September 23, 2009 / News / Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill / Cleaning the Gowanus

Riverkeeper to sue dirty rotten scoundrels along the canal

By Helen Rittelmeyer

for The Brooklyn Paper

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Riverkeeper Inc.

The environmental group, Riverkeeper, is suing property owners along the Gowanus Canal, including the city, for ongoing pollution problems.

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The environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper has taken action against three companies along the Gowanus Canal for illegally dumping garbage into the already fetid corpse of water.

Riverkeeper officially notified the businesses last week that they had 60 days to clean up their acts before the group would file an actual suit.

The action is not related to a federal proposal to list the morbid waterway as a Superfund site — a designation that would trigger a federally overseen clean-up as well as litigation against all parties that contributed to the mess over the past 150 years or so.

Rather, the Riverkeeper action is limited to the three Canal-zone businesses for specific violations, said Josh Verleun, a Riverkeeper lawyer.

“The thing people worry about with Superfund is that anyone who has ever owned property in the area can be held responsible for pollution,” he explained. “But these three are each really discrete issues.”

Riverkeeper’s threatened lawsuit is against:

• Ferrara Brothers Building Materials, a cement company, which is accused of letting gravel and concrete drop from transport barges and for letting sediment gush through a cracked bulkhead.

• The owners of a bus parking lot on Sixth Street, who are accused of leaving rusted pipes, plastic debris, and concrete ties on the shore of the canal, where they fall into the water piece by piece.

• Sixth Street Iron and Metal, which is accused of actively polluting.

“We believe that there is active dumping going on at the property,” said Verleun. “If you are dumping solid waste, and you are not operating by the guidelines of a sanitary landfill, what you’re technically doing is operating an open dump.”

Kitchen appliances, scrap metal, and large spools of cable have all been found in the water near the company’s recycling yard, he said.

Neither Sixth Street Iron and Metal nor the owner of the bus parking lot was willing to comment, but Joseph Ferrara of Ferrara Brothers went to great lengths to defend his company, which has been along the canal since 1973.

“We’re a very responsible corporate citizen,” he said.

He blamed any “dripping” on “the record rainfalls in May.”

“From what I could tell from the pictures, it seems like there may be a small crack,” he said. “It makes it seem like we’re doing something intentional. We would never do such a thing. This was all news to us. We certainly will work with [Riverkeeper] and the city.”

Riverkeeper has threatened Brooklyn businesses with lawsuits before, sometimes with immediate results.

In October 2003, the group gave five businesses along the equally sludgy Newtown Creek the same 60-day clean-up warning, and four of the businesses complied with the group’s demands voluntarily.

Riverkeeper sued the fifth, Quality Concrete — though that case is still in court.

In 2006, a Riverkeeper lawsuit against another cement company on Newtown Creek, Empire Transit Mix, led to a $300,000 fine.

Any money won from the three companies will go to the U.S. Treasury, minus Riverkeeper’s legal fees.

Lawsuits over pollution in the Gowanus Canal make some people nervous. Fear of prolonged legal wrangling is one reason that Mayor Bloomberg and Councilman Bill DeBlasio (D–Carroll Gardens) both came out against designating the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue its ruling before the end of the year.ment, but Joseph Ferrara of Ferrara Brothers went to great lengths to defend his company, which has been along the canal since 1973.

“We’re a very responsible corporate citizen,” he said.

He blamed any “dripping” on “the record rainfalls in May.”

“From what I could tell from the pictures, it seems like there may be a small crack,” he said. “It makes it seem like we’re doing something intentional. We would never do such a thing. This was all news to us. We certainly will work with [Riverkeeper] and the city.”

Riverkeeper has threatened Brooklyn businesses with lawsuits before, sometimes with immediate results.

In October 2003, the group gave five businesses along the equally sludgy Newtown Creek the same 60-day clean-up warning, and four of the businesses complied with the group’s demands voluntarily.

Riverkeeper sued the fifth, Quality Concrete — though that case is still in court.

In 2006, a Riverkeeper lawsuit against another cement company on Newtown Creek, Empire Transit Mix, led to a $300,000 fine.

Any money won from the three companies will go to the U.S. Treasury, minus Riverkeeper’s legal fees.

Lawsuits over pollution in the Gowanus Canal make some people nervous. Fear of prolonged legal wrangling is one reason that Mayor Bloomberg and Councilman Bill DeBlasio (D–Carroll Gardens) both came out against designating the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue its ruling before the end of the year.

©2009 Community Newspaper Group

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