By Curtis Minter                                                    

THE PROBLEM!

Imagine walking past a body of water in the heart of Gowanus,Brooklyn thinking nothing of it. Until your viciously smacked by the petrifying smell of the infamous Gowanus Canal. Then you take a look at the water and you see an oily sheen pass through the water.  Your eyes land on the greenish black bubbles being emitted from the sewage stained water. After this you might ask why or how could any water get like this, this polluted... Well the companies that produce the items that you enjoy like flour mills and cement works could be swimming into that body of water right now.

How did this happen?

The pollution of the Gowanus Canal started almost rapidly after the Canal was first made in the mid 1800s there are factors that contribute to the pollution of the Gowanus Canal. The Canal was first polluted from Combined Sewage Overflow also known as  CSO and Industrial Dumping. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s website: “Combined sewer systems are sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe.  Most of the time, combined sewer systems transport all of their wastewater to a sewage treatment plant, where it is treated and then discharged to a water body.  During periods of heavy rainfall or snowmelt, however, the wastewater volume in a combined sewer system can exceed the capacity of the sewer system or treatment plant. For this reason, combined sewer systems are designed to overflow occasionally” And the water after the treatment plant gets full the sewage gets discharged into the Gowanus Canal . Also according to the Olmstead environmental resources “industrial solid waste is defined as waste that is generated by businesses from an industrial or manufacturing process or waste generated from non-manufacturing activities that are managed as a separate waste stream.  Businesses that utilize manufacturing or industrial processes, or that are service or commercial establishments, are likely producing industrial solid waste. Also when the ink factories used to dump waste in the Canal the water turns different colors such as red and purple which obviously shows that the industrial dumping is a problem.

Why Should you care?

Though I bet you are asking why should I care about this problem you are probably saying that this has nothing to do with me and this won't affect me at all. But if you have any type of emotion in your heart you would care about the animals that end up in the in Gowanus canal like saltwater fishes and sometimes even dolphins that can't survive in the toxic water of the Gowanus canal or even some of of the people that walk past the Gowanus canal and have to smell its petrifying odor we should be the ones to make a change and clean the Gowanus canal,beautify it

The Solution!

But there is ways to stop some of the pollution such as building walls from businesses. If the government were to build a wall between the canal and the businesses on the canal it would make the canal a not so easy dumping ground and would force the businesses to find another place to dump their waste or dispose of it properly. Also another way that you could help purify the water is to place plants in the canal since some plants act as sponges and soak up some of the sewage in the Canal and make the canal a lot less dirty. These ways could beautify the Gowanus Canal and purify it in general.

 

History about the gowanus canal

Since the mid-19th century, the natural topography of New York City has been altered, sometimes by the filling in of adjacent waterways to create more land and sometimes by the excavation of land to create new or larger waterways. Both activities occurred in and around the Canal.

In the 1840’s, the Gowanus Creek was a tidal estuary flowing into the Gowanus Bay, in New York Harbor. At that time the creek was surrounded mostly by farms and mills.

     Combined sewer overflows, or CSOs, are a problem for many communities across the U.S. On April 11, 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new national policy for controlling CSOs in order to help communities meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act.       Did you know that the  Gowanus Canal has the  most dangerous water sources in Brooklyn, New york? According to News 12, “the water has a lot of combined diseases”. How did the Gowanus Canal get this way? Ever since the 1800s to the mid 1990s they would dump their trash in the canal. Also, there is a combined sewage pipe that cleans rain water surrounding Brooklyn, flowing into the canal.

How do the  combined sewer system work?A combined sewer overflow (CSO) is the discharge from a combined sewer system that is caused by snowmelt or storm water runoff. Thisamazing treatment system that cleans our wastewater consists of: over 6,000 miles of sewer pipes; 135,000 sewer catch basins; over 495 permitted outfalls for the discharge of combined sewer overflows (CSOs); 95 wastewater pumping stations that transport it to 14 wastewater treatment plants located throughout the 5 boroughs.Dating back to the original transformation of Gowanus Creek into the Gowanus Canal, there has been intensive human intervention on the natural marshlands and topography of the watershed. Gowanus faces a number of interrelated environmental challenges, generated in large part by historic industrial uses and the complex, historically undersized sewer infrastructure that was originally designed to overflow into the Canal, which was both a waterway and open sewer. However, the infrastructure challenges are not exclusive to this legacy. Other challenges include open space that is at a premium and school seats that are in short supply.

It’s when sewage that’s sent from waste treatment plants,where contaminants are filtered out into lakes, river and streams. In a combined sewer system, these two streams travel through the  pipes to the wastewater treatment plant. One-third of the district of columbia is served by a combined sewer system. [DC Water].The heavy rain or snowmelt, the volume,of runoff can overwhelm the sewer system- and that's when you get a horrific backup like the one in the gowanus. If it cause pollution, why does brooklyn have a combined sewer system? Some date as far back as the late 19th century, when a number of municipalities began installing public sewer systems to address health and aesthetic concerns associated with cesspools and privy vaults.Faced with the choice between combined and separated sewer,many communities opted for the for the former option because it was cheaper-and,at the the time,it was.

“It was not until early in the 20th century that engineers fully recognized that an adequate stormwater drainage system was necessary to protect the sanitary sewer system,”an EPA representative told citylab via email. But the news came too late for New York, Philadelphia, and other cities that had already constructed elaborate combined sewer systems.

I believe that we can all come together and put money to help save the gowanus canal by just planting the water and make it go down the pipes and be clean but if not we can make it green.

the gowans canal now can look like this if we all put are heads togther.

Neisha Pressley

News story   

     A world just plain and boring,with white walls every where and no art to be found.wit. My opinion some people think that graffiti is a work of art that people do to show us how they feel in their work, because they can’t say how they feel in their own words,so they show it in there art work and they don’t do it to start problems, cause the only problem is graffiti being illegal in new york.

 Background

Graffiti is a work of art ,that express your or their self to show what they are feeling in their art. There are different types of graffiti such as bombing ,throw-up, stencil and stickers and wild style and etc.Graffiti could be found on everywhere ,it could be found on the store walls ,in the subways and on billboards and even project buildings and etc. Graffiti because people gets upset about how they mess up the properly and don’t respect how they feel about their art work. People do graffiti because they wanna make the world colorful and not plain and boring and to not focus people about what is happening in the streets. For example, people is getting killed over dumb stuff, mothers having to plan funerals for their children, if they see the art everywhere they can see that live matters and carry on and don’t look in the past look in the future to make it .

Social Significance

Graffiti is vandalism is expression and is tat what makes it art .Graffiti a vandalism sub genre ,is different by its differentiated by its aesthetics, or it's a message.The difference between the groups were minimal and thus any comparison was ineffective. In fact, inadvertently i had established a cross culture and members of the general public.They then altered their research to reflect differing age groups and could analyse my research more effectively. Overall, they have found this project both challenging and interesting.The generals knowledge of graffiti has increased significantly as well as his ability to write coherently and concisely.They believed that other people have developed an effective understanding of the cultural relativism in exploring this topic, by considering a range of perspectives in relation the value of graffiti in their social and culturally literate, a skill i can continue to build upon after the PIP.

     

     Call To Action

A graffiti awareness poster was displayed at the event that will be installed in city buses and shelter buses and other areas throughout the city to heighten awareness about how to report graffiti. The poster community to call 911 to report graffiti in the progress of 905-546-city to report.Both the city of hamilton and private property owners are required to remove graffiti within 19 days of receiving the order from there boss. But the graffiti owners came and said “ We deserve to have a chance to show own artwork in front of people, to show them own art work is a beauty to the world that graffiti means no harm, and should not be seen as trash on the the walls of san diego’’ hout art it would be a sad world to live in.No one would be surpised of all the beautiful, outstanding work that people do to express thereself from there hearts and how they feel about the world they live ,without color.

                    Gowanus Canal

                                                        by Nayeli campos 

              The Beginning of it All

The only thing you can see is that the water was not color you will think it will be. It was like black but it also had some green in it too. If you want to know where this is at it the Gowanus Canal. The “coal tar”(black mayonnaise) was the things that made the water look like that this have been going on in the late 1800s something. The Gowanus Canal is been polluted because of “coal tar”(black mayonnaise). The smell is so bad all you will smell is gas and bad water.

                    The History

“Coal tar is a thick black liquid produced by the destructive distillation of bituminous coal” (Wikipedia). Coal tar is affected a lot of people like the community of the Gowanus canal coal tar come in the late 1800s there is a lot of coal tar like hundreds of thou. Don't you wonder how coal tar got into the water “for decades, giant iron tanks towers over the neighborhood holding the gas, while the leftover coal tar was rehung dumped in the canal.”(swimmer braves stinky new York city canal water on earth day)

   Problem

Coal tar is a problem that matters because it makes the community smell bad having coal tar in the Canal is affected the Gowanus that the community were the Canal is at and the people and community are impacted by this problem because it makes the community have a bad name and how people see the community now. One eyewitness was Yeiry and she said that ¨the Gowanus canal is bad for the community because it affected us like people and it affected plant and animals¨. For example do you want to know how bad the Gowanus is that a dolphin die in the water.

     What do We do Now

According to Christine Petro they are trying to take out all the coal tar from the canal and then they are going to make a green park. It going to solve the problem by taking out the coal tar because it making it clean and less polluted and they are going to fix the flushing tunnel and the park is going to fix it by when it rains the plants can drink the water for it not to go in the canal. According to Gabriel Rivera he think that they should put a green park because it going to help the water get clean. He think it will help because the community because then people will go see the water and see how clean it is.

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.

                                           Graffiti

A young boy. Always had ideas to draw big, show the world and become a famous artist. He always walked by an abandoned wall. So one day he decided to get his spray paint and draw his big ideas on that wall. A cop caught him and drove him home, then told his mother. He was on punishment for a month. He could’ve got in more trouble but he’s young. In New York City. Real people like this have big dreams just like this with big imaginations and ideas, and when they express their imaginations and ideas it’s always vandalism.

Graffiti is a way of art for people to share and express their ideas. It was invented around the late 1960’s when breakdancing was popular. There are several types of graffiti such as tagging, bombing, writing, and scrabbling or scrabbing are the basic kinds of graffiti that you see everywhere. Graffiti can be found mostly on trains, on the side of building walls,and even in art museums graffiti a very popular type and style of art. Graffiti is illegal because it is considered as a form of vandalism or criminal mischief.Vandalism: an action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. Graffiti is only illegal if on private property, government property, and landmarks and structures like bridges. People do graffiti because it can let people express their feelings and emotions into pictures it also provides people something interesting to look at. Some people think that graffiti is public art that benefits their community for a better viewing and understanding of their community. Other people think that graffiti is a disadvantage and vandalism to their community or wherever it exists.

Graffiti has positive and negative effects. One positive effect is it benefits the community into looking better and having a better insight of the community. According to Is New York's Latest Graffiti Crackdown Backfiring?, it states “It´s important for people to have a legal outlet for their art. Now, its either you paint illegally or you don´t paint paint at all.”For example, this one in place in New York City called 5 Pointz where people from all over the world all ages can’t get arrested for doing graffiti. It bought tourism in the area drawing national and international attention to the local street art scene. this would benefit the community because it would be less arrest for graffiti if they had more open outlets like 5 Pointz. One negative effect is it can take long periods to clean off walls or over paint. According to http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2010/10/08/graffiti-has-negative-impact. It states “Taxpayers dollars are spent removing graffiti from public buildings, monuments and park structures.” For example, Los Angeles County had to spend 28 million dollars in February 29th, 2012.

Coal Tar In The Gowanus Canal

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Coal Tar on Gowanus canal

by Gabriel Rivera Maisonet.

Gowanus canal water pollution

Does the government care about the gowanus canal water pollution? Yes. Is it taking action? Yes , but why it doesn't stop the factories that keep polluting the water.The way that they  are cleaning the water is with the clean water act which is a group of people from the government that goes around US cleaning the waters. What about the factories,if they are not stopped it still be polluted and there won't be no change,but one thing is for sure coal tar will be out the gowanus canal.  

How coal tar got into the canal?

Coal tar  is one of the biggest problem in the gowanus canal other than factories.Factories are not allowed to use or produce coal tar ,although they still throw other stuff at the water.But first ,what is coal tar? Coal tar is a black gooey liquid (black mayonnaise) that transport many illnesses that can cause many things to any living thing, including death. Coal tar was produced by lamps lights factories, they tried to use coal to make gas which made coal tar. After that they throw all the toxic waste (coal tar) into the  canal making the water  toxic. Ho is in charge? you may ask. We’ll the government but specifically is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) department in charge of cleaning the water on the gowanus canal, the clean water  act. they already  explain the plan that they have to stop the pollution on the bottom of the canal which is full of coal tar.They will be done in 2022, which means that there will be no coal tar in the canal in that time.

Why is coal tar a problem?

Coal Tar is a problem because it makes the water toxic,so it can kill animals or any living creature ,like plants (nature) and it even human life.“the coal tar in the gowanus canal is truly disgusting.I feel like the government took too long to declare the canal a superfund site. the carlier they would  have began the clean up, the earlier they would finished”According to 8 grader Marjorie Martinez. Another reason is that the gowanus canal is nasty and ugly the only view that you have is the horrible green water with the stinky smell plus the loud factories noises, there is no good quality on the canal or coal

The canal cleaning process

what's exactly is going to be the cleaning process for the Gowanus canal you may ask. We’ll they are planning to take all the coal tar out but only that is expensive so it takes time to plan,then they are trying to fix the flushing machine system which is also expensive but this will keep the water more clean by flushing some the  dirty water.Then they are trying to create a green park with a lot of plants that will keep all the water cleaner because the ruts of the plant clean the water by taking away all the dirtiness. All this helps because everything will clean the water like when they take away the coal tar a lot of the germs and toxic stuff being produced by the coaltar will be out.Then when they fix the machine all the sewage will be taken away so it won't be so toxic or nasty,and then with the garden they will keep it clean because as i said it will keep sucking the dirty parts. “I think that they should just clean the canal,and not create such a expensive green park.” said Nayeli Campos an 8 grader. She thinks that all the green areas won't help much so they should not make it but i have heard otherwise for example “i think is a really good idea, it will make it prettier and it will keep it clean plus this is a city so we need more green areas.” according to Barbara Maisonet she thinks is a really good idea,that will keep is nice and clean.

The moment you have waited for

So,after all this waiting ,the coaltar is finally going to be out and all the canal is going to get clean,is supposed to be finished at the 2022 of the year.The cleaner water will make new york a better place, it might be how it just to be a nice clean fun water area.What will be next in N.Y. history?...

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