Gowanus Canal
The Gowanus Canal - in English. Gowanus Canal or Gowanus Creek Canal called - is a system of branch ducts in the district ( Borough ) Brooklyn of the city New York City in the United States . The canal flows as Gowanus Bay into Upper New York Bay, i.e. in the central part of the port area . A district and the Gowanus Expressway are named after him. As a creek , it was the center of an extensive marshland area. Today one of the four major New York sewage treatment plants is located here.
geography
The channel is located in the far west of Long Iceland and by the Gowanus Bay with the Upper New York Bay connected. The surrounding neighborhood of Brooklyn in the west and north of Red Hook and in the west South Brooklyn , in East Park Slope . The canal is crossed by five road bridges from east to west, just cross the city motorway Gowanus Expressway ( Interstate 278) and the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway with the highest station above ground the channel.
The environment of today's channel was originally part, influenced by one to two meters high tide, estuary ( Priel ) Gowanus Creek with adjacent marshes and salt marshes , known for its diversity of fish and mammals.
history
The first surviving contract between the government of the Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland and the Canar Sea Indians living in Long Island is from 1639 on the acquisition of arable land for the establishment of a tobacco plant . The sachem of the Lenape Indians was Gouwane. From this name the name of the inlet Gowanus Creek and today's name Gowanus Bay was derived.
In 1645 Adam Brouwer, a former soldier of the Dutch West India Company , received the patent to set up the first tide mill in the village of Breukelen for the production of flour and meal at Gowanus Creek. A second tide mill could only go into operation after the operator's slaves had dredged a supply channel .
After the transition from Nieuw Nederland to the United Kingdom , the farmer Nicholas Vechte built his Old Stone House out of bricks and rubble, which can still be seen today as a copy from 1930 on the old site. These buildings later played a role in the American Revolutionary War in 1776 during the Battle of Long Island , as American soldiers were able to hold back British troops until George Washington was able to retreat to Staten Island .
In the 18th century the Dutch farmers in the marshland of Gowanus Bay caught oysters, which developed excellently in the brackish water. The shellfish were exported to Europe. The oysters still harvested in the urban area today are, probably due to negative selection, considerably smaller than they were 300 years ago.
Industrial development
At the flour mills on Gowanus, quays developed over time, where people and goods for the developing Gowanus Strait landed or where ships came from Long Island . In the 19th century, proposals were made to create a canal to drain the land on both sides and thus gain building land for further, also industrial, development. However, it took New York State legislation nearly 20 years until 1867 planning by the United States Army Corps of Engineers could begin. The canal was finished in 1869. It was financed through levies that residents had to pay and funds from the state of New York.
The economic impact on south Brooklyn was enormous. The connection to the water and the now possible landing of raw materials via the canal ensured the construction of warehouses, factories, tanneries, coal stores and gas factories. The canal also became important for the discharge of the sandstone (brownstone) that was quarried in New Jersey and New York State and that became a typical feature of architecture in the Caroll Gardens , Cobble Hill and Park Slope counties . The evolving industry, which now also included paint, ink and soap factories, as well as chemical companies and gas works , was the cause of increasing air and water pollution.
The ever-increasing population in south Brooklyn was another source of pollution, as all sewage and surface water were drained untreated into the Gowanus Canal after rain or snowfall. Towards the end of the 19th century, the stinking watercourse was nicknamed "Lavender Lake". After the First World War , the canal was the most important canal in the United States and the most polluted, at 6 million tons per year. Due to the entry of sediments via the unseparated sewers, it silted up very quickly and often had to be dredged. In 1955, the United States Army Corps of Engineers stopped the dredging work that had been carried out on a regular basis, as the ways in which the canal was used had changed, among other things: coal and coke were replaced by oil and natural gas that were delivered to Brooklyn by other routes.
environmental pollution
When planning the canal, various lock systems were considered, which would have enabled continuous cleaning by flooding the canal. However, these were rejected as too expensive, so that the tides trusted in the self-cleaning of the approx. 3 km long canal, which, however, did not work. Investigations revealed an oxygen content of just 1.5 ppm . However, life in water is only possible from 4 ppm. The odor of the sewer is also more unpleasant due to the high input of nitrates and other pollutants and the resulting better development of odor-producing organisms.
As early as 1890, the first large sewer pipes with outlets were built past the canal directly into the sea. However, these measures did not prove sufficient. Another large sewer from the Prospect Heights district was supposed to protect the area, which was repeatedly flooded by rainfall, and to help clean the canal by discharging this water into the upper reaches of the Gowanus Canal. In 1911 a large tunnel was built from the Buttermilk Channel to the Gowanus Canal, which was supposed to bring water from the East River to the upper reaches of the canal. However, this flushing tunnel lay unused underground for 40 years and was only put back into operation on May 3, 1999 after the installation of powerful pumps. The technical problems of this measure and the improvements have still not been completely resolved after 100 years. The investment can only be used for 11 hours during the flood. However, the water quality of the canal has improved in times of additional water supply.
However, a wastewater treatment plant built in Red Hook in 1987 has only partially been used to treat wastewater from the old sewer systems, but rather from new industrial and residential areas. The excess water from older canal systems continues to flow into the Gowanus Canal at 14 overflow points from the combined rainwater and wastewater system in 2011.
Recent developments
The Gowanus Canal has been managed by the US federal agency for environmental protection (EPA) in a fund endowed with special funds since 2010. Over the next few years, the authority will work with planners and local associations to improve environmental conditions. The authorities are currently still warning against coming into contact with the water in the canal because the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons , some of which are carcinogenic, are too high.
During archaeological investigations by the authorities in the canal, the remains of four ships were discovered using sonar technology, one of which could date from the 17th century.
In 2013 there were several plans to get the pollution of the Gowanus Canal under control. The first involved dredging the canal and its banks. In the second plan, the environmental risk was to be hidden by covering the sewer and the rubbish inside. An implementation period of several years was planned for both measures. On September 27, 2013, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the work to be completed by 2022 for a planned cost of US $ 506 million. These include dredging of the poisoned deposits in the sewer and their disposal, covering the dredged parts of the sewer floor, as well as controls of future sewage overflows into the sewer.
Movie
- Claudia Müller, Claudia Steinberg (Director): New York - City on the water. De, 2012, 44 min
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ archeology. Wrecks in the toxic sludge in Der Spiegel 8/2011
- ↑ https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/index.page
- ↑ Info of the producer Sender ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. arte.tv from Jan. 2015
Coordinates: 40 ° 40 ′ 4.8 ″ N , 74 ° 0 ′ 3.6 ″ W.