"Please List The Site": Carroll Gardens Resident's Testimony To EPA Regarding Gowanus Superfund

Friend and neighbor Jeff Miles just sent me the testimony he sent to the EPA regarding the listing of the Gowanus Canal as a Superfund Site. It is a wonderful statement and mirrors the opinion of most every one in the community. With his permission, I am reprinting it here.

From: Jeff Miles
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 5:16 PM
To: 'munhall.dennis@epa.gov'
Subject: #EPA-HQ-SFUND-2009-0063

Dear Mr. Munhall:

The Gowanus Canal is an important feature of our neighborhood, and served the area for many years as an important economic engine, allowing local industry access to the NY area waterways. That early industrial success has also led to much of the pollution that has branded the Canal for many decades, yet the canal area is poised, by way of recent zoning changes, for something of a re-birth. Having recent experience with rear-garden soil so polluted with lead that tomatoes, grown there, were not suited for human consumption, the need for a comprehensive clean-up is clear. In my opinion and the opinions of many who have studied the issues, now is the time (or perhaps past-time) for remediation of the conditions that have plagued the canal.

The City of New York, without funding in place, has denigrated the suggestion that the canal be added to the Superfund list. Yet the City has already allowed development to go forward, with much more planned in the near future, without taking steps toward remediation. Though this “City Plan” may further the commercial interests of developers, it is likely to complicate any significant efforts to implement a comprehensive clean-up that the area deserves, and it will place the burden for whatever half measures are finally taken squarely on the shoulders of area residents.

Please consider the interests of all the area’s residents. Please list the site.

Regards,

Jeff Miles

Carroll Gardens

Brooklyn, NY

Tomorrow is the end of the commenting period. I urge everyone in the Carroll Gardens/Gowanus area to sent in their testimony TODAY.
Here is how to do it:

1. Go to www.superfundgowanus.org and sign the online petition to our representatives.

2. Go directly to the EPA Website and submit your comments under the Public Comment period that runs until July 8, 2009. http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/gowanus/

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