Olfactory Collateral Damage: New Gowanus Trash Transfer Station

One of the "marine transfer stations" that will be used to move thousands of tons of trash out of New York City via barge will go on the Gowanus Canal. Yes, it's an outlying part of the Canal, but it's still the Big G. Specifically, the trash will go to the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, which is located under the Gowanus Expressway at 18th Street and the Gowanus Canal. The facility was used until 2001 and then decommissioned after Fresh Kills on Staten Island was closed. After Wednesday's City Council approval of the new trash plan, the station will likely be recommissioned again, ensuring that a very ripe and funky smell indeed will waft through parts of Gowanus and up to the people stuck in traffic on the Expressway, depending on the wind.

This ill wind might also blow back into Gowanus, the South Slope, Sunset Park and Red Hook, again depending. Prime victims of oflactory collateral damage could be home improvers, as the Home Depot off Hamilton is nearly next to the new transfer station and the Lowe's is too close for comfort, as the majestic stench of rot and decomposition flies. (If you doubt how gross this will be, inhale deeply when you are stuck in traffic on the Kosciuszko Bridge on the BQE sometime. That profoundly nauseating smell? It's the trash transfer station down near Newtown Creek. Can you say nas-tee? How about Kosh-choosh-koh?) The other Brooklyn transfer station will be located in Gravesend, which is east of Coney Island.

Upside: We'll have a new local sporting event--the half-mile dash down Hamilton Avenue without blowing chunks, AKA the Hamilton Avenue Hurl.