The NY Times reported today that the EPA announced that it has officially placed the Gowanus Canal on its Superfund National Priorities List of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. The Agency has determined that adding the site to the Superfund list is the best way to clean up the heavily contaminated canal.
TaDa!!!
Our mayor, and potential developers of this site, have cried “foul” when confronted with the EPA’s plans, saying that the residents of the area would be greatly damaged if their property was deemed a “toxic” site. As if everyone doesn’t know that the site is toxic. In fact, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy was formed in 2006 specifically to lobby the EPA to make Gowanus Canal and the surrounding land a Superfund Site in order to work towards a “beautiful, historic, green, recreation destination”.
This is very good and welcome news. Over the past few months as I have photographed Gowanus, its inherent beauty and uniqueness has opened itself to me. Although I have been photographing the area for many years, it has only been recently, as its fate weighed in the balance, that I have been happy with the results. Perhaps it took this crisis for the area to open its secrets to me.
One of my photographs is here on this page, some of the others may be seen on my Gowanus Impressions web page. Happy Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment