The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun monitoring the soil and air around New York City’s most recent Superfund site – the Meeker Avenue Plume in northern Brooklyn – for chemical levels that could pose a risk to human health.

Decades ago, dry-cleaners and metalworking businesses in Greenpoint and East Williamsburg improperly disposed of chemical waste in the area. Though many of the polluting businesses have long been shuttered, the contamination still lurks underground. In March, the EPA added the hazardous area to the Superfund National Priorities List, meaning that the cleanup of the Meeker Avenue Plume would be federally managed. The site spans approximately 45 residential and industrial blocks, with P.S. 110 and the popular Monsignor McGolrick Park on its edge.

Last month, the EPA began drilling monitoring devices into the basements of neighborhood homes and businesses to determine the level of contamination and its potential health effects, marking the EPA’s first step toward cleanup. Vapor from the plume can seep into homes and businesses via cracks in a building’s foundation or through utility lines, according to John Brennan, who manages the site’s remediation for the EPA.

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