New York City has Pearl the Squirrel to better illustrate the Parks Department's goals, and our personal favorite, Warmy, to ease us through the pothole-filling process. But what mascot should the Gowanus have during its cleanup? "The cleanup will be long, boring and probably disgusting, so we want to make sure people are aware of what's going on in an easy and fun way," Gowanus Community Advisory Group member Eymund Diegel told the Post. How much would rights for the Trojan Man cost? more ›

A dozen protesters were arrested during last week's Occupy Wall Street demonstrations against Bank of America and other symbols of corporate hegemony in New York, and as is custom for many OWS events, there was plenty of media on hand. Despite a memo from Commissioner Kelly directing the NYPD to respect the rights of the media, and the department's disciplinary actions against an officer who blocked a Times freelancer from doing his job in December, this video shows an officer hitting a credentialed photographer's lens and saying repeatedly, "My personal space, sir." more ›

The Environmental Protection Agency a.k.a. The Bureau of Bloodthirsty Job-Killing Werewolves released an expansive report [pdf] last month that recommends a 10-year plan to dredge and replace layers of matter kindly referred to as "sediment" in the Gowanus canal, costing close to $500 million. Per CERCLA, polluters are required to pick up Superfund bills, and as expected, gas companies and other businesses who dumped chemicals and had unprotected sex with the Gowanus Canal are doing their damndest to limit their liability. Add the City of New York to that list: the Department of Environmental Protection says the Gowanus' troubles have little to do with the tons of poop that it pumps into the canal each year. more ›

A draft report released by the EPA on Thursday indicating that hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is probably the cause for contaminated water supplies in central Wyoming may affect New York's impending decision on whether to permit fracking upstate. Sandra Steingraber, an Ithaca College biologist, tells the Daily News, "It takes away the industry's claim that there has never been a documented case of groundwater contamination because of fracking." more ›

6,000 packages of an extremely lethal chemical being sold in Manhattan's Chinatown as rat poison have been seized, and ten retailers have been arrested on state and federal charges. Authorities from the EPA, the city's DA's office, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation confiscated vials and boxes of brodifacoum, an anticoagulant 61 times stronger than is legal, with the label "The Cat Be Unemployed." A woman who purchased them in the East Broadway Mall last year mistook it for medicine, and lost two-thirds of her blood volume! more ›

Swimmers, breathe easy: the Long Island Sound is now officially a "no-discharge zone," meaning you can practice your backstroke in pristine, poop-free waters. The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that all 760 square miles of the Sound are off-limits to boats looking to dispose of their waste, a move officials are hailing as "long overdue." more ›

Smog-free air is simply too expensive, and in light of today's unemployment report, America—and President Obama's reelection campaign—just can't afford it, the White House essentially decided today. A little over a month ago, the head of the EPA said that George Bush's ozone pollution standards were "not legally defensible," and it was widely anticipated that Obama would impose stricter limits this summer. Today, the opposite happened. more ›

Despite his millions, Mayor Bloomberg drinks the heavenly-tasting NYC tap water just like everyone else, and he doesn't think there's a goshdarn thing wrong with it—and he's not afraid to give the EPA a piece of his mind. more ›

The latest inquiry into the gritty realities of our new friends the fracking industry has just come out, and it brings us an important and previously-unheard lesson: energy industry officials lie! At least if you'll believe a 1987 EPA report that was spared by protocols that have left scientific information about other fracking incidents sealed. more ›

Trace amounts of radioactive iodine from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have now been detected in the air and rainwater in New York State. But don't start hoarding; the state Department of Health insists that there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about, because the radiation levels are extremely low. Yesterday State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah called for calm, issuing this statement from an undisclosed location in Albany (where he presumably has access to an unlimited supply of lead-lined underwear): more ›

The NYC Department of Education (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been in a stand-off all year over PCBs in city schools. Despite the EPA's warnings about PCBs, which have been linked to cancer as well as immune and reproductive system disorders, the city has largely stuck to the attitude, "we just don't have any money to fix that...and nobody's died." But after the EPA reported that all nine schools spot-checked this year for PCBs in antiquated lighting fixtures were found to have elevated amounts, the city is changing their tune: Mayor Bloomberg has finally approved a $708 million plan to replace all the cancer-spewing lighting in city schools. more ›

[Update below] You know how the EPA keeps saying "there are dangerous PCBs in New York City schools!" And the Department of Education keeps saying "that's nice but we don't really have the money to deal with that right now?" Well, the dance continues! The results are in from the EPA's latest spot check of city schools and once again the results are not good. On Saturday, February 12, the federal agency checked out P.S. 45 in Brooklyn and found a whole mess of leaking lighting ballasts containing the suspected carcinogens. more ›

For the second day in a row, some Staten Island public school students have ditched school—with the EPA's permission. Ten classrooms in two schools were closed yesterday because higher-than-acceptable levels of PCBs were detected. Notably, when a PS 36 teacher complained about fluid leaking from a lighting fixture, "more 200 times the accepted amount of 50 parts per million" of PCBs were found in two classrooms. While students in those two classrooms were pulled, other parents removed their students from the school— the attendance rate was 26% at PS 36. more ›

Any minute now, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. will introduce a bill to eliminate fluoride from the city's tap water, claiming it "amounts to forced medication by the government." We've contacted him to elaborate a bit more on his ideas, but the US Department of Health and Human Services may be backing him up. According to the Daily News, they now want the maximum of 1 milligram of fluoride per liter set 30% lower. Wait, so they really are after our precious bodily fluids? more ›

Last month locals called bullshit on the new ban closing parts of Newtown Creek to kayakers and other brave folk willing to find fun in the Superfunded body of water. Now they've got some backup in high places, we're told that Assemblyman Joe Lentol and Councilman Stephen Levin blasted the new and unnecessary ban on recreational boating in Newtown Creek. They will allegedly both testify at tonight's hearing with the Department of Environmental Protection on the issue, encouraging the ban to be lifted. In a letter, they wrote: more ›

With Newtown Creek officially a Superfund site now, the Department of Environmental Protection has closed off the waterway to boats, kayaks, and the like. But the people have spoken, and they want their polluted waters to remain open for recreation! According to the Brooklyn Paper, the EPA claims its a "short-term ban" that will remain in place until the state can analyze the water quality. A DEP official said the decision was made out of “an abundance of caution” with regards to public health. more ›

Newtown Creek (dolphins love it) is following in the footsteps of the raw sewage spewing Gowanus Canal—yesterday the feds made the polluted body of water a Superfund site. It will now be subject to a massive Environmental Protection Agency cleanup, according to the Daily News... one that will likely take many, many years. The EPA's regional administrator declared "this waterway has been contaminated over the past 150 years," and the designation will have them going after those who had a hand in polluting it. more ›

One reason not everyone was supporting the EPA slapping a Superfund sticker on the Gowanus Canal was because of the stigma that comes along with that label. Bloomberg and certain developers were fearing the fallout of a decision to Superfund, and the Toll Brothers were even facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit after signing a $21.5 million contract with owner Joseph Phillips, which they refused to pay. more ›

While Tupper Thomas has done a lot for Prospect Park during her time as administrator, did the EPA jump the gun by awarding the park for its cleanliness? You know, the same park that has television sets and animal parts floating around in the lake. more ›

Last year Fort Lee, NJ Health Officer Steven Wielkotz turned to the chemical Avitrol to rid the area around town hall of pigeons. Avitrol "kills the pigeons by first causing them to suffer seizures and then cardiac arrest." Not exactly the best way to go, especially for Wielkotz, who actually ended up killing a slew of grackles instead. The Humane Society of the United States is now touting an alternative to curbing the pigeon population: pigeon birth control. more ›

We've all heard about the Gowanus Canal's polluted waters, but now that Team Superfund is on board, it's time to get an up close look at the goo that oozes within it. The folks who run Characters of Gowanus were brave enough to get exclusive footage of the most talked about sediment in town, and it ain't pretty. EPA regional Superfund director Walter Mugdan explains the Superfund process in the below video and (spoiler alert!) talks about that time that the mud found in the waterway "had eaten its way through this heavy duty plastic" that it had been captured in. It's alive, people—and carrying gonorrhea. more ›

State officials say oil spill cleanup efforts under Greenpoint are seriously picking up speed. “In terms of oil recovery, we’re more than a third of the way there,” state Department of Environmental Conservation project manager Ed Hampston told the Brooklyn Paper. With the help of new sludge-sucking pumps (and at the urging of subway artists), workers removed 880,000 gallons of oil last year, more than twice as much as in 2008. Since 2000, the year the cleanup began, 10.8 million gallons of petroleum product have been extracted. more ›

Joseph Kinneary, the “shy peerer” fired by the city for failing to whiz in a cup, won’t get his $225,000 wrongful termination damages after all. In 2004 when the former Department of Environmental Protection employee claimed his paruresis (aka shy bladder) kept him from completing a mandatory drug test and led to his firing, a judge ruled in his favor, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the Post reports that, in an affront to shy bladder sufferers everywhere, the decision has been reversed, based on pure technicalities. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] This week the Gowanus Canal will be designated a Superfund site, according to Courier Life. An employee for the agency told them, “If you asked me to put money on it, I think they will announce on Thursday." However, the EPA is set to make an announcement to the press today at 10 a.m. Once the call is officially made, expect the Toll Brothers to toss aside any development plans they had for the area (the Superfund process takes 10-12 years), and for the mayor to have a big sad. A public meeting will be held this Thursday at 7 p.m. at PS 58 in Brooklyn. [via Curbed] more ›

Good riddance! A dirty old Queens power plant will close tonight at 11:59 on the dot. The Charles Poletti Power Project in Astoria was built in the mid-1970’s and could burn both oil and natural gas. But in 2002 after the EPA called it out as one of the city’s major polluters, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. filed a lawsuit against the plant, that resulted in today’s shut-down. According to Fox 5, Vallone called the closure a breath of fresh air. more ›

Two different chemicals are causing concern at schools citywide. One comes from inside the schools—it’s a toxin found in the window caulking of older buildings. The other is a chemical brought in by workers to strip the paint from school windows. more ›