The Gowanus Gets Nasty
Wow, this is disgusting. Check out what the Gowanus Canal was like in the wake of this month’s tornado. Warning: Not for the weak of stomach.
Wow, this is disgusting. Check out what the Gowanus Canal was like in the wake of this month’s tornado. Warning: Not for the weak of stomach.
When I watched this on YouTube an ad for Axe deodorant came up! Putting that smell on top of the Gowanus really would make me puke.
I walked down 3rd Ave on Friday, and it still stank for blocks, now about a month after the tornado.
Regarding the comment from crimsonson:
“Now add 10-20 years of that since we decided Superfund is the way to go instead of local government and business route.”
Wow that is ignorant! The city hasn’t been able to do anything about this for decades. Superfund is a long process, but it will complete the job and do it right, at no expense to the taxpayer. A clean, multi-use Gowanus area between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will be one of the more interesting parts of the borough, not to mention a goldmine to property and business owners.
Combined Sewage Overflows (CSO’s) occur all over New York City. (Think about that next time you are Brooklyn Bridge Park.) This is the antiquated system we inherit from prior generations. There was a NYT series on this in the past year or so.
Will it ever be changed? Its an issue of putting the $$ into infrastructure development.
As I understand it, the repairs currently being done on the Canal’s Flushing System will reduce CSO’s by 30% when completed. It doesn’t seem like much of an improvement to me, but at least it is something.
The canal does not smell bad very often, except on CSO days. I never smell it one block away on the Carroll Garden side.
jwald, that exact pumping system, which, as you say, greatly reduced the smell, HAS BEEN TURNED OFF for repairs *estimated* to take two years. Sorry for the bad news. Really, really sorry.
It’s weird to be arguing about smells, but as someone who crosses the 3rd st bridge every morning and the union st bridge every evening on my way to and from work the canal is just not as bad as people on this board want it to be. Maybe you live near 3rd and Bond and are mad about construction noise (although the concrete factory is clearly the biggest noise factor on 3rd) and are trying to depress prices by talking about how bad the canal is. (or alternatively you want to buy there and are hoping to scare away other buyers)
Yes it has a smell, some days it’s salty, some it’s oily, some it’s got a hint of sewage, but it’s never terrible except during an active CSO and the smell clears up from those very quickly.
“There’s no sewer smell from the canal. It smells like sea water and even then you have to actually stand on one of the bridges to even smell that.”
Sorry, but this is simply inaccurate. I live on Union street and often walk across the union street bridge to make my way over to carroll gardens. I also grew up near the water and am acquainted with with what sea water smells like. What the Gowanus is givin’ off ain’t the smell of sea water. When you’re within say 20 feet of that bridge, not to mention when you’re actually crossing it, it smells absolutely foul. I’ve crossed it many, many times and can’t recall a single time when it DID NOT smell. It’s horrendous.
“If if did actually smell Park Slope would be a ghetto and obviously that’s not the case.”
are you actually saying the canal doesn’t smell? now THAT”S funny
> Now add 10-20 years of that since we decided Superfund is
> the way to go instead of local government and business route.
Yeah, because biz and local gov’t were really on the ball here for the last 150 years.
Well I guess that mystery’s solved.
Now we know where they got the term:
“UP SHIT’S CREEK!”
It used to be the case that you could smell the Gowanus from several blocks, but that is simply no longer true. I think the City long ago installed some sort of pumping system that has greatly reduced the foul odor. That in itself has played a large part in that area becoming as developed as it is today.