Alex Isidoro                                The Gowanus Canal                    November 6, 2015

Pollution in the Gowanus Canal

When students from the Brooklyn collaborative studies visited the Gowanus Canal all they could smell was garbage. The Gowanus Canal smells like this because factories throw out oil, (not the good food kind) toxic waste, metal parts, ink, raw sewage, coal tar and many more. Every year a bird dies trying to escape from the water the Gowanus Canal's water when they hit something they don't see and fall in the water. The Gowanus Canal is the most polluted body of water in NYC. Together we must fight to end pollution to be ended by.

What is coal tar?

Coal tar is when cities used coal to make gas to light street lamps and what was left is coal tar. Coal tar is leftover from coal that makes gas. Coal tar is produced when coal is used to make gas to light street lamps and what is left is coal tar. Coal tars nickname is “black mayonnaise”. According to “A Brief History of Slime,” “The coal tar in the Gowanus Canal comes from foundries, coal yards, and paint and ink factories.” This shows that coal tar comes many places you wouldn't expect it to be in.

Social Significance

This news story tells readers and listeners about the Gowanus Canal and how it's so polluted. This is an important issue that people should know about this because people live near the Gowanus Canal and when it's summer the canal starts to smell really bad. There were chemical and stuff poured into the canal that mainly can cause cancer and people are breathing this stuff so yes this is a big problem. According to, “A Brief History of Slime,” the canal is so bad because heavy metals like mercury and lead are present so are PCBs and pesticides and diseases like cholera, typhoid, typhus, and gonorrhea are also in the canal so that is some really bad stuff. This could affect people’s lives because if someone falls in there and swallows some of the water they die or if they don't die they get disease then they die after also in the summer for people who live near the canal in summer the Gowanus Canal starts to smell real bad some some people describe it as dirty socks or sewage.

The Solution

Some people and groups are trying to clean up the Gowanus Canal. For example, the EPA and Bloomberg are calling for the most muck to be dreaded wich means to clean by scooping all the muck and dirt. Another good idea to clean up the Gowanus Canal would be to put lots of oysters into the Gowanus Canal. This would be a good plan because oysters are very good at cleaning up waters and by doing that they create habits for other animals. If we fixed the problem the Gowanus future would be full of life and the waters would be very clean people would be able to swim and jump into the canal and be able to call it a pier.