[CPEO-BIF] Vapor intrusion sampling in Brooklyn, New York's Gowanus Neighborhood

[Lenny Siegel <Lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Over 20 buildings tested in latest soil vapor intrusion sampling
 
By Max White
Red Hook Star-Revue
February 12, 2026

New York environmental officials are now in their third round of testing for chemicals rising from underground to the air inside buildings, but local activists say they don’t trust the findings.

Due to Gowanus’ industrial past, several volatile organic compounds have been found in its soil. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has been testing the area for three rounds now, since 2023, looking for soil vapor intrusion, when chemicals move from underground to the air inside buildings. All testing is done during the city’s winter heating season, which run from the fall to the spring. (Testing is done during the heating season as heating systems can create a negative pressure that draws soil vapor into the building.)

The DEC told the Red Hook Star-Revue in early January that it had not, to date, identified “an area-wide soil vapor intrusion trend impacting the wider Gowanus neighborhood.” It had sampled 23 properties in the Gowanus Canal area during the 2025-26 winter heating season, as of Dec. 31, 2025.


…

For the entire article, see
https://www.star-revue.com/over-20-buildings-tested-in-latest-soil-vapor-intrusion-sampling/

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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