The Foul Canal.

By Kennie Pichardo

The Gowanus Canal is Polluted.

If you visit the Gowanus Canal the first thing you would notice is that it really stinks and by the color of the water being green instead of blue you could tell it's really dirty.The problem is that it's really polluted, so polluted that nobody and go in the Canal because of the chemicals and diseases that are in side of the Canal. This is a problem because the Gowanus Canal has been polluted for over 100 years.

Problems the Gowanus is facing  

This old problem is still a problem because the government still hasn't found a way to clean the water. There is a history of pollution in the Gowanus Canal. For example, according to the New York Magazine, “In the mid-nineteenth century the Gowanus Canal served foundries, coal yards, and paint and ink factories.” This means that many of these factories may have been using the Canal as a dumping site.

What is In The Canal?

The Gowanus Canal has many different kinds of pollution such as toilet waste, sewage, coal tar, poisonous waste from factories, and believe it or not there are four diseases called Cholera, Typhoid, Typhus, and Gonorrhea. But the most thing polluting the water is coal tar because it's on the bottom of the Canal. Its also important to note that coal tar isn't just the only thing polluting the canal its sewage, toilet waste, poisonous waste, and four diseases.

Start Caring About It.

People should be concerned about water pollution in the Gowanus Canal because it's not just the Canal that the pollution is flowing through, Coney Island beach as well is polluted. Also, when people go swim in the beach what there actually swimming in sewage ,toilet waste, oil, poisonous waste and probably diseases. It's not even safe to swim in. For example, Christopher Swain had to put on special gear. According to New York magazine, Cholera, Typhoid, Typhus, Gonorrhea, they’ve all been found in the water. This shows that the water isnt safe to swim in.

Cleaning The Canal.

Some people and groups are trying to clean up the Gowanus Canal. For example according to “A brief history of slime”it state that “In 1911 they’ve installed a 6,200 ft underground tunnel with a seven foot propeller to flush fresh seawater” and it's currently still happening. Another good idea to clean up the Canal would be to add more underground tunnels. This would be a good idea because it's actually working.If we fixed the problem, our future would be better because we have cleaner water. People would be able to actually go in the Gowanus Canal not just people but animals too.

  

The Repulsive Research by Jannessa Alexandre

The Repulsive Research

The Disgusting Arrival

It was around  9 a.m. when the eighth grade students of Brooklyn Collaborative Studies were walking down 3rd Street, to do some research on the Gowanus Canal on , the area began to look more and more deserted. There weren’t as many stores, or people around. In other words, there wasn’t much scenery. After a few more minutes of walking, not only did the students start to get tired, but some, or most per say, started to get agitated by the odor. Some plugged their noses so they could avoid that horrendous smell. A few were even gagging in disgust, probably an overreaction, but that abysmal stench could make anyone physically sick. The eighth graders finally reached their destination, they stopped at the very thing that was causing the unbearable smell. It was the greenish lake over the horizon. It was the Gowanus Canal.

Background The students returned back to the school at 10:35 a.m. to continue their research based off of the observations they recorded in their packets. Many of the students were talking about the stench on their observation sheet. One of the students, Vertyce Charles, described it to this reporter. “It smelled like gas,” she said. “It smelled as if someone had bombed the place.” But as deadly as it smells, the Gowanus Canal is pretty deadly and dangerous on its own as well. There was a man, Christopher Swaine, who was actually crazy enough to plunge into the murky depths of the canal. He did have a special suit and other special swim equipment.As he swam some water got into his mouth,however he didn’t drink the water. “The water tasted like a combination of mud,feces,detergent,gas,sand, and surprisingly gas, thus the green tint in the water.” With the canal containing manure,coal, mud, and other unsightly debris, this reporter can safely say that the Gowanus Canal is a sewer system. So how did the Gowanus Canal, a lake that was made in the mid 1800s that was used for traveling goods, turn into to a lake that was proven unsafe to even swim in years later? The cause for this is sewage overflow. During turbulent weather, the sewage pipe can’t regulate both the wastewater(from toilets, showers, sinks,etc) and the storm water so the wastewater gets dumped into the waterways. Yeah, that’s what happens to your excrements when you’re finished flushing in the bathroom. And that’s also why the canal is infested with germs and deadly diseases like typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever with an eruption of red spots on the chest and abdomen followed by severe irritation in the intestines, typhus, an infectious disease caused by rickettsia(genus nonmotile, bacteria), and cholera, an infectious bacterial disease of the small intestine usually caused by infected water supply. This all started back in 1961 when the pump used to flush fresh water into canal, broke.

An Appalling Aftermath

Imagine being trapped in the sewer with nothing to eat or drink but the sewer water. That’s just like taking even a drink from the dirty depths of the Gowanus Canal themselves.Because of all the deadly diseases, drinking this water can give gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease and dysentery, an inflammation in the lower intestine, usually accompanied  by bloody diarrhea.  

Wild Life

The canal has also been affecting wildlife as well. According to the article ‘A Brief History of Slime?’ by Christopher Bonanos, creatures like white perch, crabs, jellyfish, herring and anchovies were surprisingly found in these. Many sea creatures found their way into the canal and died. “In 2007, a minke whale, swam into the canal, beached itself, and died,” (Bonanos). So, as you can see, this canal is contaminant even for the wildlife. Creatures can not survive in it due to the chemicals and diseases in it.

It’s Time That Something Was Done

  There has been multiple things that have been done to stop the combined sewage overflow problem. Former Mayor, Michael Bloomberg and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided that the majority of the muck to be dredged. Dredging is when mud from either a river, seabed, or harbor, etc, is brought up by scooping or dragging. According to A Brief History of Slime, some areas were going to have heavy clay laid over some parts, in order for the bad stuff to be sealed. Lastly, there was another idea that involves a wetland functioning like a sponge. GCC, Christine Petro, said that it was called Sponge park. Petro said; “Sponge Park was designed to prevent stormwater runoff, reducing the rainwater in the sewer system. As you may imagine, multiple things are being done to divert combined sewage overflow. So many people do not know about this situation. Which is why it is vital for everyone to stay informed, because the smallest contribution could have a great impact. It’s time that you did something!

                                                                                      

                                                    Combined Sewage Overflow

                                         By Celines Hermida             

What Is Combined Sewer Overflow?
More than 27 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater discharge out of 460 combined sewage overflows (“CSOs”) into New York Harbor alone each year. Combined sewage overflow is how we are killing each other. Combined sewer systems are sewer pipes that were strategically built to gather storm water runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater to the same pipe and travel it towards the publicly owned treatment works (potw) facilities. Usually this system works fine (during dry days); the sewage piles carry along to where it needs to, but throughout the duration of rain occurrences, when stormwater enters the sewers, the magnitude of the sewer systems may be pushed over its maximum capacity, transferring the extra sewage directly to a outlet body of water. This process is referred to as combined sewer overflow and we as victims have yet to fix this problem.

                                                     You May Be The Cause Of CSO

You may not know but you are a contributor to combined sewer overflow. Any time during heavy snowmelt, a hurricane or even a rainstorm if there are too many people taking showers or using more water than they need to i.e faucets, shower water, the toilet, or if you are doing launder. That water will add to the already full pipes making it our fault that our already used (polluted/unfiltered) water is going back into our suppose to be filtered water pipes. This procedure is giving you and everyone you know the chance to get sick. Not only is CSO revolting; but it is a huge threat to human health, in fact The Gowanus Canal, located in Brooklyn, New York, In 2010 was declared a superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, because of it’s contaminates.  This means that it is a place so hazardly  polluted that the federal government has to step in and take control. “The agency plans to dig up hundreds of thousands of tons of muck from the bottom of the canal, and then incinerate it, by 2022. For more than 200 years or more, people have been dumping in the waterway. After all this time, no one can be sure exactly what is down there, from shipwrecks to cancer causing pollution, to possibly guns. ” Statement by Newsela.com. This all started “On June 21, 1911, the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel was built. It contained a propeller that circulated and flushed water in and out of the canal to and from New York Harbor. The flushing tunnel functioned until the mid 1960s when service was suspended due to mechanical failure and, once again, the Canal returned to its polluted state. Since then, repairs to the tunnel were postponed several times due to the City's fiscal crises. Efforts to improve the area's sewage collection and treatment through the construction of the Red Hook Wastewater Treatment plant, which began operating in 1987, did little to solve the canal's odor and pollution problems.” Stated by NYC Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And I don’t know about you, but I feel it is a necessity that we get this working so we can have our beautiful canal back and I agree with Christopher swain, a supporter of the cleaning up the Gowanus Canal, that “We deserve a Gowanus Canal that sparkles like a jewel.”

  The Dangers Of CSO
CSO can initiate the corruption of drinking water. CSOs carry with it waterborne diseases such as hepatitis and gastroenteritis but you don’t just have to be drinking this water to get sick. Reported by EPA, these illnesses “may also be contracted through inhalation of  water vapors, eating contaminated fish and shellfish, and swimming.” And it doesn’t just impact us, it also terminates aquatic life their habitats which are no less important than our problems. The act of this can lead to algae blooms, and force closures of beaches and shellfish beds. Excess wastewater can also backup into buildings and apartments causing property damage  revealing chemical and other pollutants to the people. So if you have yet to experience CSO before your eyes, it soon enough will present itself until we can right our wrongs.

                                             
                                                     What Can We Do To Prevent CSO?

But there is hope for a clean water system. Even though the current action of most plans to clean up the Gowanus Canal will be completed in the early 2020s. But that doesn't take away from the fact that there are multiple solutions for CSO,  for instance EPA is working towards  making  ¨green infrastructure¨ which are absorbent settings to keep the stormwater from even entering the combined sewers. Like bioswales, rain gardens, and green roofs to minimize, store and treat the amounts of stormwater runoff. There also is the production of ¨gray infrastructure¨ which are pipes, sewers and offline storage facilities for runoff. And you too, can assist in decreasing the amount of wastewater by not using the shower, toilet, sink water or doing laundry during a rainstorm and with enough people's help we can change the fact that this water is going into our pipes.

  Introducing the Gowanus Canal.

By: Yeiry Ramos Santana

Have you ever seen clean, clear water, well if you have, you have not been to the Gowanus Canal because, the Gowanus Canal is the most polluted water, It’s ditty, and it smells really bad because of all the trash, and pollutants that is in it. The coal tar that it's stuck under the Gowanus Canal is not healthy for people animals and plants.

What is Coal Tar?

Coal Tar is a thick liquid produced by the destructive detection of bituminous coal (Encyclopedia Britannica). Hans Hesselein, a landscape architect who works for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, said that most of the pollutants in the canal “are the waste from three former manufactured gas plants that once created municipal gas along the canal’s banks.” The manufactured gas plants produced a byproduct called coal tar, which they dumped directly into the canal. The coal tar contaminated the water and made it toxic to aquatic life. It’s also bad for people: Coal tar can cause cancer in humans if we come into contact with large amounts of it. (Gowanus Canal The 500 Million Makeover). The coal tar in the Gowanus Canal come from years and years ago. The companies are not allowed to dump coal tar anymore because of  The Clean Water Act of 1972. The CWA 1972 is  the Act's common name with amendments in 1972.

What's the big problem?

Coal tar is a big problem because itś affecting us as humans beings. According to (Everydayhealth.com) “FDA pregnancy category C. It is not known whether coal tar topical will harm an unborn baby. Do not use this medicine without a doctor's advice if you are pregnant.” This is showing that Coal tar could affect unborn babies. “Some of these preparations are available only with your doctor's prescription.” (Mayoclinic.org) Also according to http://www.britannica.com/science/coal-tar it said, It’s also bad for people,¨Coal tar can cause cancer in humans if we come into contact with large amounts of it.¨

Whatś the NEXT step they would make?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposed cleanup plan for the Gowanus Canal that would includes removing all the pollutions that are in the Gowanus Canal. The introduce plan also includes controls to prevent wasted water overflows and other land-based sources of contamination from compromising the cleanup. The cost of the cleanup plan is expected to be between $467 and $504 million. EPA Proposes Plan for Cleaning Up Gowanus Canal; Multi-million Dollar Cleanup to Revitalize Polluted Brooklyn Waterway. According to Nayeli Campos one of the Brooklyn for Collaborative Studies 8th grade students said her opinion about the new changes that would be in the gowanus canal, “ I don’t think it should be a “Green Park” because they are not trying to make it look beautiful, they are supposed to make it clean” she said. I think this would help by ONLY caring about that its should look clean NOT beautiful.

        

 

 

 OVERFLOW              

        CAUSE OF

              OVERLOAD

    By: Samuel Dalton            11/6/15

What We Did

On the morning of October 8th groups of 8th grade students and 5 teachers from the School BCS (Brooklyn School For Collaborative Studies) took a trip (or as they call them “expeditionary thursday's”) to Gowanus Canal. They walked to whole foods and looked as the oil, excrement, trash and water flowed throughout the canal. When asked “what did it smell like” in their packets, some students answered “it smelled like oil and gas” while most studies said “it smelled like poop”. later that day the students and teachers headed back to their classroom where there wonderful teachers had prepared a 1hour- 1hour 30min documentary where residents near the gowanus canal were interviewed. The students had been told in the documentary that the reason the canal smelled like poop was because anything  from residents toilets that was successfully flushed was sent to the gowanus canal.  

Backup: What is a combined sewer system?

According to “Ask City Lab” by Vicky Gan “In a combined sewer system,however, these two streams travel through the same pipes to the wastewater treatment plant. This means that it's more likely for combined sewage overflow to happen. according to “ask city Lab” by Vcky Gan , “During periods of 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.” This means when it rains the Gowanus Canal backs up and creates runoff.

Why is this important to other people?

This problem is important because it's not well for the wellbeing of NYC it creates runoff, pollution, death, infection and there hasn't been a solution for a really long time. A few communities trying to solve this problem is the “superfund site”,the EPA and “green infrastructure” in the future if this not fixed this problem could cause further pollution spreading from area to area causing disease and death across the world also there would be polluted water all over the streets killing innocents just by the touch of a shoe.

It’s importances. How we can fix it?

People are trying to fix the giant drain that would keep the diseased water from overflowing into the streets. I think that if the big flusher was fixed it could solve so many problems because it wouldn't be able to overflow again and less deaths would occur because of it. I think we could have a future with less pollution and we wouldn't all die of disease which is a half win in my book.

i hope u people enjoy this its just some thing my teachers made me write that i have no intreset in so yaaaaaaay -_- anyway i know this is gonna go public and crap so i added this egment cuz y not :P im probably not gonna use this thing in my freetime cuz im not a hippy (jk blogging is not just 4 hippys) anyway bai or watever the next time i write something its probably gonna be something ELSE i dont really care about :P anyway buh bai cya la8tr peoplez :D (cool dubstep or whatever)

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.

               

 Graffiti- Art or Vandalism

                                                  by:Maria Flores

     Oct. 8th 2015, the 8th graders for BCS in NY were going to the Gowanus Canal. They noticed that it wasn't clean, and that it smelled too. As some people noticed the water, others realized the art and Graffiti. They thought that it brought  color to the stress, how could people bring more art into the stress? Graffiti should be aloud in the U.S.  

  

Information

  What is Graffiti? Some people believe that Graffiti is a form of art and a way to express yourself. But some people think differently. Some people think that it's just vandalism. There are different types of Graffiti, for example, Bombing, Throw-up, Stencil, Stickers, Wild Style, and others. Graffiti was invented by “a writer from poland- ARPONE- from the Graffiti- workshop ‘Europe 2001’ in Vienna” said in www.hip-hop-network.com. “ Is graffiti illegal? The law on property are very strict and anyone caught doing graffiti can be arrested and prosecuted under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. Offender can go to prison for ten years or fined if the damage cost the $5,000.” said in www.thesite.org.

The fate

     Imagine walking in the streets, seeing nothing but black and white buildings, there is no color what so ever, the only colors are the trees. It's no longer a place to express yourself. That is a world without art. Making Graffiti legal, is one step to colors in the streets. “Graffiti has longer been apart of human history, but it wasn't until the emergence of hip hop culture that graf began gaining recognition as an art form around the globe.” said in … this mean that taking away Graffiti is like taking away a piece of history.

Change

     There is a way to bring more art into the streets. For example, in the web site called www.anyguide.com say that people go to a tore to see the street art/ Grffiti by the Gowanus Canal. The Gowanus Canal is a river of water but is full with chemicals and very dangerous to the community, but brings a lot of attention. This attention could help people notice the street art going on around.