Brownfield Site at 29 Clay Street Begins Remediation Process; Public Comment Period Closes May 31

After a years-long process, the NuHart Superfund Site at 65-75 Dupont Street completed remediation and is now home to Greenpoint Central, a new luxury rental development. Now, a brownfield right around the block at 29 Clay Street is just beginning clean-up efforts—and it looks like they’re going to be extensive. But some community leaders are skeptical that the proposed remediation will go far enough. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GEEC (@bklyn_geec)

At a virtual community meeting on May 20 hosted by the office of Council Member Lincoln Restler, representatives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH), and developer Clay Properties, LLC, explained why the Clay Street site requires remediation, and presented a detailed plan to clean it up. Remediation would begin in June or July, followed by construction of a 14-story mixed-use building with condos and commercial space on the combined lot located at 19-29 Clay Street, and 60-62 Commercial Street.

Reps fielded questions from Greenpoint neighbors—many, for whom this isn’t their first remediation rodeo—concerned about health and quality of life impacts from potential dust, air quality levels at and around the site, noise and shaking during the excavation process, and questionably safe work practices (one resident who lives across the street said he’d observed site workers handling asbestos removal without wearing hazmat suits). The brownfield cleanup project is currently in its public comment period, open now through May 31, which means that anyone can voice concerns or give feedback before remediation kicks off this summer. 

Council Member Restler echoed community concerns, stating that, “It’s always a scary thing when the lot down the block is going through a significant remediation process with serious environmental impacts, and we all want to know that things are handled the right way and that it’s safe for us, our kids, our neighbors, our pets.” He described the current remediation plan as forging “a good path forward” and praised the DEC for working with the development team to hold them accountable. 

Like many sites in Greenpoint, 19-29 Clay Street harbors toxic remnants from its industrial past, which going back over a century formerly housed an iron works facility, cosmetics and writing instruments manufacturing company, and a medical device and filtration manufacturer under Interflo Technologies, to name a few. To give you an idea, Interflo was flagged by the EPA in the mid-1990s for generating hazardous waste, including mercury waste, according to remediation documents. New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program targets contaminated sites and offers incentives like tax credits for voluntary cleanup and redevelopment.

According to Jane O’Connell, Regional Remediation Engineer for the NYSDEC, remediation is a vetted system that can safely remove legacy toxins. “We can clean this site up to make it safe,” she said, adding that they would follow “proven technologies” previously executed on dozens of brownfield and Superfund sites across the city and state. “We had to have a knock-down, drag out with the developer to make sure we were getting everything we needed to come to the community with a straight face and say, yes, we believe this plan is going to work and be effective.” 

O’Connell presented the Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP) to meeting attendees, giving somewhat of a chemistry lesson to explain the methodology behind mitigating “contaminants of concern” like known carcinogen trichloroethylene (TCE), a now banned industrial solvent which was found in dangerously high concentrations of soil, soil vapor, and groundwater at the site. 

O’Connell said the DEC is particularly concerned about vapor intrusion of TCE, which happens when groundwater contaminants evaporate and seep into buildings through cracks in the basement or foundation, exposing residents. High levels of TCE can cause symptoms like respiratory irritation, dizziness, nausea; long-term health effects on the kidney, liver, and central nervous system; and fetal heart defects in the first trimester of pregnancy. According to the NYCDOH, indoor air levels of TCE at 20 mcg/m3 or higher necessitate intervention. An April 2025 DEC fact sheet for the Clay Properties, LLC brownfield listed the highest TCE detection found in soil vapor at 3,900,000 ug/m3.  

Interim remedial measures have already taken place to tackle the TCE hot spot, including groundwater treatment using what’s known as in-situ chemical reduction injections—a process in which reagents are pumped into the ground to help break down TCE into ethylene, which is innocuous, while also creating an environment for naturally-occurring bacteria that will help metabolize its compounds. The DEC also conducted a soil vapor extraction pilot study, to learn how to best prevent off-site migration of any contaminated soil vapor. To see if any contaminants had spread so far, samples of soil vapor and indoor air were taken at two adjacent properties (O’Connell didn’t reveal the exact addresses). Results found no significant vapor intrusion, and the indoor air levels registered below the DOH safe air guidelines for TCE, she said. Further offsite air sampling will be conducted at additional buildings around the area, starting this heating season (which begins October 1), O’Connell said.  

The next phase of remediation, which is targeted to begin in June or July, will include excavation and offsite disposal of contaminated soil, including digging down about 27 feet to address the deepest layer of TCE, and installing metal sheeting to prevent groundwater intrusion that would interfere with the process. Contaminated soil will be replaced with new, clean soil, known as backfill. They’ll also conduct dewatering, a process which removes contaminated water for treatment and disposal. 

Finally, workers will install a permanent soil vapor extraction system, a 3-foot slab that will prevent exposure to any remaining contaminated soil, a sub-slab depressurization system with a chemical vapor barrier, and an environmental easement for long-term monitoring of the site.

But remediation, in practice, doesn’t always go off without a hitch. Stephen Chesler, Chair of the Environmental Protection Committee of Brooklyn Community Board 1, commented that, “The hot spot where the TCE is going down so deep reminds me a little bit of the Superfund section of NuHart, where there was predicted depth where they were going to remediate the contamination, and they discovered it was much deeper than they thought and had to resort to an alternative. So that’s a concern. Is there an alternative [to the] alternative if the planned remedy is not viable?” 

O’Connell responded that they had learned from NuHart’s mistakes. This time, they would handle the dewatering process “very slowly”, one foot at a time, so as not to create a “smear zone” of contaminants below the excavation line. “If we get to the max depth and there is still some contamination below it, we will inject in-situ substrates to degrade the chemicals,” she said. 

Clay Properties, LLC rep Ori Gilead said that he expected remediation to take two or three months, followed by construction beginning in October, with project completion expected roughly two years after that. Notably, Gilead said that a building application had not yet been submitted to the NYC Department of Buildings, because plans were still not finalized.

During the meeting, a neighbor that lives nearby expressed concerns about how workers would handle installation of metal sheeting, recalling that when the same process took place during the NuHart remediation, a block farther away from his apartment, it was so forceful his kitchen mugs were shaking. 

Gilead responded that they will have vibration monitors to help temper the effects on the neighborhood. He admitted, “It’s going to be noisy during that time, but we are going to try to do it as fast as possible.” He also shared his phone number and said that concerned neighbors could call him at (917) 935-3297.

Another neighbor, Debra Scott, asked, “What about the health of the seniors who live in this area, or other folks who deal with asthma? How do we ensure the air quality is going to be good enough for them?”

O’Connell said that excavation would be conducted under a negative pressure enclosure to contain any vapors and prevent contamination. She said they also plan to install real-time air monitors around the site, and will work with Restler to publish results online where folks can access them daily.

Let’s hope the process goes as smoothly as possible. And if you have any concerns about air quality or unsafe conditions during the process of remediation or construction, reach out to Lincoln Restler’s office at [email protected].

You can access the proposed Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP) here, and reach out to the following contacts:

Jane O’Connell, PG, Regional Remediation Engineer, [email protected]

Jennifer Gonzalez, NYSDEC Project Manager, [email protected]

Stephen Lawrence, NYSDOH Public Health Specialist, [email protected]