Two philanthropies working to convert the old powerhouse on Brooklyn’s infamously polluted Gowanus Canal into an art center say they’ve spent $20 million cleaning the site of toxins — and claim in a lawsuit that the city and Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which contaminated the site, haven’t chipped in a penny.
BRT Powerhouse LLP and Gemini Arts Interactive plan to build a 170,000 square-foot arts hub at 322 Third Avenue, a site that served as a coal-operated electrical station to power Brooklyn’s train lines until 1972. The site also housed a coal yard.
But before the new facility can be built, the toxins the city and the MTA left behind must be cleaned up — and Powerhouse says it has dropped the eye-popping, eight-figure sum to do so while the city and the MTA haven’t chipped in a “single dollar of the cost.”
The site is heavily contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBS, and some 2,500 tons of soil have had to be removed, the suit says.
“Powerhouse is the ‘someone else’ now cleaning up the mess the city created and left to languish in complete disregard of the environment, human health, and the citizens of New York,” the suit charges.
The city and the MTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.