tonight, special correspondent rick karr looks at environmental concerns in new york city. many residents in brooklyn want to know more about the risks of chemicals that may have spread when the storm surge hit. reporter: the area around brooklyn's canal could be new york city's answer to amsterdam. at least that's what some real estate developers are betting. the canal's neighbor to the north, newtown creek, can offer up its own beautiful vistas, but both waterways are also surrounded by heavy industry as they've been for more than a hundred years. so they're among the most polluted in the country. so bad that the environmental protection agency has designated both as super fund clean-up sites. >> there are persistent con tam napts there like p.c.b.s, like heavy metals, that have been there probably for a good part of the last century. >> reporter: thomas burke teaches about the environment and public health at johns hopkins university. >> there are also combustion by-product -- that sounds like a fancy term -- but that's from the old plants there, coal tar plants and plan