Restoring the Gowanus Canal

As part of the ongoing Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, the Natural Resource Damages (NRD) Assessment and Restoration process will help restore fish, wildlife, habitat and human uses of the canal that were lost to both industrial pollution and the more recent remediation work.

The NRD process is a long-term effort that involves multiple federal agencies, the private companies and public entities held responsible for the pollution and its cleanup, and people like us — the community! There’s a lot of jargon, some very confusing grey areas, and a lot of formal processes, too. The Dredgers want to help you understand what’s happening and how you can get involved. Review our first session.

What’s happening now

The group of agency representatives that will oversee this process recently released a draft of the plan (PDF) for how they will determine what impacts have occurred, the economic value of those loses (a.k.a. damages), and what restoration or enhancement projects will receive funding from the pool of money collected as a result.

Public comment on this plan is due June 14. This is just one of many small steps along the way to a canal that has more wildlife, more habitat and more boating and fishing access (we hope). You can help!

Our goal is to start a collaborative and interactive learning process to help the Dredgers (and other Gowanus neighbors who want to join) better understand the NRD process, dig into the current draft plan, and equip ourselves to provide input to the process over the next month and beyond. We’ve already been in communication with the NRD team as an organization, but we know that together, we can be more effective!

No experience or prior knowledge is needed to participate, and all levels of familiarity with the Canal and the cleanup are welcome.