EPA Orders New Timeline For Building Gowanus Canal Clean-Up Tanks

BROOKLYN, NY — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the city to finish building two tanks essential to the Gowanus Canal clean-up by 2029, setting a legally-binding timeline for the slow-moving project.

The federal agency announced Tuesday that it had put out a new Administrative Order requiring the city to build and construct the retention tanks, which will help catch sewage that previously seeped into the polluted waterway during rainy days.

The new mandate — which follows 2014 and 2016 orders for the city to find a location for and design the tanks — lays out a strict timeline for the project, which city officials have sought to delay.

“This order will ensure that EPA’s cleanup efforts will not be undermined by uncontrolled combined sewer overflow discharges that have contributed to the chemical contamination of this waterway and impacted this community for the past century and a half,” EPA Acting Regional Administrator Walter Mugdan said in a release. “To ensure the integrity of the dredging work, the retention tanks will control New York City’s sewer outfalls over the long-term.”

The new 8 million-gallon and 4 million-gallon tanks will be added to the end and middle of the canal as the EPA finishes up its decade-long dredging of the sludge known as "black mayonnaise" in the waterway, which officially started in November.

The clean-up is slated to wrap up in 2023.

The city had previously estimated one of the tanks wouldn't be done until 2032, and hadn't given a timeline for the second tank, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

They will now be required to finish the four-million-gallon tank by 2028 and the larger tank by 2029, according to a schedule in the order.

The order also requires the city to ensure developers comply with stormwater regulations, monitor and treat sewer discharges and build a bulkhead for the second phase of dredging.

Find the full order here and a breakdown of the schedule below.