For anyone waiting to put on their Speedo and go swimming in the Gowanus Canal: it's gonna be a while.
According to a new outline conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, the daunting task of cleaning the toxic canal will take at least ten years.
The Daily News reports on the EPA's decision to go forth with two possible plans that would involve removing all of the poisonous sediment currently at the bottom of the canal, rejecting the idea to cover a layer of soft sediment.
Both plans for the designated Superfund site will require an estimated $351 to $456 million.
Last year, the EPA confirmed the rather unsurprising discovery of cancer-causing toxins contaminating the canal's waters. EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck discussed the threats such chemicals posed on the public:
The contamination...is widespread and may threaten people's health, particularly if they eat fish or crabs from the canal or have repeated contact with the canal water or sediment. The level of contamination is so severe that I don't feel comfortable saying that when we're done, it will be fishable or swimmable.
No word on what that may mean for Whole Foods and their delay-ridden plans to open their first Brooklyn store in the Gowanus area this year.