The Brooklyn Muskrat
by Elizabeth Albert

It’s hard to imagine standing on the shores of this oil-slicked, sickly green, long-abused waterway, that on this very site soldiers of the Continental Army retreated from the British during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, the first battle to be fought following the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Struggling across the creek at high tide, many soldiers drowned or were easy targets for British muskets. An unidentified poet at the time wrote, “Hail the Gowanus Creek…Hold back the hordes of the ruthless invader, let not the minions of tyranny cross…”.

 

The Gowanus Canal, perhaps named after the Canarsee tribe leader Gowanes, is a tidal estuary and salt marsh, located in south Brooklyn, that during Dutch colonial times was the site of a tobacco plantation and mills belonging to Denton, Freeke and Brauwer, among others. Six foot tides pushed salt water into the creek creating a brackish mix ideal for oyster beds; the Gowanus was famous for its oysters “the size of dinner plates.”

 

The Gowanus Canal played a vital role in New York’s industrial revolution.  In the early 1850’s the 1.8-miles-long Gowanus was canalized, and despite its disparaging nickname “The Passage to Nowhere” grew to become a major industrial waterway, its shores populated by lumber mills, oil refineries, chemical plants, tanneries; soap, fertilizer, and paint manufacturers; cement factories; and other heavy industry. In just a few years indiscriminate dumping of industrial waste and raw sewage poisoned the water and by 1910 the canal was almost solid with sewage. The canal, with its opaque and sickly pallor, became known as “the Lavender Lake”. 

 

Over the years several attempts have been made to remedy the pollution by circulating the water and flushing it into New York Bay. All of these efforts ultimately failed, and any additional plans were abandoned when the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was built and much of the canal’s cargo transport was replaced by truck.  By 1978 the once bustling commercial waterway had only nine businesses, and over 50% of the canal’s shoreline property was unused. After another thirty years of neglect, the water was so bad that light could only penetrate about two feet below the surface.  The amount of dissolved oxygen was calculated at only 2.8 parts per million (ppm).  Fish require a minimum of 5 ppm to survive.

The water’s condition was dramatically improved in 1999, when a new pump was installed flushing approximately 300 gallons of oxygenated water through the canal every day. Since then geese, fiddler crabs, flounder, shrimp, mussels, killifish and jellyfish have been spotted in the canal.  However the underlying sediment is still highly toxic and EPA tests of local Striped Bass showed the canal to be polluted with a long list of contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (P.A.H.’s), which are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, and garbage.  They also found quantities of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs; mercury, lead and copper; and other debris, much of which is left over from industry dating as far back as the 1860’s.

 

The Gowanus Canal was designated a Superfund site in March, 2010 with the EPA expecting to begin its ten year cleanup effort in 2015.  In the mean time grass roots organizations have begun various remediation efforts.  One of the plans is Sponge Park, a joint effort between the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and dland Studios, a Broolkyn-based architecture and landscape architecture firm.  The Park would line the banks of the Gowanus and include a variety of ecological systems, each using native plants that naturally clean toxins from the water.  Some examples of those native plants are Sunflowers, Pussy Willow, and Duckweed, all of which can process heavy metals, and Beach Rose, Pond Weed, and White Clover, which can process PCBs.

 

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy has a dedicated group of local volunteers who meet several times a year to shore up the banks of the canal, pick up garbage, plant trees and shrubs that leach toxins from the water, maintain tree pits, and map the area. Recently St. Johns students have joined the effort and given hours of their time to healing this abused and neglected part of New York City’s environment. Students arrive by bus wearing old clothes and heavy shoes, and are supplied with gloves, tools, and huge bags to fill with garbage, weeds, or other undesirable objects.  It can be a nasty job.  On one chilly Saturday in March the group cleared thirty cubic yards of debris (two large dumpsters full), including rotting furniture, spoiled food, old clothes, used needles, and condoms. The group also lent their efforts to planting fifty assorted trees and shrubs, building pathways, and dewinterizing plants in the conservancy’s nursery.

 

Despite the pollution, the area is still active and populated by small businesses, homes, and artists’ studios. Many of the original factory buildings and carriage houses are still standing. One huge handsome ruin of a brick building, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit power station, built in 1902, stands empty, covered with graffiti.  When the BRT folded into the BMT this massive brick building lived on to become for a time as a Hasidic dance hall, and is now referred to as the Bat Cave–home to junkies and squatters.  Raccoons live in the tunnels under the BRT building and have been seen washing the tomato sauce off their scavenged pizza crusts in the noxious waters of the canal.