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GREENPOINT | WILLIAMSBURG
VOLUME 47 | NUMBER 36
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
(718) 422-7400
25¢
GREENPOINT’S NEW WATERFRONT GREEN SPACES: If you don’t live within walking distance from Greenpoint, your most entertaining way to get there is, as always, the NYC Ferry. The route from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Williamsburg to Greenpoint offers a big dose of Brooklyn waterfront scenery — and vistas of skyscrapers in Lower and Midtown Manhattan, from the World Trade Center to the Chrysler Building. ABOVE: Good day sunshine at Newtown Barge Park. Greenpoint Gazette photo by Lore Croghan
A solution to Newtown Creek pollution could begin five years sooner By Scott Enman Greenpoint Gazette
Gazette photos by Paul Frangipane
Environmental Protection Agency employees told residents at a meeting last week that they were reviewing a plan that could potentially clean up the first two miles of Newtown Creek at least five years ahead of schedule. The proposal, known as Early Action, would start remediation of the federal Superfund site as early as winter of 2021 or spring of 2022 — well ahead of the EPA’s conservative 2027 predicted start date for the overall cleanup. The plan — initiated by the groups responsible for the 3.5mile creek’s contamination (called Potentially Responsible Parties) — was likely put forward for financial reasons, according to EPA Section Chief Stephanie Vaughn. Vaughn said that if the plan moves forward, it would offer a lot of benefits for the EPA, including starting the remediation early and aiding future cleanup efforts. “If we think it seems reasonable, and we’re going to make them do a lot of sampling to test it, then as long as it doesn’t delay the process, then it might make sense to allow this to go forward,” Vaughn said. “We would learn a lot.” continued on page 2
LEFT: Newtown Creek where it passes an industrial waterfront area.
New proposal would charge homes for amount of trash produced SEE STORY ON PAGE 4
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Brooklyn Eagle Local