Familiar face to Gowanus watchers to helm DEP

While the mayor introduced the city to the new head of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection this week, Caswell F. Holloway IV has been a familiar face to those concerned about the future of the Gowanus Canal for several months.

Sewers at Capacity, Waste Poisons Waterways

Many sewer systems are frequently overwhelmed, with sewage spilling into waterways and polluting them with excrement and industrial chemicals.

Fix the pipes, save the river

There’s the Champlain Bridge and its vital link between New York’s North Country and Vermont that was allowed to rot beyond repair. There’s the realization that some 110 bridges across the state are in as bad or perhaps worse condition, and the cost of fixing or replacing them. And all the while, there have been aging sewer systems in older communities discharging untreated sewage into the Hudson River

Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash

ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.

$150 Million Price Tag Put on Gowanus Effort

A new $150 million project to substantially improve water quality in the Gowanus Canal and reduce its odor impacts was officially announced on Friday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

CT State Soundkeeper Terry Backer: What Does he do?

Long Island Soundkeeper Terry Backer, sporting a wild beard and white hair tucked under a seaman’s cap, peers out over Norwalk Harbor from his tiny Edgewater Place office, looking every bit the crusty New England fisherman fighting to save the sea from pollution.

Don’t ‘superfund’ the Gowanus

WHO should clean up the Gowanus Canal? The city’s been masterminding a series of reclamation projects since 2002 — but now the federal Environmental Protection Agency is looking to designate it a Superfund site.

EPA: No decision yet for Gowanus

The fate of the Gowanus Canal will remain in limbo, as the Environmental Protection Agency told this paper it will not be handing down a decision this week on whether to name the foul waterway a Superfund site.

Brooklyn businesses may face lawsuit over dumping in Gowanus Canal

An environmental group is gearing up to sue three businesses it charged are polluting the Gowanus Canal – and warned the city to clean up its act, too.

Save the eerie canal: Leave the cleanup of Gowanus waters to the city

The blossoming neighborhoods along Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal face becoming dead zones – but not because of anything in the waterway’s famously polluted murk.

Debating How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your Water Glass

  For decades, farmers, lawn care workers and professional green thumbs have relied on the popular weed killer atrazine to protect their crops, golf courses and manicured lawns.

DEC: Careful review of Gowanus alternative needed

 The agency that initially requested the feds to include the Gowanus Canal in the Superfund program is now advising careful consideration of the city’s alternative clean-up plan.

Pollution Is Closing More Nearby Beaches, Report Finds

The number of New York and New Jersey beaches that were either closed, or the subject of warnings, because of water pollution has been surging, according to annual beach water quality report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

First shipment of toxic sludge from Hudson River being unloaded in West Texas

Crews are still unloading the first 81-car train load of toxic sludge sucked out of New York’s Hudson River into specially dug storage pits at a West Texas waste disposal site.

Fight Over Superfunding Grows

 It’s the battle for the Gowanus Canal.

‘Whole’ lot of nothing as food megastore abandons Gowanus site

 Whole Foods has shelved its plans to open its first Brooklyn branch on Third Avenue near the Gowanus Canal, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.

City Proposes New Plan for Gowanus Canal Cleanup

The canal is contaminated with pollutants that include pesticides and metals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Critics of city jump on Gowanus goof

If the city wants to win support for its Superfund alternative plan for the Gowanus Canal, it might want to spell the name of the infamous waterway correctly, skeptical local residents said after an informational meeting this week.

Newtown Creek Health Study

A public health study has begun to record widespread stories of people who lived near the heavily polluted Newtown Creek and developed a deadly illness.

New York Seeks End to Sewage Discharges by Boats In Long Island’s South Shore Estuary

DEC Applauds Partnership to Establish “No Discharge Zone” Designation And Improve Water Quality, Protect Recreation