ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE
Creating a sustainable Gowanus means cleaning up the toxic past and building a greener future.
“The rezoning would help create an environmentally friendly Gowanus that will complement the canal clean-up that is underway, develop sustainable buildings with green roofs, remediate brownfields, and create a publicly accessible esplanade. In other words, the rezoning provides a boost to the entire community.”
— Rachel Fee, Executive Director of the New York Housing Conference, in the Gotham Gazette
Gowanus Canal Sponge Park | DLAND Studio
The Gowanus rezoning is designed to ensure that the land adjacent to the canal is appropriately remediated to protect public health and the environment before any development occurs. Property owners, at their expense, are required to clean up the development sites. Remediation and construction projects in the Gowanus rezoning area are subject to government oversight by multiple City, State and Federal agencies to protect existing buildings and infrastructure and enforce compliance with environmental regulations. The City oversight agencies include the Department of Buildings, the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (OER), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Department of Transportation, the Department of Parks & Recreation, and the New York City Transit Authority. The State oversight agencies include the New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation and Health. U.S. EPA will be monitoring all relevant activities.
These government agencies are involved in oversight and enforcement with respect to the cleanup of former industrial sites, ensuring that the sites undergo a rigorous formal review followed by a comprehensive remediation process. In no circumstance can work begin at a rezoned development site without strict regulatory oversight to protect public health and the environment.
Further, during construction, work plans mandated by OER require real-time community air monitoring of particulates and chemicals (CAMP), health and safety protection (HASP), as well as plans detailing the remediation and management of contaminated soil, groundwater, and soil vapor (Remedial Work Plan). These rigorous monitoring plans are designed to protect community residents, workers, and the environment and to render the sites safe for occupancy.
The rezoning also will ensure that the neighborhood is prepared to accommodate growth and address the impacts of climate change. Overhauling the existing combined sewer system that causes frequent sewage overflows into the Canal and flooding throughout the neighborhood will be the responsibility of a joint effort by the City government and private developers in the context of the rezoning. Gowanus Forward owners are listening to the advice of local experts including the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, one of the city’s leading environmental advocacy organizations, to plan for environmentally progressive and innovative approaches to managing area stormwater and wastewater. Gowanus Forward owners have committed to achieving Net Zero Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) in their developments. Further, the City’s Department of Environmental Protection recently enacted a significantly stronger Unified Stormwater Rule with more stringent water management requirements for property owners and is investing $174 million in upgraded sewer infrastructure in the neighborhood. These joint efforts will result in a more sustainable Gowanus. Waterfront owners have been working with EPA and DEP to redirect stormwater that collects on waterfront sites and street ends from the combined sewer system, rid it of contaminants and discharge it to the Canal.
Additionally, open space along the Canal will incorporate green infrastructure such as bioswales, stormwater gardens, wetland plantings and sponge parks, which support cleanup efforts and the area’s future ecological health. These measures help to clean stormwater before it is released into the Canal or the sewer system—just one sponge park similar in size to the existing sponge park at the base of 2nd Street has the potential to offset contaminants from stormwater falling on the surrounding four blocks. This integration of natural modalities promotes a resilient ecosystem for the Canal and surrounding community.
Deploying these strategies, in combination with City investments in new stormwater retention tanks and sewers, will reduce current CSO events and volumes and prepare the neighborhood to accommodate new residents and meet future environmental challenges.