Questions About Cleanup of Public Place Site in Gowanus

There’s a story in the Daily News about how the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp. is saying that National Grid’s planned remediation of the brownfield site at Smith and Huntington streets might be hazardous to residents who live nearby. The group is saying that the technology National Grid intends to use to monitor coal tar vapors during the cleanup of the site, which is known as the Public Place, isn’t up to snuff. The story suggests that there might be a bit of self-interest involved in the organization’s critique (“the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp.’s conclusions lean heavily on research by a company pushing its own cleanup technology for the project”) but, on the other hand, the blog Pardon Me for Asking has been documenting community concerns about the cleanup for some time now. National Grid defends the technology it plans to use, saying it’s been “used successfully by the company and other utilities around New York.” The remediation of the contaminated land, where a 770-unit affordable housing development is supposed to eventually be built, is going to begin this spring.
Gowanus Canal Cleanup by National Grid is Blasted [NY Daily News]
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