Superfund = Super Fun by maurice johnson

 


  

Superfund is super fun

by:Maurice Johnson

     Interrupted Beauty

It was a beautiful Thursday morning when a group of intelligent 8th graders were walking through Carroll Gardens passing by many tall trees and passing by many tall amazing trees. Suddenly, a horrible smell came among them. A huge body of water that is polluted by junk from factories, a smell that seems indescribable, and overall a horrible place to be. It has taken several years for people to recognize the depth of the Gowanus canal. Will it be saved or is it too late.

    Super Heros

First the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs to check the site to see if it qualifies to be a superfund. If you didn't know the Gowanus canal is a superfund. According to National Geographic “A superfund is the common name given to the law called the comprehensive Environmental response , compensation and liability act of 1980 or CERCLA.” Superfund is also the trust fund set up by congress to handle emergency and hazardous waste sites. The canal has been polluted by many factories and many of the harmful chemicals that are in the canal come from factories. Although these factories have not polluted in years, they will be held to contribute some type of money to help hire people to clean the canal. This will help hire good workers, and good lawyers and will allow the clean- up to be successful.

        The canal can affect many people and if cleaned could have a positive effect on not only people But as well as the environment. The canal is filled with tons of toxic metals that can harm anyone and is proven to cause cancer in the future. If the canal were clean it would be a much safer place to be.

  

Let’s do something!

      A simple way the canal can be cleaned is by simply cleaning it. We can easily access organizations and form groups to help clean the canal. It will not be an easy task but the outcome will be much worth the time. Or maybe there is some way to drain the canal and purify it. If so, this would be the most effective and the fastest way to go about cleaning the canal.  According to an article called “A Brief History of Slime “ by Christopher Bonanos, a good way or idea that will help clean the canal would be to dredge it. “ Both Bloomberg and the EPA call for most of the muck to be dredged. (They differ over who pays for it, and who administers The project.) The quote above reveals that the government and other organizations have been trying to come with solutions but one main problem will be money. Another solution could be to seal the canal. According to the same article, “ In some areas, a foot or so of heavy clay might be laid over parts of the canal’s bottom, sealing in the bad stuff.” Being that many of the chemicals tend to go toward the bottom of the canal this idea may help greatly. Also it might allow for people to go in and remove all of the waste that is I'm the canal which will also be part of cleaning the canal.