The feds want to dump half a billion dollars into Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal — to clean up contaminants dumped there for decades.
The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday proposed spending $467 million to $504 million on the waterway, which joined the federal Superfund list in 2010 as one of the nation’s most hazardous waste sites.
Three dozen polluters are to foot the bill, and EPA spokesman John Martin said the leading two — the city itself and National Grid — are cooperating with regulators. The city would have to pick up the cost of preventing storm and sewage overflow into the canal.
Martin estimated that the dredging of 588,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment would begin in 2015. Dredged areas would be capped and raw sewage overflow blocked to prevent future pollution.
Manufactured-gas plants, paper mills, tanneries and chemical plants have operated along the canal, which was built in the mid-1800s.
The dozen-plus contaminants found at high levels in the sediment include mercury, lead, copper and hydrocarbons formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood and garbage, and an electrical coolant and lubricant banned in 1979.
Public hearings are set for Jan. 23 at PS 58 (the Carroll School) and Jan. 24 at the Joseph Miccio Community Center.