{"id":755,"date":"2025-05-15T12:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/?p=755"},"modified":"2025-05-19T13:21:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:21:55","slug":"nyc-musicians-hire-private-lab-to-test-for-toxic-gowanus-canal-vapors-after-landlords-silent-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/2025\/05\/15\/nyc-musicians-hire-private-lab-to-test-for-toxic-gowanus-canal-vapors-after-landlords-silent-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC musicians hire private lab to test for toxic Gowanus Canal vapors after landlord\u2019s silent treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Post<\/a> – By\u00a0Nicole Rosenthal<\/a> | May 15, 2025<\/p>\n

These Brooklyn musicians are playing to deaf ears.<\/p>\n

Tenants at a band rehearsal space near Brooklyn\u2019s toxic Gowanus Canal are taking matters into their own hands and pooling funds to hire a private company to test for cancer-causing vapors<\/a> inside the building after the landlord refused to let state inspectors inside.<\/p>\n

The space \u2014 which has been the rehearsal home over the years to the likes of TV On the Radio, Coheed and Cambria and The Blue Man Group \u2014 sits just blocks away from sites that have tested positive for high levels of cancer-causing trichloroethylene (TCE).<\/p>\n

But the management company that operates the facility says that landlord Anthony Borruso hasn\u2019t been \u201camenable\u201d to requests for free testing being offered by the state<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t give any comment on that,\u201d Anthony Borruso, who owns the property at at 255-261 Douglass St., told The Post when asked if he has refused to test or would be testing the site in the future.<\/p>\n

Some of the building\u2019s roughly 75 tenants have since launched a GoFundMe campaign to pool more than a thousand dollars needed to run third-party tests.<\/p>\n

Nearby sites such as the Royal Palms shuffleboard club<\/a> on Union Street have been found to have cancer-causing vapors roughly 22 times the amount considered safe. Another building, which the state has not publicly identified, had levels of TCE 450 times above acceptable levels.<\/a><\/p>\n

While the musicians\u2019 fundraiser only amassed $820 of its $1,333 goal, the tenants moved forward with testing conducted by Exclusive Testing Labs and are now waiting on results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking about moving out \u2026 but it\u2019s tough for a musician to find a new space,\u201d said one tenant, who declined to provide his name to The Post out of retaliation fears.<\/p>\n

The musician told The Post that tenants put up flyers in the building to notify others of the fundraiser, but someone \u201ctore them all down almost immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting cancer or some other lung disease, that would be my big concern,\u201d he said. \u201cThe long term health impact could injure me. This could kill me, even.\u201d<\/p>\n

While private lab testing isn\u2019t enough to qualify for free state-funded cleanup, the musician said that, if the private lab returns \u201cbad results,\u201d then the group plans to sue the landlord.<\/p>\n

The state is urging landlords around the canal site to test<\/a> \u2013 but as of last fall, only 20% of landlords granted access for testing, records show<\/a>, and building owners have the right to refuse testing from the Department of Environmental Conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile tenants can provide DEC access for their specific living space, DEC requires owner permission to complete a full [soil vapor intrusion] evaluation for a building,\u201d a state rep said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it unethical and, quite frankly, immoral \u2026 that landlords won\u2019t have much incentive to get this testing,\u201d the tenant musician added.<\/p>\n

The debacle calls to mind a similar battle waging in North Brooklyn at the Meeker Avenue Plume \u2013 where the EPA has similarly only gained access to about 20% of properties in the 45-block testing zone to test for chemicals like TCE.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf tenants are having difficulty in this regard, I encourage them to reach out to my office for support with getting landlords to comply,\u201d Council Member Shahana Hanif, who represents Gowanus, said in a statement, adding \u201ctenants should not be forced to pay for this critical service out of pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative from Exclusive Testing Labs told The Post it has privately tested about 15 to 20 commercial and residential properties \u2014 at the request of both landlords and tenants \u2014 near the canal within the past year.<\/p>\n

Reasons why landlords can refuse a test run the gamut, the rep explained, from older landlords unaware of environmental dangers to those who \u201cdon\u2019t feel as though air quality is as big of an issue as it actually is.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rep for Band Spaces NYC named John told The Post it will continue its pursuit to get the landlord\u2019s permission.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken [to Borruso] at length about the issue several times and I have made clear that the Band Spaces renters are anxious to have the testing done,\u201d he said, \u201cso I believe they may eventually relent and allow the testing to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Post<\/a> – By\u00a0Nicole Rosenthal<\/a> | May 15, 2025<\/p>\n

These Brooklyn musicians are playing to deaf ears.<\/p>\n

Tenants at a band rehearsal space near Brooklyn\u2019s toxic Gowanus Canal are taking matters into their own hands and pooling funds to hire a private company to test for cancer-causing vapors<\/a> inside the building after the landlord refused to let state inspectors inside.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,19],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ej-composting","tag-district39-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shahana-hanif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}