Whole Foods Starting Cleanup But Not Building (Yet)
A blog called the Carroll Gardens Diary reprinted a letter Whole Foods’ lawyers sent to “stakeholders and community groups” that says the retailer plans to start cleaning up contamination at its 3rd Street site under the state’s Brownfield Program. The cleanup is slated to start next week and last three months, and it involves removing…
A blog called the Carroll Gardens Diary reprinted a letter Whole Foods’ lawyers sent to “stakeholders and community groups” that says the retailer plans to start cleaning up contamination at its 3rd Street site under the state’s Brownfield Program. The cleanup is slated to start next week and last three months, and it involves removing contaminated soil as well as installing “a soil cover consisting of several feet of clean fill.” However, the letter says that the actual construction of a grocery store is not on the immediate horizon. Whether or not a supermarket ever happens, it’ll be nice to see some remediation at the site, which has been festering for a long time now.
Whole Foods to Begin Remediation at Third and Third [Carroll Gardens Diary] GMAP
Whole Foods “Actively Working” to Open Gowanus Store [Brownstoner]
Here’s some information on the landmarked (and STILL endangered) “old little red building”, from yesterday’s AM New York article on endangered landmarks:
“Coignet Stone Building, 360 Third Ave. (1873, William Field and Son)
Landmarked by the city in 1986, the elegant Italianate building—one of the first concrete buildings in the U.S.—sits on a site slated for a Whole Foods store near the Gowanus Canal. The discovery of underground toxins suspended development for two years, leaving the privately owned building in limbo. Its owner hopes the dispute will be resolved upon filing new plans with the landmarks commission”.
Yes, it would be valuable to those who live nearby to know the truth about the toxicity levels and it effects. If you watch far enough into the five-part video posted above, you’ll see that, in Williamsburg, there is evidence of cancer clusters in parts of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, particularly near Radiac and Newton Creek.
If developers are allowed to continue capping, rather than honestly assessing and thoroughly cleaning a site, we won’t know until we’re ill. The very fact that these developers are capping speaks to the gravity of the situation. It’s so polluted and so prohibitively expensive to fix, they’d rather just bury (literally) the problem. The fact that you’ve never seen any detailed data speaks volumes. That the issue has become a political football between profiteering developers and worried homeowners versus the federal government that wants to clean it, speaks louder still.
I could be wrong, but I think the little building on the corner has some kind of landmark status, so it can’t be torn down. I actually think it could be pretty nice if restored, although I admit I can’t think of a great use for it offhand.
As for the toxicity, those links raised a bunch of questions but didn’t really provide any answers. What is the actual danger? That toxic vapors could somehow seep into the food and make it poisonous? That just being there would be harmful to your health? In what way? Cancer? Lung disease? We hear tons about the pollution in and around the canal, but I have never seen any data or even guesses as to what it’s actual effect is on human beings. Seems like this info would be valuable to those of us who live nearby.
It would be nice to have that area cleaned up. It is disgusting. The old little red building that is still standing there should be torn down, it is in a “beyond” repair state, and is just withering away with the elemets of Mother Nature.
While I agree that it’s good to see some “remediation” for the site, the process described is called “capping,” and it is nothing more than a veneer. Gowanus Lounge covered this over two years ago:
http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2007/04/toxic-brooklyn-are-current-clean-up.html
I travel into Manhattan regularly to shop at the various Whole Foods. I doubt I would ever shop here and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t purchase any prepared foods, meat, poultry, etc.
Let’s see if Bill de Blasio has anything to say.
There’s also this re: capping in Williamsburg – it get’s interesting at about the 2:00 min. mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBPKEn6jGIM