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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, OCTOBER 6, 2019
Dung-believable!
Storm sewers fl ush dog poop into Gowanus Canal
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A new drainage system
meant to keep sewage
from flowing into the
Gowanus Canal is being
circumvented — by dog
poop!
That’s right, crap may
not be flushing in the
fetid waterway from pipes
below, but stormwater
is causing turds planted
by man’s best friend to
trickle down from the
streets above, according
to a local environmental
watchdog.
“Basically dogs are
the problem — and I’m
not saying anything anti
dog, but we have to be
realistic,” said Eymund
Diegel, a member of the
Gowanus Community
Advisory Group, which
keeps an eye on the $1.2
billion federal Superfund
cleanup of the filthy waterway.
The Department of
Environmental Protection
installed new storm
sewers in April to prevent
sewage from being
dumped into the canal
during rainstorms,
but water samples taken
from the canal by the
Carroll Street Bridge
showed high levels of microscopic
poop following
three storms last spring,
according to Diegel.
The probes contained
more than 24,000 colonies
of Enterococcus bacteria
— a pathogen found
in human and animal intestines
— per 100 milliliters
in late May and mid-
June, which compares
to other samples taken
from Prospect Park Lake
where dogs abound, leading
Diegel to conclude
that the nabe’s pooches
are behind the spike.
“It’s essentially being
treated as a toilet,” said
Diegel. “It flushes away
the poo.”
A rep for the Environmental
Protection
Agency was at a loss for
words upon hearing Diegel’s
astonishing revelation
at a Gowanus Community
Advisory Group
meeting on Sept. 24.
Reporter Kevin Duggan collects samples of the Gowanus Canal,
which Environmental Planner Eymund Diegel claims is being polluted
by dog poop. Photo by Trey Pentecost
“That is surprising,”
said Christos Tsiamis,
the agency’s Gowanus
Superfund project manager.
The Gowanusaur has
taken weekly probes of
the area for about five
years and sends them to a
lab in Manhattan, where
citizen testers log water
qualities across the Five
Boroughs for New York
City Water Trail Association,
a non-profit environmental
group.
This reporter joined the
scientist during a morning
sample session on Sept. 26,
gritting my teeth and plugging
my nose as I ventured
down the canal aboard Diegel’s
canoe.
The Gowanus Canal
may have a bad reputation,
but paddling down
the canal’s placid, oily
surface to the Carroll
Street Bridge was actually
kind of nice. Sadly,
taking a sample required
me to plunge my hands
into its skeevy depths —
known to harbor sewage,
toxic waste, and even
trace amounts of the clap
— but, so far, no rash!
Fortunately for me,
Brooklyn hadn’t seen
any rain in the last few
days, making it unlikely
that any serious dog poop
had found its way into canal
recently, and the odor
was only pretty bad.
The feds plan to carve
out the dirt from the
First Street Basin, one
block south of the outf
lows, and turn the inlet
into wetlands as part
of the cleanup, and Diegel
said the city should
reroute the poop water
there, where plant life
would filter out the crap
before it trickles into the
canal.
“We would have room
to put it in the constructed
wetlands and
filter basins, which we’re
doing anyway,” he said.
A spokesman for the
feds said the agency
would push the city to
remedy the situation in
order to make sure separated
sewers keep the canal
clean, but declined to
comment on whether they
would divert the runoff to
the First Street Basin.
“EPA intends to convey
this information to the
New York City Department
of Environmental Protection
and ask them to review
this matter to ensure that
the new infrastructure
functions as designed,”
said Elias Rodriguez in an
emailed statement.
The Department of
Environmental Protection’s
press office did not
respond to a request for
comment.
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