Gowanus Superfund Site walk

Running head: Gowanus Superfund Site walk 1

GOWANUS SUPERFUND SITE WALK 3

Gowanus Superfund Site walk
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

The paper will discuss Gowanus Canal through its foundation, pollution and the sources of the pollutants. It also outlines possible remedies to the current state of the canal.
The Gowanus Canal is along channel measuring one-hundred-foot-wide and 2.9 km long located in New York, Kings County and in the New York district of Brooklyn. It is referred to as a superfund site (Navarro, 2009).. It is surrounded by numerous communities among them being Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and Carroll Gardens and discharges into Harbor of New York.
The Canal was constructed in the mid-1800s and was utilized as a noteworthy industrial transportation course. However, waste discharges from tanneries, paper factories, plant chemicals and Made gas plants (MGP) found their way into it. In addition, industrial toxins, sullying streams into the Canal from floods from sewer frameworks that convey sanitary waste from homes (Navarro, 2009). For this reasons, the Canal has been identified among the country’s most genuinely polluted water bodies with more than twelve contaminants being found at abnormal states in the residue in the Canal. Examples of such contaminants include heavy metals, mercury, copper and lead.
Pollution control of the canal can be effected on treatment of the different sources of pollution. To start with, waste from sewage should be treated by use of treatment plant before being channeled into its water body. With well-designed and operated system, 85-90 percent of the pollutant can be removed (Navarro, 2009).
Specialized treatment of wastewater from industries should also be put in place to cub the increased pollution of the canal. This would help remove toxic components from the wastewater before sending it to the municipal system.
In conclusion, through the recommended ways, Gowanus Canal be improved to restore it to its previous unpolluted state.

References
Navarro, M. (2009). City proposes new plan for Gowanus canal cleanup. New York Times, 2.