Michael Brown                                                                          ELA

                                                                                            10/28/2015

     Sewage Overflow

The Gowanus canal water used to be so clear, now it turned green over the decades. The water inside the canal is extremely toxic with trash, oil, paper inc, and more. The Gowanus canal is mix with the fresh spring water and salt water. As a result of years of discharges, storm water runoff, sewer outflows and industrial pollutants, the Gowanus Canal has become one big body of contaminated water.

According to New York Department of Environmental Conservation Combined sewer systems (CSO) are sewer systems that are designed to collect storm water runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial waste water in the same pipe and bring it to the waterways of the public. If the water was clean a lot of people would have been doing stuff. Storm water runoff can really make the water bad and the streets after the water is in the canal. But in two more years they are going to clean it but it's also going to take a lot of money to do it and all the fish that's in the canal are going to die because it's a lot of oil and salt water.  

CSO has positive and negative effects. One positive effect is it reduction or elimination of basement and street flooding.they would benefit the community because we don’t have basement flooding and street flooding in our community. one negative effect is it pose a significant risk to human health.polluted runoff can contaminate drinking water and spread water borne diseases such as hepatitis and gastroenteritis.This would harm the community because so destroy aquatic life and habitats, lead to algae blooms and force closure of branches and shellfish beds waste water runoff can also back up into building causing property damage and exposing people to pathogens and other pollutants.  

What going to happen in 2020? 2017-2018 they are planning to clean the upper canal area. According to The Gowanus Canal Conservancy. Which is an independent environmental nonprofit organization formed in 2006. Starting on butler street to 3rd street 2019-2020 they are going to clean the middle canal area from 3rd street to 9th street. 2021-2020 clean the lower canal area from 9th street to the Erie busing at 21st street. The industrial waste dumped onto the land not only contaminates the land but is also continually leeching into the canal water’s.

What can regular people do to decrease pollution due to CSO's ? people can volunteer to clean the Gowanus canal. another way to decrease pollution can be Don’t bathe, shower, flush your toilet, or do laundry during a rainstorm because all of the water will go into the canal and you are making it worst by all the water we using when it rain. one more way is to do not Don’t litter because when it rain all that water move with the trash into the canal and all of that will add up in the canal.