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June 15, 2009

More Gowanus Goop

gowanus-spill-1.jpg gowanus-spill-2.jpg
There's a lot of discussion these days about the best way to clean up the Gowanus Canal, but before that happens we should at least find a way to stop its ongoing pollution. These two photos were sent in by a reader who took them from the 9th Street bridge. The gate on the east side of the street was open, so he walked along the canal and discovered that the spillage was coming from a woodworking business. WTF?




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:05 AM | Comments (18)
Categories: Environmental, Gowanus

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Comments

WTF is right. Where's the DEP on this??? How can a business be pumping waste into the canal in 2009??? That woodworking shop is probably dumping stripping waste in there. Only thing worse would be a plating shop.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 15, 2009 11:24 AM

a local artist will turn that pattern into a clothing design. gowanus couture.

Posted by: goldie at June 15, 2009 11:30 AM

It looks terrible, probably smells worse, but I'm sure it's some kind of benign toxicity.

Posted by: Brooklynnative at June 15, 2009 11:37 AM

The Gowanus was purpose-built as an open sewer. It was supposed to carry industrial waste away into the ocean. That's how it was done in the old days, and it appears that old habits are hard to break.

Posted by: sam at June 15, 2009 11:45 AM

If it is historically appropriate pollution, I don't think there is a problem. Even if the chemical composition is new, as long as it doesn't clash with the look and feel of the original pollution, that's fine.

Nothing wrong with a little tasteful modernization, but we have to be careful not to let some government agency like the EPA just come in here and start gentrifying this neighborhood and destroying its historic foulness.

Posted by: northsloperenter at June 15, 2009 12:34 PM

The picture on the right is the Gowanus and the pic on the left is the miasmic garbage that spews forth from the What right?

Posted by: dittoburg at June 15, 2009 1:25 PM

nsr, see you at the next landmarks committee meeting.

Posted by: joe_the_bummer at June 15, 2009 1:26 PM

Benign Toxicity? Historically appropriate pollution? You guys work for Fox News?

I took the photo because it stopped me dead in my tracks. I'm not talking a little rainbow drifting off a creosote log piling. It covered several football fields!

Posted by: kuroko at June 15, 2009 2:38 PM

This morning two ducks were swimming about under the 9th street bridge...

Posted by: HookUm at June 15, 2009 2:40 PM

yea but they were swans yesterday

Posted by: dittoburg at June 15, 2009 2:43 PM

kuroko -- I was being sarcastic and mocking (1) people who oppose any development because what was built in 1895 is superior to anything we could possibly build today and (2) the people who are opposed to the government cleaning up the Gowanus Canal because, apparently, the like the canal just the way it is.

Nice job taking the photos. The Gowanus is one of the sadder spots of the city.

Posted by: northsloperenter at June 15, 2009 3:00 PM

I was ready to jump on the "friends of Historic Ooze" bandwagon.

Posted by: sam at June 15, 2009 4:50 PM

northsloperenter- you were very funny. "Historic foulness" was brilliant! sma- how much for membership in Friends of Historic Ooze? (I already did a logo for you) :-)

But seriously- someone in their right mind opposes a clean up?? I think the debate is how to do the clean up, not whether or not to do it.

Posted by: bxgrl at June 15, 2009 5:32 PM

Do you need any more proof that the Gowanus should be designated a Superfund Site?

Posted by: cobblehook at June 15, 2009 5:41 PM

and Toll Brothers will be building a mixed income condo community by 1st and 2nd Street? This is crazy!

Posted by: vinnie_barbarino at June 15, 2009 9:49 PM

The Gowanas was not built. It was a naturally occurring river that ran through this part of Brooklyn during Walt Whitman's time. Our industrialization of the planet is what destroyed this river. We only think of it as a toxic waste dump because that is what we did to it. It is our responsibility to restore it to the river it once was.

Posted by: tomgee at June 16, 2009 10:11 AM

Sorry not a river but a canal built out of the local tidal wetlands and fresh water streams

Posted by: tomgee at June 16, 2009 10:13 AM

Ugh, why don't we just fill the canal in once and for all. It has been an eyesore for decades and nothing is going to help it. It is just disgusting and is a toxic wasteland.

Posted by: nightcruzer at June 22, 2009 3:39 PM

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