Quarter 3 Article 5

2) EPA Adds Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal to the National Superfund List of Hazardous Waste Sites

3) Source: EPA March 3, 2010

5) Miller Chapter: 18

6) Region: Local- Gowanus Canal

7) The gowanus canal in New York has been put on the priorities list for the National Superfund. Officials have said that this is the best way to get the heavily contaminated,long neglected, urban waterway to be cleaned up. The entire 1.8 miles of the canal is polluted due to the immense amount of industrial activity going on since the late 1800's. Tests have revealed that the sediment in the Gowanus Canal is contaminated with a variety of pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals and volatile organic contaminants. Wells will be installed to monitor these levels in April 2010. For now, meetings are continuously being held to figure out exactly what to do.

8) It is nice to see the EPA's Superfund at work right here in NY. I'm sure that this will be a very long and hard task but it's nice to see that this horribly contaminated waterway is being taken care of.

9) Superfund list: there have been 1,620 sites on the list throughout the years and 341 have been removed which leaves 1,279 sites left on the superfund list.