EPA: Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal is disgusting!

"EPA’s investigation confirmed the widespread presence of more than a dozen contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and various metals, including mercury, lead and copper, at high levels in the sediment in the Gowanus Canal."

Why am I not surprised?

The EPA's "Human Health Risk Assessment" also found that people who eat fish and crabs from the Canal are at risk from exposure to PCBs. My question is, who the heck is eating fish from the Gowanus Canal?

As the EPA moves forward with the Draft Feasibility Study, a lot of questions remain, namely: can we really "revitalize" the Gowanus Canal? How long is this going to take? 10, 20, 30 years? How much is this costing the taxpayers? Can the EPA track down the "Potentially Responsible Parties"? And who is ultimately benefiting from the Superfund process?

EPA Proposes to Add Nine New Hazardous Waste Sites to Superfund's National Priorities List

The Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) keeps getting bigger and bigger. On October 19, the EPA declared it was proposing to add another 9 contaminated sites to the list.


"To date, 1,627 sites have been listed on the NPL. There have been 346 sites deleted from the NPL with 1,281 sites remaining.   With the proposal of nine new sites and one site being withdrawn from proposal, there are 62 proposed sites awaiting final agency action:  57 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section.  There are a total of 1,343 final and proposed sites."


READ THE REST OF THE EPA PRESS RELEASE

Long Island Gets a Little Cleaner (according to the EPA)

The SMS Instruments Superfund Site (Deer Park, NY) gets the "green thumbs up" from the EPA.

"After completing all the cleanup work needed to address contaminated soil and ground water, and assessing recent monitoring data, EPA has determined that the cleanup was successful and that the site no longer poses a significant threat to public health or the environment."

Considering how difficult it is for SF Sites to be removed from the NPL, the residents of Deer Park should be excited about this.

SMS Instruments Superfund Site had been on the NPL for over 2 decades.