EPA weighs in on developer’s Gowanus plan

John Quadrozzi plans to use material to add to Red Hook industrial land

Gowanus Canal
Gowanus Canal

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spoken out about developer John Quadrozzi’s plan to take sludge from the Gowanus Canal and turn it into a concrete landmass off the coast of Red Hook, the Brooklyn Paper reported.

“There will be a lot of restrictions as to what you can build there, as to whether you can drill in there and what types of plants you can put there,” Christos Tsiamis, the canal cleanup’s manager, told the Brooklyn Paper.

He told the Brooklyn Paper that the on-site disposal will create between 30 and 60 jobs over six years.

Following the EPA’s multimillion dollar cleanup of the canal, the sludge could be decontaminated and transformed into a “confined disposal facility,” which would become a permanent part of developer John Quadrozzi Jr.’s Gowanus Bay Terminal and Gowanus Industry Park in Red Hook once the job is done, Quadrozzi told the Brooklyn Paper.

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The plan was originally discussed at a Community Board 6 meeting in November.

The new land from the Gowanus Canal would stretch 300 feet into the water and run 900 feet along the shore. It’s a “golden opportunity,” Quadrozzi told the Brooklyn Paper, to grow his shipping terminal and expand maritime economic development in Red Hook because of the boats that would dock there.

Quadrozzi would get the sludge from the Gowanus Canal at no charge. The EPA would charge the canal polluters for the cleanup and Quadrozzi could manage the concrete as he wants, the paper reported.

The EPA is planning a $500 million cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, which will be completed by around 2022, as previously reported. [Brooklyn Paper] –Hayley Kaplan