Residents living near Brooklyn's toxic Gowanus Canal could find out within weeks whether their buildings are contaminated with carcinogenic vapors, but only if they can convince their landlords to let the state enter their properties for testing, The Washington Post reports.
Property owners have the right to block the Department of Environmental Conservation from entering their properties to test for hazardous chemicals such as trichloroethylene, but so far only one in five Gowanus property owners has consented to testing.
DEC is currently resorting to telling tenants that it is their responsibility to plead with their landlord to approve the testing.
“If you're a renter, please talk to your landlord about whether you're allowed in,” Environmental Protection Commission Vice Chairman Patrick Foster said at a public meeting Thursday night at PS 372 in Gowanus, where cancer-causing gases and other hazardous substances, including benzene and xylene, have already been found.
“If you're struggling with that conversation, let us know and we'll reach out to your landlord further.”
The DEC has already inspected hundreds of buildings, and by next month plans to send letters to all property owners in roughly 100 blocks around the notoriously polluted Gowanus Canal, asking for permission to conduct testing on their premises.
“If you're a property owner, there's a form you can fill out to give us access,” Foster said.
Foster said state law requires landlords to notify tenants if hazardous chemicals are found and to implement costly mitigation measures.
However, such dangers can only be detected with the owner's “cooperation and consent,” State documents. And so far, few homeowners seem willing to take the risk that they might find something.
Of the 610 buildings requested for inspection in the first phase of the contamination investigation, only 20% were allowed entry for inspection. According to the recordsOf these, around 113 buildings have completed inspections.
“It’s something we’re considering, but we’re not sure,” one landowner, who declined to give his name, told The Post after Thursday’s DEC meeting.
The owners did not elaborate on what elements they were discussing or what type of property they own.
“They said they didn't find many patterns. [of contamination]and the levels of contaminants that were found were really low, so that's pretty encouraging,” she said.
But some locations, like the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club on Union Street, found significant contamination, with carcinogenic fumes detected at about 22 times the amount considered safe.
Venting underground contaminants has reduced the fumes, and recent air quality tests at the site have deemed it “safe,” but at least 12 other buildings have detected levels of chemicals that exceed safety standards.
Records show TCE levels in one building not released by the state. That's over 450 times the acceptable level.
Dozens of other tests at the building on Union Street, which houses about 20 businesses, also detected TCE fumes.
State officials plan to install equipment to remove harmful gases from PS372 by early next year, representatives said.
TCE vapors were detected in the main reception area of PS 32 on the east side of the canal, but the DEC said the levels were not severe enough to require remediation.
“In that school, there were no concentrations that would warrant any action,” one state legislator said. “There were quite a few samples taken in different parts of the building, and some air samples taken in the basement, which is where you would expect to find the highest concentrations.”
Some tenants, including a 53-year-old woman who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation, told The Washington Post that her store caters to children and she worries the responsibility for promoting testing will be placed on her and other employees.
“We are tenants and our building has not been inspected so we are trying to figure out what we can do,” she said.
“[The DEC meeting] There was actually some useful information there, but even if we did everything they said, I'm not sure everyone would agree with it. Ultimately, it's the homeowner's decision.”
The store owner told The Washington Post that families have expressed concerns about the lack of testing but are afraid to speak up because they will be evicted.
“We're in this awkward position of not being able to do that. We want them to be tested and maybe as tenants we should be pressuring them, but we can't sacrifice our relationship,” she added.
“If they asked us to move out or anything like that, it would be devastating.”
