Human Species are Killing all of Nature Surrounded by the Gowanus Canal

Human Species are Killing all of Nature Surrounded by the Gowanus Canal By: Angela Jiang

How it all Begin

“FLUSH,” As the water streams down into the pipe, almost to the sewer cleaning pipe. The waters stuck there no way to go but into the river. “Splash!”, the toilet water has just flushed down into the Gowanus Canal. Brooklyn NY doesn’t rain that often, but when it does it basically overflows the Canal. Dumps are thrown in the Canal with just one flush to citizens who live near the Canal. The Gowanus Canal water used to be so clear, but now it has turned green over the decades. The water inside the Canal is extremely toxic for people to touch it. Imagine walking near the green toxic water, all you can smell was a dog that just took a dump from over a week ago, but nobody decided to help clean it up and was just pushed aside...until now!

Why We Should all Care what happening around us

According to Dlandstudio (DLANDstudio is an interdisciplinary design firm founded in 2005 by Susannah C. Drake), Dlandstudio are creating a sponge park near the canal to stop pollution going into the canal. A Sponge Park is a sort of a sponge for the Gowanus Canal to reduce pollution. By building this park when any wet weather comes, the plant soil sucks absorbs the water to prevent the water flowing to the canal, and also to reduce contamination in the Gowanus Canal. Inside, a Sponge Park is full of plants and trees to help the canal from being flooded. Around 1950’s, the canal was used as dumping station. Many citizen dumped trash in the canal that contained toxic chemicals. According to Earth Easy(Is a company that have many solution to help solve nature problems), parks like Sponge Park can help many cities with wet weather. Also full of landfill they can reduce to help build many building. In the Canal, it’s full of Barium, Copper, Lead, and Nickel. (Epa.Gov) All of these material are very dangerous since it full of lead and mixed with other on the bottom of the canal and the top.

What Does It Matter To The People Living In The Community

There is a world full of polluted rivers, and one of them may be next to you. The Gowanus Canal affects a big part of the community in Brooklyn. Anything that lives near there will have a major problem during weather conditions like.... During these conditions the water overflows and goes into the canal and some of those water might be the trash that was on the floor before. The green spaces being built helps the community during wet weather. The plants help decrease the amount of water going through the sewer. The only problem is that the taxes will be raised for the residents living near the canal according to Dlandstudio to help Parks. Or residents will be kicked out their homes to build these park around the Gowanus Canal. Maybe with all the green spaces that are gonna be built there might be less overflow and even maybe get the Gowanus Canal cleaner.

What Being Done

Right now sponge parks are being built. One example is an ash dump that was turned into park for a soccer field and baseball diamonds. Students and kids use these spaces for practice. Also according to National Geographic “In Pickaway County, Ohio Bowers landfill was transformed into a wetlands home for plant and migratory birds. In Pensacola, Fla, the Beulah landfill has been turned into a model-airplane park. Many superfund sites have been turned into green spaces for agricultural, ecological and recreational use.” These sites have been turned into nature where they are used properly to help others around the area or for a good used. With the Sponge Park around the Gowanus Canal will not only look beautiful but we can enjoy nature as long as we want.