What pollution? Brooklyn area thrives along Superfund canal

NEW YORK (AP) — It could be a postcard for Brooklyn's hip resurgence: a shimmering new building of modern apartments renting for $5,000 a month, a gourmet grocery with a rooftop greenhouse, and a funky barbecue joint with drinks flowing on the outdoor deck.

Except all of it overlooks the Gowanus Canal, a murky, smelly Superfund site choked with raw sewage and an iridescent sheen of oil, PCBs, coal tar and other industrial wastes.

At Pig Beach, the barbecue joint with picnic tables and a summery vibe, a good crowd of young families rubs shoulders with the after-work singles crowd.

[...] a new developer, Lightstone, acquired the parcels, recast the project as a rental development and opened the first building to tenants this past spring even as the city and the federal Environmental Protection Agency signed off on a multi-year cleanup plan.

The canal, built in the 1850s, quickly became a dumping ground for industries along its banks, including tanneries, garbage facilities, and three plants that used coal to make the gas that powered street lights and home heating systems.

John Lipscomb, an activist with the environmental group Riverkeeper who makes monthly patrols in an aluminum motorboat, said the whole canal is a source of pollution "as though it were a 50-foot diameter pipe discharging heavy metals, petroleum waste, raw sewage, floatables like plastic and other unmentionables that people flush."