Norman's Statement to EPA Supporting Superfund Status for Gowanus Canal Cleanup

I am writing this letter to applaud the Environmental Protection Agency for its proposal to designate the Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site, and voice my strong support for going forward with this cleanup. This is a crucial, common-sense proposal; it has been clear for many years to anyone who lives or works in the Gowanus vicinity that the area is environmentally unhealthy as a result of the state of the Canal. As such, it surprised few when the EPA’s investigation revealed that there are alarmingly high levels of PCBs, tar, arsenic, and mercury in the water. What has surprised many is that there is a concerted effort, championed by local real estate developers, to resist the EPA’s offer to clean up this dangerously polluted site.

It is very difficult to understand the reasoning of those who oppose Superfunding the Gowanus Canal. Some of them have claimed that the EPA cleaning up the Gowanus Canal would “stigmatize” the area, thereby reducing its attractiveness for future development. But the word “Gowanus” has already carried a stigma for decades, and when certain pollutants are more than 10,000 times as common in Gowanus water than other listed emergency sites, this worry about “stigma” is simply laughable. The opponents of Superfund status have also claimed that they can perform the cleanup faster than the EPA. We the people reserve the right to be skeptical. If they are really such experts in cleaning up potentially toxic sites, then why haven’t they taken the initiative to clean the very area they wish to develop? Certainly, nobody would have stopped them.

Where urban development is concerned, New York City has not been served well over the past decade. We’ve suffered from a laissez-faire attitude, a lack of political leadership, and minimal attention paid to environmental concerns. Now that the housing bubble has popped and the economic recession is pressing on, we are reeling in the wake of past short-sightedness. The negative responses to the Superfund proposal are a particularly egregious example of how this short-sightedness continues unabated among certain special interests. But I, for one, look forward to welcoming the Environmental Protection Agency to do something we should have done long ago – clean up the Gowanus Canal. And I know that South Brooklyn residents and concerned New Yorkers throughout the city are with me on this one.

Regards,

Norman Siegel