EPA vs. NYC: Who Is Responsible For Cost Of Gowanus Canal Clean-Up?

Leave it to the Environmental Protection Agency to fuck shit up on the Gowanus Canal clean-up. 

The EPA’s proposal for the Superfund clean-up (isn’t that super fun to to say?) would require property owners responsible for contaminating the canal in the first place to pay $500 million toward the project (we're looking at you, National Grid). It would also require NYC to re-direct the sewage and storm water currently flowing into the canal.

Why should that matter to you? Well, in order to handle the storm water in the way the EPA demands, the city will most likely need to build a retention center with our tax dollars. The city recently built one of these things in Canarsie and it ran us over 400 million bucks. Don’t expect a Gowanus retention center to be any cheaper.

Being the tight-ass that he is, Mayor Bloomberg called his people into action ASAP. His Department of Environmental Protection was all like, fuck that: “The evidence clearly indicates that the primary sources [of canal contamination] are the former industrial plants on the canal, and not ongoing sewer overflows.” 

Well, someone’s trying to bullshit us. Either the EPA is overreacting and expecting us to pay more money for shit we don’t need, or Bloomberg’s Department of Environmental Protection is looking the other way to save a few bucks.

What do you think? Are you Team EPA or Team Bloomberg? Or maybe you’re Team “I’m Still Waiting for the Gowanus Whole Foods?" 

[Via the Post]