ECO BROOKLYN INC. » Gowanus Canal

Newsflash: Oysters Occupy the Gowanus

Eric Ansanelli — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:46:44 +0000

We are now accepting checks to buy oysters.

Here’s the deal: around the corner from lies the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal. The industrial landscape of this former tidal creek is surreal in its bleakness – but to us it offers the exciting possibility of a rock bottom wasteland that has nowhere to go but up.

Kate Orff gave this inspiring TED talk on her vision to restore the Gowanus Canal (highly recommended). The idea is that most of the canal pollution can be filtered by growing oysters. Simply put, they get a food source, and we get clean water. And oysters. Maybe. Later. A lot later.

Great idea. Why wait? What does a bucket of oysters costs anyway? Why not buy them, chuck them in the canal and see what happens.

We call it Guerrilla Remediation.

We see no need to sit and wait for someone else to fix the Canal. It’s our community and we don’t need billions of dollars and a doctorate degree for permission.

So join us!

Send a check and we’ll take care of the rest. We’ll buy the oyster spawn and propagate them (that’s fancy for “throw oysters in canal”). There is no overhead so your donation will be used to directly purchase seed oysters.

We’ll take photos and film it so you know we aren’t spending your money on beer. You can even come and do it with us.

Please make checks out to Eco Brooklyn with the comment “Gowanus Oysters”. Send checks to 22 2nd street, Brooklyn, NY 11231.

Lets do this together!

*courtesy http://www.archdaily.com/165568/oyster-tecture-and-the-gowanus-canal/1269470583-dsc06228/

NY Native Trees, Holistic Green Building and Water

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 01:00:12 +0000

As part of our service in the green renovation of a brownstone Eco Brooklyn looks at the brownstone plot in its entirety. This means we don’t just gut and renovate the interior. We also look at how the interior effects the exterior. As a NY green contractor we look at the whole system, from the inside of the house, to the roof, the gardens, the block and the whole city.

The reason for this is that a Brooklyn and NY brownstone is intricately connected to all these parts. The main connection is through water, most specifically water waste and run off. Your normal brownstone is designed to remove all water (rain, toilets, showers, sinks) immediately off the property into the one sewer line. Inside the house you have your drain pipes. Outside the house you have your roof and garden drains.

This mix of clean rain water, semi clean sink and shower water (gray), and dirty toilet water (black) sometimes pass to the overworked water refining plants in the city. But often the water passes directly to the canals and rivers of NY – millions of gallons a day of toxic water polluting our water runways.

This is a problem set up by the city when they mistakenly combined their rainwater runoff and sewer lines during the construction of New York City. So all the rain water from the roofs and streets goes to the same pipes as our toilet, sink and shower water. The pipes can’t handle it all and so they have overflows into the NYC waterways.

And there is no going back now since to separate the two is too expensive.

So we at Eco Brooklyn keep this in mind when doing a NY or Brooklyn green renovation. When the budget allows we implement gray water collection, rain water collection, composting toilets, a green roof, rain gardens, dry wells in the gardens, and a tree pit in the sidewalk if there isn’t one already with a dry well under it. Basically we attempt to completely stop all water from leaving the site.

Our understanding of how a brownstone is connected to the rest of the city propels us to DISCONNECT the brownstone from the overburdened city.

Which brings us to sidewalk tree planting. If the sidewalk in front of the house does not have a tree then we file to install one. Here is an example of what that application would look like:

In our desire to reduce the city’s amount of hard surfaces and increase the amount of permeable soft surfaces we make the tree well as large as legally possible which is 13.5′x5′. The city actually likes us to go to the legal limit since it allows max space for the roots and reduces future sidewalk buckling. You can’t go much larger than 13.5×5 because emergency people like fire fighters and medics need a wide pathway from the street to the house and along the sidewalk along the front of the house.

The act of planting a tree is actually not that important in the short term. In the long term it is imperative of course. But more immediately we need to remove the concrete sidewalk and create yet another place in the brownstone ecosystem where water can pass.

Eco Brooklyn digs a lot deeper than your typical landscape company. We dig down a good six feet. We then line the bottom of the hole with root barrier and two feet of gravel. That way we have created a small dry well. Then we put the soil and tree on top of that.

We make a barely perceptible cut in the sidewalk so that water is diverted into the drywell. We also make a little cut in the curb so water from the street can pass into the well. It won’t capture all of it but it helps.

Once we prep the dry dry well we then install the tree.

When you submit an application a NYC tree inspector comes to the site and decides what tree you can plant depending on the site and the rest of the block’s character. Light, water exposure and the other trees on the block are considerations.

They pick the tree from a list of allowed trees that have been chosen for hardiness, non invasiveness of roots, non invasiveness of species, aesthetics, and size. If you look at the last two pages of NYC Tree Planting Standards (a wealth of info BTW) you will see the list of permissible trees.

One very important thing to note is that the NYC list is NOT limited to native NY trees. This is a real shame since trees that are native to our area contribute so much more biodiversity. The local animals, insects and plants have a long standing relationship with native trees. Non-native trees are much less friendly to local critters and thus are no way near as beneficial to creating a vibrant ecosystem.

So what I have done is gone through the list of allowed trees and highlighted the native ones. As reference I used the book Native Plants of the Northeast by D Leopold which is a great book. As cross reference I used the NYC Dept of Parks native and non native trees, which is also listed below:

The two lists matched up except for Shingle Oak which one listed as native and the other non (underlined in red). I believe it is native.

Here is the NYC permissible list of trees for sidewalks with the native ones highlighted.

My two favorites are the Tulip Tree and the Shingle Oak. You can’t go wrong with an oak. They live for hundreds of years and a full grown oak provides a habitat for literally thousands of animals, bugs and plants. Planting a tree is a true exercise in the Build It Forward ethos, especially with Oaks.

When you plant an Oak tree you are not planting it for yourself because it takes a good 50 years for its greatness to emerge and it doesn’t reach adulthood for a good hundred years.

Planting a tree is an act of humility in that we are acknowledging our short lived lives in the greatness of the time’s continuum. And it is a great act of selfless kindness since it is a present to future generations who we will never meet. For those two reasons alone we must plant trees.

We plant the tree as a long term investment for the planet and then let it be. It won’t be very impressive and will look like a spindly little tree for most of our lives. But we aren’t planting it for us.

Then we plant small plants and bushes for our own enjoyment. We create a beautiful little oasis on the street for bugs, animals and the occasional human to rest around. We put large river rocks that we salvage from cellar dig outs. We border the tree pit with smaller river stones to keep plants away from being stepped on by pedestrian traffic.

Gowanus Sewage

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:16:50 +0000

Here is a great video of sewage overflowing into the Gowanus Canal. Very graphic! I have been a member of the Gowanus Dregders Canoe club for years and after seeing this video admit that perhaps I have been a little too nonchalant about the actual toxic state of the canal.

Gowanus Phytoremediation

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:23:12 +0000

Yesterday I went to a workshop hosted by Expedition Gowanus an “underground” group looking at local and alternative ways (vs. Superfund ways) to remediate our waterways.

Expedition Gowanus hosts a series of workshops on DIY sustainability techniques that will culminate in the final design of an off grid, regenerative, floating structure on the Gowanus Canal this fall. For future events, or to be added to the email list, email expeditiongowanus at gmail.com.

This particular workshop was on making low tech, floating water remediation gardens out of trash, which is a form of Phytoremediation.

Phytoremediation is the use of plants to pull pollutants from the environment and render them harmless. In polluted bodies of water, gardens of water plants can be attached to buoyant structures, thus creating ‘floating restoration devices’. The plants provide habitats for other organisms to live. First it starts small with amoeba and small plankton. Then you get slightly larger things like bugs and snails that feed off the smaller ones. Then comes mollusks and small fish. Then larger fish and birds. Eventually you get huge whales! Well maybe not but you get the idea.

Scott Kellog, co-founder of Albany’s Radix Ecological Sustainability Center and co-author of the book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-it-Ourselves Guide, lead the workshop. He introduced basic concepts in phytoremediation and some of the techniques for applying these concepts to the remediation of polluted water (living machines, constructed wetlands, etc).

After an introduction, we built a mini ‘floating trash island’. Made out of construction debris and old soda bottles gathered from trash, the island was planted with local wetland plants, and then given the ultimate challenge; an inaugural float on the infamous Lavender Lake (aka Gowanus Canal).

The whole thing went swimmingly.

As a Brooklyn green builder and contractor my daily focus when we do green brownstone renovations is to keep the water on site in the first place. We us techniques that reduce rain water runoff. These are things like permeable surfaces – green roofs, no concrete etc. We divert the rain water to dry wells or water holding tanks. The rainwater capture barrels then water the garden, green roof or provide water to the toilets.

We also focus on reducing the water produced. Low flush toilets, low flow fixtures and appliances all lend to this. A gray water system takes all the water from showers, baths, sinks and washing machines and reuses it for toilets, green roofs, living walls and the garden.

This web of techniques play into the Zero Brownstone goal of eliminating the need for off site water and eliminating the water run off from the site.

But what if water does leave the site? It enters the sewer system and when it rains the water goes into and polutes the waterways. The is where groups like Expedition Gowanus come in. They deal with this problem of too much sewage and water polluting the waterways.

Their goal is to clean the waterways using low impact natural systems. Phytoremediation is one such system.

Here are some pics from the workshop:

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One minor issue I saw was the concept of using trash. Eco Brooklyn constantly uses trash to build brownstones, the definition of trash being stuff that is on its way to the dump. But the quality of the trash is important. We try to salvage everything but even Eco Brooklyn regards some things as not fit for use.

I have some concerns that using trash islands to cultivate bio communities still does not address the issue of toxins leaching out of the trash.

In the case of a floating island we use old plastic bottles. Plastic lasts forever, which is its mixed blessing, but that does not mean it is inert. Over time and especially when exposed to uv light, oils, chemicals and heat it breaks down. Over many years plastic eventually does break down into fine dust. During the breakdown process it releases toxins.

Here is a quote about plastic and food, but it relates just as well to floating trash islands. The Smart Plastics Guide says that

“a myriad of petroleum-based chemicals go into the manufacture of plastics. Some can leach into food and drinks and possibly impact human health. Leaching increases when plastic comes in contact with oily or fatty foods, during heating and from old or scratched plastic. Types of plastics shown to leach toxic chemicals are polycarbonate, PVC and styrene. This does not imply that other plastics are entirely safe. These plastics have just been studied more.

Polycarbonate, the one with bisphenol-A, used in most plastic baby bottles, 5-gallon water bottles, “sport” water bottles, metal food can liners, clear plastic “sippy” cups and some clear plastic cutlery. PVC or Polyvinyl chloride, used for cling wrap, some plastic squeeze bottles, cooking oil and peanut butter jars, detergent and windown cleaner bottles. Polystyrene, used in Styrofoam products.

With a floating plastic bottle island you are creating micro bio environments and right from the beginning exposing the food chain to toxins. Not good.

A floating island made out of plastic bottles in the polluted Gowanus Canal probably has more benefits from the added life than the leaching plastic causes. But it is not an ideal solution. I think a better solution is to be more stringent of the definition of a natural environment – a natural environment should not have plastic bottles no matter what good they are causing.

Just like in our construction we try to use as much salvaged material as possible there are certain things we remove from the home and let pass on to the dump - formaldehyde cabinets, linoleum, carpeting, and anything else that has toxins – we should probably get the plastic out of the waterways.

The goal of cleaning out waterways is to remove as much toxins as possible, including all plastic bottles.

In the case a floating plastic bottle island we would need to replace the plastic with something more natural. The first thing that comes to mind as a plastic bottle alternative for a floating island are wood logs like the image below:

Keeping the logs from sinking would be more of a challenge than with plastic bottles but that is a minor issue compared to the huge benefits an organic element like wood adds the the island habitat. And when the log does sink it simply adds to the organic process of cleaning the bottom of the canal.

Gowanus Superfunded

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:09:24 +0000

After conducting our own evaluations and consulting extensively with the many people who have expressed interest in the future of the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding area, we have determined that a Superfund designation is the best path to a cleanup of this heavily contaminated and long neglected urban waterway.

These are the words of Judith Enck, Regional Administrator for the Superfund on March 2 2010.

The Gowanus Canal is now a Superfund site!

To date, there have been 1,620 sites included on the Superfund list. Of these sites, 341 sites have been deleted, resulting in 1,279 sites remaining on the list. There are a total of 1,340 final and proposed sites around the country.

Not a great track record on the face of it, although you have to look into the details to really know. What are their standards, how long, etc.

I for one am satisfied with the decision.

I know a couple people who have property on the canal and they fought hard to not have the Superfund. They had million dollar deals with Toll Brothers developers and it was their ticket to retirement. But now all development bets are off. Who wants to buy a luxury condo with a view on a Superfund site. Anyway you can’t develop on it if it is designated.

For me this fight was clear when you looked at the players. On one side you had politicians, developers and wealthy land owners. Right there my alarm bells went off. But what really confirmed my personal belief was who made up the other side: local residents with nothing to gain financially.

The residents simply did it because they thought it was the best long term decision for the community.

This one was very clear for me and I am very happy the community won.

If it takes 10 years or if it takes 30 I am willing to wait. I am sure that they will do a much better job than anyone else would have. They don’t have vested financial interest to hurry up and make the place look good for investors. They are paid to do a good job. Or at least that is the understanding.

I own one property a half block from the canal and another property two blocks from the canal. I understand that the Superfund may dampen the values of my properties. I even understand that once the site is cleaned up and the designation is removed that my properties may never fetch the same prices they would have had the city quickly cleaned the site up and put luxury condos there.

But I put more weight in community value and ecological value. It might not have a dollar amount but it is much more valuable to me than any wad of bills. Community and ecological value makes me happy. It is something I can physically experience in my neighborhood. I see it and feel it when I go for a walk with my family. It is priceless and why I am a green builder.

As a Brooklyn green contractor I get to focus not only on dollar profit but on ecological and community health as well. It makes my job so much richer.

Gowanus Canal In The NY Times

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:23:45 +0000

There is a good article on the Gowanus Canal in the NY Times. It gives a pretty accurate overview of the state of affairs of the canal.

Basically everyone agrees it is a cesspool.

Simply put on one side there are a lot of developers invested in the area who want the city – who also has a lot of financial gain if lots of taxable new real estate pops up – to be in charge of the clean up. They claim the Superfund process is too slow and damaging to public image (ie their profits from sales).

On the other side you have those who think there are too many conflicts of interest with the city cleaning it up. NY is the land of landlords and developers and the city government is their little bitch.What will their focus be, cleaning the Gowanus or protecting their investment?

Clearly you see where I stand.

Voice your opinion on the Gowanus Canal Superfund Designation

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:55:53 +0000

Here are some great contacts for you to call and voice your opinion on the Superfund Designation of the Gowanus canal.

Just call them up and they will take your comment and your zip code. It goes into a spread sheet and becomes part of the debate. It is important to do this since it is one of the few times you can really feel part of the democratic process.

The the main importance of doing this is that the city is trying to halt the Superfund Designation and claim they will clean up the canal themselves. But there is no proof they will do this. Their track record is horrible in this area. And there is too much evidence that the city taking over the responsibility will create a real conflict of interest that could let the polluters off the hook and allow developers to make a lot of money building over polluted land.

==========
Here is what a local organization called CORD has to say:
CALL THE FOLLOWING OFFICIALS BELOW AND TELL THEM THAT YOU WANT EPA TO DESIGNATE THE GOWANUS CANAL A FEDERAL SUPERFUND SITE!!

CORD is still convinced, that the nomination of the Gowanus Canal to the National Priorities List as a Superfund site is the best thing that ever happened to our neighborhood.

We do not believe that the City of New York’s “alternative” plan affords any tangible benefit to the community in terms of process, result or timeframe.

It is our understanding that the city’s plan is basically an attempt to provide the responsible parties (the polluters) with a deep discount by trying to have a good portion of the polluters’ tab picked up by a federal program known as WRDA. There is a waiting line for the very limited amount of available money and long, long list of projects that would be ahead of the Canal. And….did we mention?

THE GOWANUS CANAL IS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR WRDA FUNDS AT THIS TIME.

Where and what exactly is the benefit to the community in the City’s plan? We can’t find it.

The EPA through the SUPERFUND program, has the clout to collect the money from the responsible parties, has the expertise and a time improved program already in place to handle situations like our canal.

IT IS CRUNCH TIME….WE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR.
================

Here are the contact numbers. There are real people at the end of the line who are paid to take down your opinion.

LISA JACKSON, ADMINISTRATOR, US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 202-564-4700
SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER 914-734-1532
SENATOR KIRSTIN GILLIBRAND 212-688-6262
REPRESENTATIVE NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, 718-599-3658
REPRESENTATIVE YVETTE CLARKE 718-287-1142

You can also email the Nydia Velazques office at: dale.degale@mail.house.gov

I just emailed them this:
Hi,
I wanted to register my concern over the Gowanus Canal and Superfund
Designation. The city is trying to block the EPA from Designating the
Gowanus Canal a Superfund. I think this is a real mistake. I think the
Gowanus Canal and the neighborhood would be best served by designating
the canal a superfund site. I am a land owner in the area as well as a
developer. I think the long term value of the area will be best served
by a Superfund designation.

I think the city’s policy is short sighted and influenced by
developers looking for short term profits over long term community
gains.

Reclaimed Home interviews Eco Brooklyn

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:45:48 +0000

ReclaimedHome.com came by and interviewed Gennaro Brooks-Church at the Brooklyn Green Show House. He talks about the new template for building a Brownstone.

Below is the video they took while I did a tour.

They also took some cool pictures.

Check out their site. They are doing some great stuff.

Daily News Mentions Eco Brooklyn

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:34:07 +0000

Today’s issue of the NY Daily News mentioned Eco Brooklyn and quoted Gennaro Brooks-Church. They posted the below pic and had this to say about Eco Brooklyn and Gennaro:

Here, Gennaro Brooks- Church is renovating his home, on 2nd Street in Brooklyn, here with his 5 and a half year old daughter Saomi and one year old son Cazimir on their rooftop garden which will eventually grow strawberries.

Gennaro Brooks-Church and his 5-year-old daughter always wash their hands after they go canoeing on the murky green water. A green builder and real-estate broker, Church is renovating a five-story, 102-year-old brick home he bought a couple of blocks west of the canal. Eventually, the house will be a two-family residence and showhouse for Eco Brooklyn, Church’s building business.

Church likes the local public school, PS 58. He’s lived near the Gowanus for years and identifies with the neighborhood. While he acknowledges that living next to a designated Superfund site could flatten real-estate prices, in the long run he thinks having a clean waterway would increase home values. The canal “is a gem that has yet to be polished,” he says.

=========================

Since it was an article on the Gowanus Canal the Daily News contacted Eco Brooklyn for two reasons.

One is that Eco Brooklyn is very vocal about being pro Superfund designation. As a real estate developer that is a strange stance to have. All the developers we know in this area are against the Superfund designation because it might adversely effect real estate prices in the short run.

The second reason is that Eco Brooklyn has a reputation through the Brooklyn Green Show House for renovating brownstones in a different way: One of the differences is the extended awareness of how the house effects the waterways.

We are very aware that the Show House it is a block from the Gowanus. When we flush the toilet on a rainy day there is a good chance the sewage will end up in the canal. The show house since is designed to reduce sewage and storm water run off into the Gowanus Canal through low flow fixtures, gray water, lots of vegetation in the yards and a green roof. Only when it really pours for a long time will water come off the property.

When people take a shower or use the sink in the show house the water does not go down the drain. It goes to a tank on the property and is reused for the toilets. This means that no potable water is ever used to flush toilets.

Lastly, the showers, sinks and toilets are the lowest water consuming fixtures on the market. All this makes for barely a trickle down the drain to the main sewer.

It is great to be recognized by the Daily News for these efforts. We feel very strongly about an increased awareness of how a house effects the surrounding world through its energy and water consumption and waste. For a mainstream mag like the Daily News to recognize that in a positive way is a step in the right direction.

Our efforts to completely green Brooklyn are supported by the article.

How Bad It Is – Brooklyn Wake Up Call

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:52:41 +0000

Most people have no idea what state the ecology of the world is. They still think it is about saving the wildlife.

But they are terribly wrong.

The wildlife has already been decimated. The forests, plants and animals are for the most part destroyed. Not some of it but the majority of it. We have these little trophy displays of wildlife in parks, very much like we have these token Native American Indian reservations.

But they are a sad joke and a lie.

If you don’t believe me look into it. The numbers are astounding. And they all point to one thing: we’ve done it, we’ve destroyed the world. It’s accomplished.

So saving the wildlife is too little too late. We still need to save what little is left but that is not the main focus right now. The main focus is saving ourselves from extinction.

People don’t realize this is what we need to focus on now.

Did you know that if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and put it on the stove that the frog will slowly let itself boil to death. It does not notice the incremental changes in temperature leading to it’s death.

Humans are the same. We are not aware of the incremental yet continuous changes in our environment leading to our extinction.

So as a green builder in Brooklyn what does that mean? It is not about saving the wildlife obviously. That has all been cemented over.

In Brooklyn as in the rest of the world it is about reducing the toxic environment we have created that will eventually kill us if we don’t do anything about it.

Gowanus Canal is a toxic cancer pit. The old timer Italians living along it all confirm that the cancer rates are higher.

Newton Creek in Williamsburg has 30 feet of what they call “black mayonaise” at the bottom of its toxic waters, a buildup of sludge over the years that has mutated into some unknown substance. The area around Newton Creek also has “widespread stories of people who lived near the heavily polluted Newtown Creek and developed a deadly illness,” according to this article in the Daily News

The oil leak in Williamsburg that went unrepairable since the 1940′s has built up into a giant underground lake under Greenpoint, East Williamsburg, and Maspeth in Queens. It is one of the largest oil spills in America’s history and nothing has been done about it. It sits there.

Long Island gets it’s drinking water from wells that are contaminated by industrial toxins, giving Long Island the title of “Breast Cancer Center of the World”.

The amount of blood illnesses, severe asthma, migraines, “fuzzy head syndome”, cancer, and general malaise is astounding. And like frogs in the heated pot we take it for granted.

It is no longer about bringing back the birds and vegetation in Brooklyn. It is about stopping the massive toxic buildup from getting worse.

We’ve been shitting in our own back yard for many years and it has gotten to the point where our environment is so toxic it is killing us.

This is why as Brooklyn green builder I have such a passion and sense of urgency. I have two kids living a block from the Gowanus canal. I have spoken to the community old timers who can list the number of friends and relatives who have died of serious illnesses. It is not pretty.

It is easy to ignore this from the living room of a Park Slope Brownstone. The beauty of some Brooklyn neighborhoods is astounding. But they are the exception. And they are only blocks away from the Gowanus Calnal and only a nice breeze away from Newton Creek.

Most of ecology happens on a microscopic scale in the dust and microbes. And that dust on our doorsteps is in bad shape.