Notable case, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

Gowanus Canal

A Brooklyn industrial canal completed in the 19th century, into which gasworks, paper mills, tanneries and chemical plants discharged for more than a century. Its sediment holds coal tar, PAHs, PCBs and metals.

At a glance

Activity
since 1869
Media
sediment, surface water
Kind of site
port, coal gas, chemical works, tanneries
National list
Listed 2010National Priorities List
  1. Area. A canal 1.8 miles (about 2.9 km) long.

Contaminants

National list

On the list (final)United States

Superfund National Priorities List (NPL)

Listed
2010
Official id
NYN000206222 ↗
About this list

The list of contaminated sites that are national priorities for federal clean-up under CERCLA (Superfund, 1980), kept by EPA (40 CFR Part 300, Appendix B). Listing makes a site eligible for long-term remedial action paid by the Superfund; sites are proposed and then listed through Federal Register notices, and deleted when no further response is needed.

Includes federal facilities (Defense, Energy). Dates are the years of the Federal Register notices (final listing, deletion); 'listed' is empty for proposed sites. Some sites still on the list have had partial deletions. Contaminants and media: contaminants of concern from decision documents (RODs, ROD amendments, ESDs; EPA, fiscal years 1981-2024, SEMS document HQ/406315); for sites with no decision document (mostly proposed or recently listed) the contaminants are those EPA records for the site (FOIA-015, document HQ/406366), with no medium. 'Deleted' means EPA found no further response needed, which can include land-use controls still in force.

Status

Remediation under way

Dredging of the upper canal began in November 2020; the design for the middle section was approved in 2025. Two combined-sewer-overflow retention tanks (8 and 4 million gallons) are under construction, with full operation expected in early 2029.

Story

The canal, essentially complete by 1869, was one of New York's main industrial waterways. Manufactured-gas plants, paper mills, tanneries and chemical plants discharged their waste straight into it; combined sewers still overflow into it when it rains. The sediment contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs and heavy metals such as mercury, lead and copper.

EPA placed the canal on the National Priorities List in 2010 and chose the remedy in 2013: dredging the sediment, capping the bottom and controlling sewer overflows, at an estimated cost of over one billion dollars. The plan is to dredge about 300,000 cubic yards from the upper and middle segments and 281,000 from the lower one. The city has also reactivated the flushing tunnel, which pumps oxygenated water into the canal, and built stormwater-absorbing green areas such as the Sponge Park (2015).

Timeline

  1. 1869The canal is essentially complete.
  2. 1999The flushing tunnel is reactivated.
  3. 2010Placed on the National Priorities List.
  4. 2013EPA selects the remedy (Record of Decision).
  5. 2020Dredging of the upper canal begins.

Remediation

  1. 2020dredging and cappingDredging and capping: about 35,000 cubic yards removed in the first phase by spring 2021.
  2. 2029sewer overflow controlTwo combined-sewer-overflow retention tanks under construction; operation expected in early 2029.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

The rest are on the contaminant pages.

Nearby

Sources

  1. Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY – Cleanup Activities, US EPA, 2026
  2. Gowanus Canal, Wikipedia, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.