Resiliency expert Washburn experienced Sandy first-hand (continued from page 1) win that fight (“IKEA is a bird in the hand,” he was told by City Hall), but he did fall in love with the neighborhood and moved there permanently in 2007. “I’m Greek on my mom’s side, so I take it as a given that everyone lives on the sea,” he said. “My first visit to Red Hook was the first time I’d felt that sensibility in New York. I’d lived in lower Manhattan for a long time near the water, but it wasn’t the same.” Washburn also serves as urban strategies director for the architecture firm NBBJ, which designed the Red Hook Innovation District project: a massive 12-acre multi-use complex slated for development on the waterfront by Italian company Est4te Four. In this case, the new buildings will be basement-less, and will sit three feet higher than their original levels. We can’t stop at the odd elevation and recovery measure, however. City Hall is aware that it needs build a more resilient, comprehensively protected neighborhood in the face of climate change. Otherwise, Red Hook risks social, financial, structural destruction every time a flood hits. A superstorm like Sandy may not be imminent, but the sea levels are rising each year. By the 2050s, some areas in New York should expect daily or weekly flooding. “We are in the age of rising seas, and there has been no improvement at all yet,” Washburn said. In 2013, the Bloomberg administra-
Turmoil at the Gowanus CAG by George Fiala
The Gowanus Canal has been under an EPA Superfund cleanup process for the past four years. It began with a plan that underwent a community process, and the final Record Of Decision, issued on September 30, 2013, detailed a plan that involves dredging and capping of the bottom of the canal. The goal of this process is to ensure a clean canal, suitable for recreational activities as well as safe fishing. It is expected that this will contribute to a rejuvenation of the Gowanus area, with tremendous economic benefits.
problems, but they’re also working on Red Hook.”
Meanwhile, Washburn has been championing a protective perimeter around Red Hook, one that is far from shores and doesn’t impede views. Within these walls and polders, he envisions developing clean recreational water bodies over time. He recommends that buildings take notes from the 19th Century warehouses in Red Hook, which stand strong in the face of surges, and yet, they’re beautiful.
In the end, he argues, change boils down to the residents.
For the short term, Washburn started talks with the chemical juggernaut BASF in the hopes of developing sensor fabric technology. This fabric could act as a temporary perimeter and would buy Red Hook a few hours of surge protection while also monitoring the storm’s performance. Washburn at Brooklyn Borough Hall after testifying at the recent ferry hearings. He cycles to most of his destinations. (photo by George Fiala)
tion unveiled the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR) plan, a series of post-Sandy recommendations for flood-prone areas. In Red Hook, the recommendations include raised bulkheads along three miles of the waterfront, drainage improvements, and high-deductible insurance options from FEMA. The city is accepting proposals for construction and hopes to break ground in 2017. Red Hook was promised $200
tion would not re-occur, otherwise it would essentially be a waste of money. In addition to toxins left in the canal from years of industrial waste, there is a huge quantity of human waste, caused by sewer overflows. For years, and still today, large rainstorms cause the sewers to become overloaded, and so raw sewage is pumped into the canal. The solution, which NYC must pay for, is to build and maintain huge containers to pump the sewage into for the duration of the storm. The idea is that when the weather returns to normal, the sewage is put back into the system, and is then able to be sent as normal to the sewage treatment plant.
Retention tanks
An important part of the process is prevention of re-contamination. The cost of the cleanup is borne not by the Federal Government. The design and execution of the remedy is paid for by who are called the “responsible parties” - those entities who are determined to have caused the pollution in the first place. The two largest responsible parties are National Grid (the successor company to Brooklyn Union Gas), and New York City.
There is controversy about the placement of one of the tanks. The EPA has identified the Thomas Greene park, also called Double D, as it sits between Degraw and Douglass Streets between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, as a logical place to locate the tanks. A big reason for this thinking is that it has been determined that the ground under the swimming pool located in the park has the same contaminants as the canal, and would have to be dug up anyway, to ensure a safe park. In essence, the EPA’s thinking is to kill two birds with one stone.
In their public comments, National Grid emphasized the importance to them of ensuring the recontamina-
It turns out that the city would prefer to use eminent domain to evict a number of businesses on a block that
Red Hook Star-Revue
million for the flood protection system.
“I think the Red Hook community has been very patient, which is a good thing,” he said. “But I think Red Hook has to be insistent. Because we can protect Red Hook and keep it beautiful. We can do it in a way that’s cost effective for the government but also improves our quality of life right here. We need to build a trust between the people who fear flooding, and the people whose job it is to propose a solution.”
He’s also busy researching. Washburn’s coastal resilience program at Stevens Institute of Technology, CRUX, is getting scientific minds around the world invested in flooding problems that affect their cities. He even developed a technology through NBBJ - that allows laymen to see a storm surge’s effect on their community in real time. Through it all, he keeps Red Hook in mind. “Red Hook is not alone. There are a billion people around the world within one meter above sea level,” he said. “I’ve got students in Singapore who think they’re working on Singapore
Washburn’s book was sitting in his window on Van Brunt Street earlier this year.
sits between the canal and the pool. At this point, the EPA and the city are in negotiations about this. In the meantime, local residents including a group called “Friends of Thomas Greene Park,” as well as the Fifth Avenue Committee, are advocating for residents who fear a permanent loss of the swimming pool. These groups both have representatives on the Gowanus CAG, a group filled with community groups and concerned citizens responsible for communication between the community and the EPA, as well as the EPA and the community. These two organizations went to congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and requested a meeting at EPA headquarters in Manhattan to let everyone know about their concerns. A meeting was held last month that included all the local elected officials, Community Board 6, and some residents of the nearby public housing that would be affected by any loss of park.
Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, at the recent CAG meeting. (photo by Fiala)
CAG members and not others. Email exchanges went back and forth, and so just about the entire regular September meeting resembled a group therapy session with everyone expressing their views on the whole process, in some cases going back through the whole history of the CAG.
The meeting went well, issues and concerns were aired, and the EPA assured everyone that any plan that would involve the closing of the pool would also include a temporary pool nearby, at locations they knew existed.
Natalie Loney, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, who attends every CAG meeting, told the CAG that as actual work begins on the canal that everyone will be able to see, the CAG’s role will become even more important. She said that more than ever, the CAG will need to be unified and strong.
However, word got out about this meeting to other CAG members, who felt it improper to invite only some
Facilitator Douglas Sarno recommended that a future meeting should focus on the matter of trust.
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October 2015, Page 5