Gowanus Canal Combined Sewage Overflow

By: Hunter Murphy

What going on with the Gowanus Canal

  The only thing you can see when you get to the Gowanus Canal is water so dirty it makes you want to leave. On October 8,2015 students and teachers went on a walk to the Gowanus Canal.The Gowanus Canal water changed colors greenish and purple. When you stand by the canal, all you smell is cement and garbage. Is this normal? Why is this happening? Later on, BCS students learned that one of the main causes for this is

the Combined Sewage Overflow system.

The Outfall

According to the Environmental Department of Conservation, a Combined Sewer is when businesses and residents’ sewage goes into the same pipe as rainwater. Normally, the sewage water goes to the water treatment facility, but during hurricanes or heavy storms, the sewage goes to a Combined Sewage Outfall. A Combined Sewage Outfall is a pipe that carries all of the sewage that the Water Treatment Facility can’t take. This is a problem because Combined Sewage Outfall exits out into the water like the Gowanus Canal. According to Matthew Birnbaum, someone who works near the Canal, ¨The sewers regularly overflow. Any time there’s more than inch of rain, we regularly have flooding on the street¨ (Tech and Science). This means that the water goes into the streets and now the sewage water is up on the street. This also shows that the Combined Sewage Overflow system isn’t always working and this is a problem.

` The effects after the Gowanus Canal

This is dangerous because there is bacteria in the water from human waste (Tech and Science). This affects humans and animals because the bacteria can kill you. The community should care about this because they are the ones who have to smell and be around the Gowanus Canal.

The Future Of Gowanus Canal

Something is getting done about the Gowanus Canal. A design company called dlandstudio is creating Sponge Parks to help cope with the weather and the Gowanus Canal. A sponge park is to help the city. One plan is to put plants that will absorb the toxins in the Gowanus Canal (Tech and Science). Another idea is to build new storm sewage pipes that prevent sewage outflow.