Gowanus Canal Cleanup Delayed Over Bulkhead Installation: Report

GOWANUS, NY — The cleanup of the toxic Gowanus Canal was stalled last month over delays installing dividing walls along the waterway's banks, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency planned to restart the cleanup of one of the city's most polluted waterways in October after workers put in bulkheads along the banks. However, officials told residents this week the walls still haven't been installed and it's unclear when work would resume, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

"I’m not going to give you another date as to when we are going to start," project manager Christos Tsiamis said during a meeting on Tuesday night, according to the paper.

"If you had asked me several months ago if I would expect so much trouble with the simplest task, I would have told you, ‘No, it’s a simple task, we will finish it quickly and move on to the actual dredging and capping.’"

The canal was declared a Superfund site in 2010 and workers began a nearly $500 million cleanup of the water in 2016. The EPA was expected to start dredging the sludge from the bottom of the Gowanus Canal, known as "black mayonnaise," in December but it was delayed over issues with the bulkheads.

The original tools workers used to install the bulkheads on the canals cracked nearby land and buildings, forcing them to start over with less-powerful equipment, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

Image: John V. Santoro/Patch