NEW YORK, NY April 08, 2009 —How polluted is the Gowanus Canal? The federal Environmental Protection Agency wants to find out. It's proposing putting the industrial waterway in Brooklyn on its Superfund site. Councilman David Yassky, whose district includes the nearly two-mile long canal, says this is good news.

YASSKY: The Gowanus Canal, if it's cleaned up, we can then have housing and restaurants and the whole waterfront life right alongside it. But first we gotta clean it up.

Tests have found PCBs, pesticides, toxic metals and volatile organic contaminants in the canal's sediments. The EPA is collecting public comment on its Superfund proposal for the next 60 days.