WATER POLLUTION OF THE GOWANUS CANAL

BY Gerson Lucero

If you visit the Gowanus Canal, the first thing you will notice is that it smell really bad because people piss and poop are in the Gowanus Canal.you would see lot’s of construction and oil in the water. you would also hear lot’s of cars and construction workers there.

The problem is that the Gowanus Canal is that people doesn’t like the smell, how it looks and how people are treating and now people want to change it. This is a problem because let’s say one day it rain or snow really badly then the rain or snow goes to the pipe making a sewage overflow making the water from the Gowanus canal into the street and the ocean so you can't drink the water until they finished filtering the water.

there is a history of pollution in the Gowanus Canal.for example the Gowanus Canal has been used as a dumping place for factories for more than 100 years.the Gowanus Canal has many different kinds of pollution such coal tars which was used to make gas for old street lamps,sewer pipes dump toilet waste and factories waste/dump.

it’s also important to note that the environmental protection agency also know as EPA warns people not to touch the water or the mud so be very careful and listen to instruction saying not to swim or do anything in the Canal

people should be concerned about water pollution in the Gowanus Canal because people don’t want to smell the horrible water of the Gowanus Canal. it’s not even safe to swim in. for example, christopher swain swam in the canal and said “it had lot of different flavors of mud, poop, chemical, and gasoline”.according to “who wants to swim in stinky,dirty,new york water?” by scientific american, swain had to put on a special swim gear to swim in the nasty canal and swimming cap, goggles, ear plugs, thick gloves and a special gel for the face and back neck to keep the water out of his skin.this shows when you want to swim in the Canal you have to be very careful.

some people and groups are trying to clean up the Gowanus canal. for example they are trying to fix the flush and clean the canal which is something in the canal that flush everything in the water like a toilet and cleans it.another good idea to clean up the canal would be to soak up all the water from the canal and then burn all the pollution from the canal. this would be a good plan because you are burning the pollution to clean the water.

If we fixed this problem, our future would be very good now that the Gowanus is safe.people would be able to see, smell, and feel the nice and clean water of the Gowanus canal in new york.