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Eyeing toxic cleanup methods

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The city’s former brownfields are decontaminated using a method called “capping,” by which some toxic soil is removed and what remains is sealed beneath a membrane. The process will be used to clean up various sites in Gowanus, including the land that is home to the future Whole Foods. Environmentalists say that though capping is not as expensive as removing all the contaminated soil from a plot, it is unclear whether the method leaves unsafe toxins at development sites. Capping has caused a controversy in New Jersey. “Many would argue that … the quality of the remediation is poor,” the state’s environmental commissioner, Lisa Jackson, told a committee of state legislators last fall, “and that developers pursue the cheapest solutions in order to quickly get a profit.” more [Gowanus Lounge]

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