The Gowanus "is Seriously Messed Up"

One of our favorite local bloggers, Dalton Rooney, who produces the seriously excited! photoblog, sent us a distressing email this morning with the subject line "Gowanus Canal is Seriously Messed Up." You know we love Brooklyn's Grand Canal and we know it so well in places that we recognize when new crap has been tossed into it and is sitting on the bottom. In any case, Dalton writes:

I was walking to work this morning over the Carroll St. Bridge and noticed that the water in the canal is much, much worse than normal. It's turned a funny green color and there's lots of floating debris around. Other people were stopping to notice too.

You know it's got to be bad when people actually stop to look at the water in the Big G. Logic tells us that it's one of several things: (1.) It has something to do with the heavy rain over Thanksgiving which caused more sewage outflow into the canal and some storm drains to overflow into it, (2). A business along the canal dumped somethhing or something into a storm drain that empties into the canal or (3). A combination of (1) and (2). Despite slightly improved water quality in the canal, ever time there is a moderate rain, both effluent and trash go directly into the Gowanus.

A couple of weeks ago we posted about watching oil bubble up to the surface north of the Union Street Bridge. Previously, we've posted about geysers of crap erupting from sewers in Gowanus and the threat posed by Atlantic Yards.

Related Posts:
Leak Causing Gowanus Oil Slick?
Beware the Gowanus Canal Sh*t Storm
Holy Crap: Sewage Geysers in Gowanus