Developer face lawsuit charging they reneged on contract to buy land along Gowanus Canal

Developer Toll Brothers has been hit with a multimillion- dollar lawsuit charging it reneged on a contract to buy land along the polluted Gowanus Canal after the feds moved to make the waterway a Superfund site.

Novel proposal eyes cleaner Gowanus

A Park Slope man thinks he knows how to take the stink out of the Gowanus — and he’s aiming to teach the city just how to do it.

Biologists fight erosion in Jamaica Bay

The whipping winds of Jamaica Bay sway the chest-high grasses of Elder’s Point East, a salt marsh island full of marine life.

EPA River Clean-Up Uncovers Pools of Cancer-Causing PCBs

A controversial Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dredging project in the Hudson River — originally designed to prevent cancer-causing chemicals in the riverbed from contaminating fish — has struck “oil,” so to speak – a toxic “oil” of previously unknown pockets of liquid polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Jamaica oysters no shell game: Bay’s pollution hinders renewal

It’s been a long time since oysters called Jamaica Bay home.

Pollution, overharvesting and other woes wiped out what was once a healthy population of the bivalves.

Hudson River cleanup: long, costly and uncertain

Almost every time anglers such as Gil Hawkins fish the Hudson River, they throw back their catch — because PCB contamination has placed severe restrictions on what can be eaten. There’s so much pollution that commercial fishing is banned. Marinas along the landmark river have to pay high fees to dispose of contaminated mud when they conduct routine dredging.

Manhattan Project’s Legacy on Staten Island

Last week, I reported on the “toxic stew” surrounding Staten Island’s North Shore. (For that article, go here.) That story was scary enough, but information obtained over the past week reveals that the scenario is actually much worse than initially reported.

Staten Island’s Toxic Stew

This spring, residents of Staten Island’s North Shore received news of a triple toxic whammy.

Reclaiming a River

A floating dredge lowered a clamshell bucket to the bottom of the Hudson River on Friday and pulled up a load of muck contaminated with PCBs

Marine stocks hurt by abandoned fishing gear, UN report says

The world’s fish stocks are seriously threatened by the growing presence of lost and discarded fishing gear that now make up about 10 percent of all marine litter, according to a new report released on Wednesday by two United Nations agencies.

Gowanus Canal clean up tab for city?

The city could be on the hook to help pay for a federal Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, officials said.

Gowanus Canal fails odor test, stinks

It’s official: The Gowanus Canal stinks.

Plastic pollution threat to health, environment

n the past we widely used natural fiber products including jute, bamboo, cane, wood, leaves and clay, paper to make the goods we needed. But now we are using artificial fiber made products like polythene bags and plastic products on a larger scale.

Some anglers miss Hudson warnings

The wind had a wicked kick as it skidded across the Hudson River, then over the anglers perched along the Piermont Pier.

DEC Reports: Progress At Contaminated Former Utility Company Sites In NYC And Long Island

One year after dramatically expanding the number of contaminated, former utility sites in New York City and Long Island that are under state cleanup oversight, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has made steady progress on a decades-old pollution problem,

States sue EPA over water releases from ships

Nine states sued the Bush administration Thursday over what New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says is an illegal administrative ruling that could hurt fisheries and contaminate drinking water.

Long Island Sound Water Quality Upgrades Funded

Grants for improving water quality in Long Island Sound were announced Friday at a gathering of federal and state environmental officials in Westchester County near the shore.

Green Roofs Offer More Than Color for the Skyline

The thousands of recently planted green and purple shrublike sedum lining the roof of Con Edison’s training center in Long Island City look a bit out of place in the shadow of Manhattan’s skyline.

Gowanus, Where Irony Meets Hope

In 2004, the Austin, Texas-based gourmet grocery chain Whole Foods Market, which by now has five Manhattan stores, said it was going to open a store the next year on a mostly empty lot at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 3rd Street in Brooklyn.

Sea of Trash

 

Ted Raynor

Ocean currents funnel a relentless tide of plastic trash and other debris to the unpopulated shores of Gore Point in Alaska.