*Additional Resources Below*
As the well-known apologue cautions: If a frog is placed in water that is heated up gradually, it will not notice being boiled alive. This concept proves analogous to humans’ reactions to our increasingly polluted surroundings.
Superfund Sites are contaminated properties designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contain mismanaged hazardous waste – often stemming from manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites.
Currently, there are 1334 Superfund Sites listed on the EPA’s National Priority List (NPL), with 97 of those existing in New York State with an additional 114 in New Jersey, accounting for approximately 16% of all NPL locations across the nation.
Though it always takes time, some sites are responsibly treated and repurposed, however, other sites remain improperly addressed -- many of which are integrated into our communities. Although they are present, impactful, and worrisome, they are often hidden in plain sight.
In this installation you will find documentation of five Superfund Sites located within New York and New Jersey via photographic image and audio.
The locations include Diamond Alkali, Rolling Knolls Landfill, Federal Creosote, the Gowanus Canal, and Newtown Creek; the closest of which – Newtown Creek -- begins no more than 1.7 miles East from this gallery.
In engaging with this work, please take your time to consider the tangibility of these locations and ask yourself, why and how are we so resigned to living with such surrounding toxicity?
If this project offers you a moment to reset and reconsider the state of our surroundings, we will be one step closer to ensuring we are not but frogs boiling alive.
If interested in learning more, please find additional resources listed below.
Gabrielson, Teena. 2019. “The Visual Politics of Environmental Justice.” Environmental Humanities 11 (1): 27–51. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-7349396.
Greenberg, Michael and Justin Hollander. "Neighborhood Stigma Twenty Years Later: Revisiting Superfund Sites in Suburban New Jersey." The Appraisal Journal 74, no. 2 (Spring, 2006): 161-173.
Kiaghadi, Amin, Hanadi S. Rifai, and Clint N. Dawson. 2021. “The Presence of Superfund Sites as a Determinant of Life Expectancy in the United States.” Nature Communications 12 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22249-2.
Noonan, Douglas S., Douglas J. Krupka, and Brett M. Baden. 2007. “NEIGHBORHOOD DYNAMICS and PRICE EFFECTS of SUPERFUND SITE CLEAN-UP.” Journal of Regional Science 47 (4): 665–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2007.00525.x.
Pearsall, Hamil. 2013. “Superfund Me: A Study of Resistance to Gentrification in New York City.” Urban Studies 50 (11): 2293–2310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013478236.
Sherman, Mark. “Supreme Court Limits EPA in Curbing Power Plant Emissions.” AP NEWS, June 30, 2022. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-epa-ruling-2e893673819a1b6c6aa272a5e814f0b0.
LEGEND
1. Raritan Riverbank, Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
2. Domestic Garage, Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
3. Parking Lot surrounding the Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
4. Runoff Bank Below ‘Smith-9th Streets’ Subway Station along the Gowanus Canal – Brooklyn, NY
5. Overview of Newtown Creek from the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge with Long Island City and Manhattan in the Distance – Queens, NY
6. Google Earth Aerial Capture of Newtown Creek Superfund Site – Queens, NY
7. Piles of trash and toxic sludge along the bank of the Passaic River, Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
8. Surface of the Gowanus Canal Waterway – Brooklyn, NY
9. NYC Sanitation Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
10. Lafarge Cement Plant along Gowanus Bay, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site– Brooklyn, NY
11. Google Earth Aerial Capture of Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
12. Google Earth Aerial Capture of Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site – Chatham Township, NJ
13. Port Facilities at Port of New York Gowanus Canal Historic Diagram, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
14. Diamond Alkali Contamination Removal Proposal Diagram, Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
15. Historic Print of John Manville Asbestos Factory, Federal Creosote Superfund Site - Manville, NJ
16. Home sitting on adjacent property to Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site – Chatham Township, NJ
17. Green Asphalt and Prince Metal along the shore of the Newtown Creek Superfund Site – Queens, NY
18. Backyard Trampoline and Pool adjacent to Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site – Chatham Township, NJ
19. ‘Smith - 9th Streets.’ Subway Overpass above the Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
20. Archival Photograph of Canal Overpass (by Unknown), Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
21. Long Island City Railroad Yard, Newtown Creek Superfund Site – Queens, NY
22. Marshall Repairs LLC. Backyard, Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
23. Old Iron Architectural Salvage Yard, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
24. Google Earth Aerial Capture of Diamond Alkali Superfund Site and Passaic River– Newark, NJ
25. R.G. Meile Field adjacent to Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site – Chatham Township, NJ
26. Google Earth Aerial Capture of Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
27. Lafarge Cement Piles with Red Hook Grain Terminal in the Distance, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
28. Historic Factories & Facilities along Hunter’s Point and Newtown Creek Lithograph – Queens, NY
29. Suburban Home in neighborhood surrounding Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
30. Essex Country Riverfront Park Baseball Field, Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
31. EPA Investigation Sign in front of Marshall Repairs LLC., Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
32. Bayside Fuel Oil Depot, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
33. Hamilton Stansteel Asphalt Plant, Gowanus Canal Superfund Site – Brooklyn, NY
34. RedBull Arena across the Passaic River, Diamond Alkali Superfund Site – Newark, NJ
35. Faith In Action Church Message Board, Federal Creosote Superfund Site – Manville, NJ
36. Forest Along the limits of Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site – Chatham Township, NJ