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EPA SAYS CAVEAT EMPTOR IN GOWANUS,
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Star-Revue wins newspaper awards
Superfund science advances in Gowanus
I
n its contentious rezoning proposal, the Department of City Planning reimagines Gowanus as an urban Venice—or something vaguely resembling Miami. The sketches in the Waterfront Access Plan the city presented last year show pedestrians crossing bridges with scenic views of the canal. They show children frolicking in waterfront parks shaded by trees and new residential high-rises that shine with glassy, sterile beauty. On the water, rendered in deep blue by the artist, people are kayaking. One can dip an oar into the Gowanus Canal today, but anybody who does should probably be wary of getting splashed. The canal, today more of a chocolate brown color, contains pathogens such as typhoid, dysentery, e. coli, and gonorrhea. Many of these diseases, like cholera, which has been present in the past, are found in water contaminated by human feces. There’s a lot of feces in the Gowanus Canal—millions of gallons of combined rainwater runoff and sewage flow into it every year. Over the waterway’s 160-year lifespan, the feces have mixed with the oils and tar produced by the area’s heavy industry and congealed into a toxic sludge known as “black mayo.” In some stretches, the mayo that covers the bottom of the canal is 10 feet thick. Chemical engineer Christos Tsiamis was tasked with leading the cleanup of this supra-centennial mess in 2010, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the site a Superfund, mandating its remediation. When he and his colleagues conducted an investigation into how to best go about doing this, Tsiamis explains, they discovered that simply dredging the gunk out wouldn’t suf-
Red Hook Star-Revue
by Jorge Bello
fice. “So once you remove the black mayonnaise, you’d expect that you would have a clean bottom of the canal, right? But you don’t.” The pollutants have infiltrated the original sediment below, he says. Left untreated, remnants of the black mayo, as well as lighter toxic compounds, will seep back up into the waters in a process known as leaching. Tsiamis’s team of engineers can’t decontaminate the sediment, but they can trap the pollutants it contains, in place. To do this, they have opted for a relatively new approach called insitu stabilization, in which barges carrying drilling equipment will inject a specially crafted cement mix into the most heavily contaminated areas of the canal—usually those located near erstwhile industrial buildings.
Complicated to explain The mix causes a chemical reaction that prevents pollutants from being released back into the water. Identifying what areas of the waterway needed to be stabilized in the first place could have itself been a trickier job, he adds, had it not been facilitated by another innovative technology: TarGOST. Short for Tar-specific Green Optical Screening Tool, this equipment uses lasers to precisely map underground tar deposits. “It’s complicated to explain,” Tsiamis chuckles.
may become coated with salt crusts, making them even less permeable. Yet, while heavy contaminants like tar can be held in place by the cement, lighter ones will inevitably seep out. To deal with this, Tsiamis and his team will deploy a layer of absorbent clays and activated carbon on top of the cement-stabilized sediment. This “cap” layer, which will be applied throughout the canal, will keep the water clean for a century, says Tsiamis. Just to make sure, though, the entire sediment cake will be topped with sand and gravel for extra isolation. With the years-long testing of pioneering approaches and technologies out of the way, the EPA engineers have been gearing up for the actual cleanup. In preparation for the dredging. Tsiamis and his team have been mobilizing equipment and scouting for offsite facilities to which to send the black mayo once it’s been removed— it is eventually mixed with cement, solidified, and used as cover material in landfills. Dredging is scheduled to
begin mid-November. To ensure its remediation efforts aren’t for naught, the EPA is also overseeing the construction of two retention tanks by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection that will hold the raw sewage that currently pours directly into the waterway when it rains. Located at the top and middle of the canal, the tanks will be able to handle 8 and 4 million gallons respectively. In late July, however, Tsiamis informed the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group, a local organization that liaises with the EPA, that the city had requested federal approval for an extension of up to 18 months on the design and construction of the tanks. The city pointed to budgetary woes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for its request, but the EPA has asked for additional information before deciding whether to grant the extension. Tsiamis writes in an email that he does not expect a decision will be made for the next several weeks.
In-situ stabilization had never been tested in saltwater. To make sure it would work in the brackish Gowanus Canal, Tsiamis and his team carried out pilot tests in 2015. According to a paper published by the American Society of Civil Engineers last month, stabilization may prove to be even more effective in salty environments. The paper, authored by Tsiamis and his colleagues, found that cement-stabilized layers exposed to the canal’s waters
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September 2020, Page 11
T
he NY Press Association, a trade group for community media, announced the winners of its 2020 Better Newspaper Contest. For the second year in a row, the awards, normally awarded during their weekend convention in Saratoga Springs, were given out in an internet presentation. The Star-Revue is a perennial winner since our acceptance into the organiza-
tion in 2012. That year, we won a special award for our coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Other years we have taken awards for investigative reporting, education, coverage of the arts and for the tourist guides that we used to run back when there were tourists in the city. This year we took three. A prestigious first prize was given to us for Coverage of the Environment, which included Jorge Bello's ongoing coverage of the Gowanus Superfund project.
We were judged by members of the Pennsylvania News Media Association. A judge wrote of our coverage: "I read all the stories in the category and 'Superfund Science Advances in Gowanus' kept coming back to mind. The description won me over. Black Mayo. Ugh. I could just smell and feel the water. Great job." Other winners in that category included the East Hampton Star and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. We also captured a first place in the category "Best Large Space Ad." We entered one of a series of half page ads
prepared by RetroFret - a vintage guitar shop that opened last year on Luquer Street. The judge wrote "Clean, great design, great visual. Nice testimonial at the bottom. Draws you in." Other winners included the Southampton Press and the Mahopac News. Finally, Steve's Key Lime got us an honorable mention with his monthly ad series. The category was Best Advertising Campaign. The judge wrote "I appreciate the whimsey of the business itself, carried through the ads." Other winners included Dan's Papers and the Warwick SUMMER IN Advertiser. Last year was difficult, as Steve himself wrote in one of his winning ads - we look forward to the 2021 contest!
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