We don’t know for a fact that this brown mass we found floating on the Gowanus on Saturday is, uh, crap. However, it looks disturbingly like what might happen if King Kong had the runs at the Carroll Street Bridge. (Actually, we watched the mass of whatever it was float from the Union Street Bridge to the Caroll Street Bridge.) Or, maybe, they’re just decomposed leaves that got washed out storm drains. Regardless, the Gowanus suffers from what are known in the trade as Combined Sewage Overflows or CSOs, meaning that untreated sewage flows right into the canal when it rains hard enough. Friday, it rained hard enough to do this. So, this was Saturday’s treat. If it’s any comfort, the smell wasn’t as bad as one would have expected. The blueish sheen on the water is oil which constantly bubbles up to the surface of the water next to the Bayside Fuel Oil facility near the Union Street Bridge. There is a meeting on February 12 to discuss such issues.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Feb 4, 2008 at 6:35 am
It is a mixture of crap and street debris. This is directly linked to Friday’s rain and why the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club asks that you don’t flush when it is raining!
2 Anonymous // Feb 4, 2008 at 1:43 pm
And what of all those extra toliets that will soon be flushing along 4th Ave–all of which drain towards the canal and the Carroll St CSO?
You can stand and watch this stuff spill from the CSO near the Carroll St Bridge and yet the DEP study and Long-Term-Planning for the Gowanus states that this section of the canal and this CSO hardly ever overflow. The DEP data charts show that this CSO spills but 5 times a year. In reality, it more than 5 times a month.
3 Miss Lo // Feb 4, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I saw this stuff yesterday as i was coming over the 3rd street bridge. It sure looked like crap to me, as well as:
condoms of many shapes, sizes and colors.
used “sanitary” products
actual logs of turd
I’m glad you posted this – I was gonna send you a pic.
4 Anonymous // Feb 5, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Um, please don’t post pictures of crap?
Please?