The city’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Sanitation celebrated the opening of a new $24 million operation facility.
“It doesn’t always get in the news but you know sanitation important, composting important, sewage important,” said Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon.
The facility located in Gowanus, is home to a salt shed that can store 6 million pounds of road salt, and a composting area that can process 600,000 pounds of food and yard waste a year.
“You can drop your food scraps off, they get turned into lovely compost on this site that we can then use on street trees and gardens throughout the neighborhood,” said Andrea Parker, executive director of Gowanus Canal Conservancy.
Members of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy say it will bring the neighborhood one step closer to a cleaner and greener Gowanus. This new salt lot will free up the previous location. Allowing for a new 4 million gallon sewage retention tank to go in its place.
This tank, as well as two others in the borough will capture up to 12 million gallons of sewage overflow, a major step toward reducing pollution in the canal.