be involved in the administration and oversight of any Superfund alternative should the EPA decide not to list the Gowanus Canal.  The Alternative Cleanup Plan seeks to maximize on-going and planned investments in the canal by NYC Department of Environmental Protection and the Army Corps of Engineers and uses a collaborative, voluntary approach with potentially responsible parties.  This approach can achieve a cleanup more quickly and efficiently than Superfund, which is an adversarial process based in litigation.

Click here to view the City's presentation for an Alternative Cleanup Plan for the Gowanus Canal.

Click here to read Q&A on the Proposed Superfund Listing.

Click here to read details on the City's Alternative Cleanup Plan.

For more information check out these resources:

• EPA's Superfund Home Page
• US Army Corps of Engineers work on the Gowanus Canal
• NYC DEP Public Improvement Projects to upgrade the Gowanus Canal’s flushing tunnel system and wastewater pumping station
• NYC Department of City Planning’s (DCP) rezoning framework and DCP’s draft rezoning proposal