As New Yorkers, we often take clean water for granted, but there’s a lot of money and effort being applied behind the scenes to make sure we have access to it. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter H. Strickland, Jr. outlined the $20 billion dollars that the city has invested in its water system over the last decade, detailing upgrades to water mains and pipes, city dams, treatment plants, newly constructed sewer lines and other vital infrastructure projects. The officials also went over the work they are doing to ensure that the Gowanus Canal water quality upgrade project would also be completed by the end of the year, despite flooding and other damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Read the rest of Mayor Bloomberg Announces Gowanus Canal Upgrades by 2013, Outlines $20 Billion Spent on Water Quality Improvements testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Climate Central, Commissioner Carter H. Strickland jr, department of environmental protection, gowanus canal, gowanus canal treatment plant, green infrastructure, Hurricane Sandy, mayor michael bloomberg, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, new york drinking water, new york drinking water safety, nyc treatment facilities, safe drinking water, sewage water supply nyc

Last week, many Gowanus residents were outraged to find out that the city has approved the first stage of a plan to turn the Gowanus Canal into a Venice-like tourist area. The hope is that the new mini neighborhood, dubbed “Little Gowanice”, will generate enough revenue to offset the millions needed to clean up the heavily-polluted superfund site. According to Chinese architecture firm Duplitect, Little Gowanice would feature a main canal (which would be a restored and renovated version of the current waterway) as well as several smaller offshoot canals leading right into the heart of the neighborhood. Tourist attractions would include gondola rides, Venice-themed eateries and a “Tunnel of Love” ride.

Read the rest of NYC Approves Plan to Turn Gowanus Canal into Venice-Like Tourist Area testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: april fool's inhabitat, april fools, canals in brooklyn, flooding brooklyn, flooding new york, gowanus canal, Hurricane Sandy, little gowanice, venice

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: brooklyn photography, eco design, gowanus canal, Gowanus Photographs, gowanus pollution, green design, superfund, sustainable design, water pollution, William Miller

Well House rendering via NYC Parks Department

Prospect Park wants to change the way you “go” at the park with a new system that will compost human waste. NYC has plans to build a $1.8 million composting green latrine in the park’s historic Well House building that will look much like a regular bathroom except it will use “eco-friendly foam” and very little water. Luckily, visitors won’t be subject to the smelly side of the new system as waste will be stored in the depths of the composting compartment in the bathroom’s basement, keeping it out of treatment plants and the Gowanus Canal.

Read the rest of Composting Poop Potties Planned for Prospect Park testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: bronx zoo, Christian Zimmerman, daily news, eco friendly park toilet, eco friendly public toilets, eco friendly toilets, fresh kills park, gowanus canal, Hollenback Community Garden, prospect park, Queens Botanical Garden, sewage treatment plants, Staten Island, treatment plants, Wellhouse building

A group of citizen scientists will soon be taking a closer look at Brooklyn’s heavily polluted Gowanus Canal using an underwater robot. NYU-Poly associate professor Mauirizio Porfiri and Oded Nov are launching the Brooklyn Atlantis 1, a robot that will probe the depths of the canal. Along with some other human volunteers, the robot will monitor pollution and plant and marine life as the Gowanus undergoes a heavy-duty clean-up.


Read the rest of Brooklyn Atlantis Underwater Robot Will Probe the Polluted Gowanus Canal testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Brooklyn Atlantis, eco design, gowanus canal, Gowanus Canal Pollution, gowanus canal robot, green design, Mauirizio Porfiri, Oded Nov, pollution monitoring robot, sustainable design, underwater robot

The heavily polluted Gowanus Canal was made a Superfund site just two years ago by the Environmental Protection Agency, which will help clean up the body of water once dubbed “the Lavender Lake.” Last week, the EPA announced just how much it will cost to clean up the canal – a whopping $467 to $504 million. The massive undertaking will require a total dredging of the entire canal to remove the contaminants on its floor.

Read the rest of EPA Says Gowanus Canal Cleanup Could Cost Up to $504 Million testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: clean up Gowanus Canal, eco design, Environmental Protection Agency, gowanus canal, gowanus pollution, green design, Lavender Lake, Pollution gowanus canal, superfund site, sustainable design

NYC has some great oyster bars, but its most in-demand shellfish yet may soon be coming to the Gowanus Canal instead of to your favorite seafood restaurant. Scape Studio has received funding for its ambitious Oyster-tecture project – an oyster park for millions of mollusks at the mouth of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Oysters have the unique ability to ‘eat’ toxins and dirt, so the new park could be just the way to clean up what is currently one of the nation’s most polluted waterways.

Read the rest of Oyster-tecture: Scape Studio Plans to Build a Park Filled with Millions of Oysters to Clean the Gowanus Canal testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: artificial reef, Brooklyn, gowanus canal, kate orff, landscape architecture, mollusks, oyster park, oyster-tecture, polluted waterways, scape studio, shellfish, water filtration

Read the rest of Inventor Leif Percifield Discusses His ‘Don’t Flush Me’ Sewer Overflow Sensor System testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: CSO management, dont flush me, Dontflushme, dontflushme cso management, eco design, gowanus canal, green design, In Our Back Yard, Ioby, proteus gowanus, sewage overflow, sustainable design

Read the rest of Sponge Park To Start Soaking Up Pollution From the Gowanus Canal this Spring! testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: brooklyn superfund, dlandstudio, dlandstudio sponge park, Gowanus, gowanus canal, gowanus canal park, gowanus canal sponge park, gowanus canal superfund, green design, green space, landscape design, nyc parks department, sponge park, superfund clean up, superfund site, susannah drake, sustainable design

Read the rest of Tropical Storm Irene, Downgraded from Hurricane, Passes Through NYC testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: flooding, gowanus canal, hurricane irene, mayor bloomberg, mta nyc, natural disasters, new york city subway, new york superfund sites, power outage, Sierra Club, Tropical Storm Irene

Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to live off the grid in a city like New York. The extremely polluted Gowanus Canal is dotted with a handful of houseboats, but only the vessel painted like a circus clown is completely self-sufficient. Called “The Jerko,” the eco-houseboat is home to 29-year-old Adam Katzman who has turned his floating home into an energy efficient machine, which requires no utility hook ups from the City of New York. Take a tour of Katzman’s houseboat in a video after the jump.

Read the rest of Gowanus Canal Houseboat: Floating Brooklyn Home Generates Its Own Energy and Water testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Adam Katzman, brooklyn houseboat, eco design, gowanus canal, gowanus canal houseboat, gowanus canal superfund, green design, hipster houseboat, Houseboat, Living off the grid, off grid houseboat, off grid living, rainwater harvesting, Self Sufficient living, solar panels, sustainable design, The Jerko

A lot is going on with the Gowanus Canal these days. Since being declared a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, the city has begun putting forth its own efforts to help contribute to the clean up. One recent proposal emphasizes using plant life to help capture stormwater runoff before it enters into the canal, a problem that has worsened the pollution in the area. But the EPA’s role in the clean-up is strictly focused on the muck at the bottom of the canal, which is heavily contaminated with industrial waste. The toxic mud will eventually be removed, but a sample of it will remain in Brooklyn forever: the EPA has donated a jar of the chemical-filled sludge to Proteus Gowanus, a local gallery dedicated to collecting artifacts relating to the Gowanus Canal and surrounding neighborhood.

Read the rest of Toxic Art: Sludge from the Gowanus Canal Enshrined in Brooklyn Gallery testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: brooklyn superfund, eco art, eco art gallery, eco art gallery nyc, Environmental Protection Agency, epa brooklyn, gowanus canal, gowanus canal art, gowanus canal clean-up, gowanus canal museum, gowanus canal park, gowanus canal sludge, gowanus pollution, proteus gowanus, superfund site, toxic samples on exhibit

The Gowanus Canal has been a Superfund site for just over a year now and city officials are tossing around new plans to clean it up, the latest one involves a lot of great green plant matter. NYC Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway released a plan to help manage sewage overflow in the canal’s area that contributes to its high levels of pollution by planting huge amounts of vegetation in the area. The city plans to use trees, green roofs and water reclamation systems to soak up storm water that causes sewage overflow in the area. This mass of green will help manage pollution in the waterway and will help diminish that “Gowanus stink.” The only problem with the new plan is that it is only slotted to help with 10 percent of the area sewage, not nearly enough to eliminate that smell.

Read the rest of New York City Officials to Use Plants to Help Control Sewage in the Gowanus Canal testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: Gowanus, gowanus canal, gowanus canal superfund, green infrastructure, green initiative, green roof, new york city, nyc superfund sites, sewage overflow, sewage treatment, superfund, superfund nyc, superfund site clean up, water reclamation, water treatment

Image © Juliancolton via Wikimedia Commons

Thanks to New York’s industrial past, many of our waterways, including the Gowanus Canal, Newtwon Creek, and the Hudson River are horribly polluted — in fact, all three of those have been named Superfund sites, putting them among the most toxic sites in the nation. One of the biggest problems in the Hudson River is coal tar, a nasty substance notoriously hard to remove. For the last 18 months, engineers have been testing a new way to removed the pollutants — by placing mattress-sized “sponges” in the Hudson River to absorb toxins.

Read the rest of New York Uses Giant Sponges to Clean Coal Tar from the Hudson River testing

Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg
Post tags: central hudson gas and electric, coal tar hudson river, coal tar removal, electric power research institute, environmental clean up, experimental clean up, gowanus canal, hudson river clean up, hudson river clean up poughkeepsie, hudson river sponges, new york superfund sites, newtown creek, pollution remediation