New York City has Pearl the Squirrel to better illustrate the Parks Department's goals, and our personal favorite, Warmy, to ease us through the pothole-filling process. But what mascot should the Gowanus have during its cleanup? "The cleanup will be long, boring and probably disgusting, so we want to make sure people are aware of what's going on in an easy and fun way," Gowanus Community Advisory Group member Eymund Diegel told the Post. How much would rights for the Trojan Man cost? more ›

The last time professional tinkerer Christopher Hackett was featured in a NY Times story, it was when an confetti gun he invented exploded in his face, an "ordeal ordeal that ultimately involved the emergency room, the Police Department’s bomb squad and 65 days on Rikers Island." Now, he's got our attention for his latest project, a book and television show about "how to survive the apocalypse, in style." more ›

A local Gowanus blog has been wondering where some fluorescent green footprints have been coming from. Unfortunately, it wasn't the marking of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle—which was a definite possibility considering the state of the Gowanus Canal right now. But no, the footprints probably don't contain a strain of gonohorrea, they come from a project called Footprinting NYC. You can check out the process below... disappointing as it may be that the discovery was simply an artist walking to yoga class, and not some sort of Toxic Avenger. more ›

The Brooklyn tornado took out a lot of trees earlier this month, but did you know it also transformed the Gowanus Canal into a flowing body of raw sewage? Check it out below, it's just like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory except—strike that, reverse it—it is not at all like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. [Warning: You may want to watch this after lunch.] more ›

Sure, the Gowanus Canal may be a pollution-plagued strip of water running through Brooklyn now, but it used to be a busy cargo transportation hub! And before the canal, early settlers farmed on the shorelines of what they called "Gowanes Creek" after Gouwane, sachem of the Canarsee, a local Lenape tribe. Some older facts about the now-Superfunded Canal: more ›

Just as the sun comes out for the season, word comes in that the BKLYN Yard has been forced to shut down not one week after they kicked off the season with a weekend of opening events. Following yesterday's appearance in the NY Times, the organizers of the outdoor space on the Gowanus Canal have announced on their website that they're being forced out by their longtime landlord. more ›

According to a suit filed by New York and six other states against the bankrupt company Chemtura Corp., fields in Red Hook Park have levels of PCBs over 110 times what environmental agencies consider safe. Polychlorinated biphenyl production was banned by Congress in 1979 because exposure was linked to things like low birth rate for pregnant women, liver cancer and a loss of motor skills, but apparently leaked into the park from Chemtura's Red Hook plant, which closed in 1999. Chemtura, the nation's largest producer of plastic additives, has repeatedly refused to clean a leak at its plant. more ›

We've all heard about the Gowanus Canal's polluted waters, but now that Team Superfund is on board, it's time to get an up close look at the goo that oozes within it. The folks who run Characters of Gowanus were brave enough to get exclusive footage of the most talked about sediment in town, and it ain't pretty. EPA regional Superfund director Walter Mugdan explains the Superfund process in the below video and (spoiler alert!) talks about that time that the mud found in the waterway "had eaten its way through this heavy duty plastic" that it had been captured in. It's alive, people—and carrying gonorrhea. more ›

With 300,000 cubic yards of sludge being carted from the recently designated Gowanus Superfund site, a project manager for the effort has an admittedly "out there" idea. Through the process of vitrification he wants to pack and heat the waste, until it's transformed into big glass cubes. "You could construct an aquarium," Christos Tsiamis told the News, adding that "It creates an absolutely safe byproduct," so the fish tanks won't stink. Maybe a Mac store could go in one of them? more ›

[UPDATE]: Dolphins are everywhere! The day before a dolphin was photographed in the putrid Newtown Creek, a fireboat captain says he saw two dolphins swimming in the East River. Captain Bill Hannan told the Daily News he spotted the animals near the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Urban Assembly New York Harbor School educator Roy Arezzo and a colleague were "just amazed" when they saw a 7-foot dolphin in Newtown Creek. "We just stood there in awe—shouting, telling it to go back the other way. ... This is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] This week the Gowanus Canal will be designated a Superfund site, according to Courier Life. An employee for the agency told them, “If you asked me to put money on it, I think they will announce on Thursday." However, the EPA is set to make an announcement to the press today at 10 a.m. Once the call is officially made, expect the Toll Brothers to toss aside any development plans they had for the area (the Superfund process takes 10-12 years), and for the mayor to have a big sad. A public meeting will be held this Thursday at 7 p.m. at PS 58 in Brooklyn. [via Curbed] more ›

Superfund is finally coming to Brooklyn, but not where you might expect it. On December 23rd the Bloomberg Administration announced that it will support the designation of Newtown Creek, which runs through North Brooklyn and parts of Queens, as a Superfund site. Newtown Creek was recommended for the Superfund by the EPA last year. But don't go getting any ideas, Gowanus; the city still has no intentions to extend this designation to your infamous canal. more ›

Even though there's a stall in the Superfund debate, the EPA is moving forward with their work surrounding the Gowanus Canal. The Daily News now reports that they're pointing fingers at four more alleged polluters, all of whom could eventually have to help pay for the cleanup of the Canal. And they are (drumroll please): the U.S. Navy, Con Edison, chemical maker Chemtura, and... the city of New York! more ›

Mayor Bloomberg will prove he's not scared of no stinkin' canal when he visits Gowanus later today to announce the “start” of his $150-million effort to improve water quality there. Currently he's up against the fed's push to turn the Gowanus Canal into a Superfund site; something he believes will be too expensive, take too long and ruin the future re$idential area with a toxic stigma. more ›

As previously mentioned, Mayor Bloomberg is now facing two NYC waterways becoming potential Superfund sites; the Gowanus Canal and more recently Newtown Creek. While supporters of the Superfund status say that Bloomberg is making a political decision where he should be making a scientific one, the mayor recently tried to explain his motive$, saying: "Better we can find developers that can put the money in and pay for the cleanup right now because they will get a benefit of being able to develop the land around there." more ›

Time to test your own waters to see if you're brave enough to take a boat ride in the Gowanus Canal (home to the gonohorrea bacteria and other little treats). more ›

While Mayoral Candidate Monty Burns would never want to clean up the Gowanus Canal (what's a little gonorrhea bacteria?), Mayor Bloomberg wants it spic n' span for developers and investors. And he doesn't want help from no stinkin' EPA either. The director of the Center for Urban Innovation now agrees that Superfunding the site would be setback; in his editorial for the Post he says that while someone may benefit (Mother Nature?) the neighborhoods around the canal will not. more ›

As the battle for the Gowanus Canal continues, and Superfund supporters bring their campaign from doorsteps to YouTube, the NY Times looks at the canal as one man's artistic muse (and it's not the first time). more ›

Alright Gowanus Canal, where were we? The NY Times reports on the latest developments surrounding the clean-up debate, which is split between those who want it to be labeled a Superfund site and those who are afraid of that label's stigma (real estate developers). City officials are sided with the latter group, and have proposed an alternative cleanup plan that would be overseen by the EPA, would take less time, and wouldn't have such a scary word attached to it. more ›

Last we heard in the great Gowanus Canal Clean-up debate, developers in the area were concerned with the Superfund stigma, and would choose the city cleanup efforts over the EPA's even though their consultants found levels of hydrogen sulfide in the water that they said would create a "significant odor impact." more ›

Word came in over the police wires starting at around 11 p.m. last night that a car dove into the Gowanus Canal near the corner of Bond and Degraw Streets. Twitter was lighting up late last night with Park Slope residents reporting that helicopters were flying overhead. At least one person (the driver—who apparently was intoxicated) was pulled from the water by police divers. There were unconfirmed reports that the driver claimed that there were two other people in the car, but this doesn't appear to be supported by any of the wires that were coming through until just before 2 a.m., when the incident was deemed under control. more ›

While city and state battle it out over who gets to clean up the Gowanus Canal, one residential developer says they're "confident the city's work" will be good enough. The Toll Brothers plan to build 460 condos along the waterway, a plan that would go down the drain if it were granted Superfund status. The NY Times explains the stigma, saying "city officials and many residents fear the Superfund label, reserved for the worst contamination in the country and evoking health emergencies." In other words, it would be difficult to fund a project with this scarlet letter attached. However, the developer's consultants found levels of hydrogen sulfide in the water that they said would create a "significant odor impact," the Daily News reports. So chances those duped into signing leases would rather have the stigma than the overwhelming stench floating into their brand dream home and sinking in to their brand new IKEA furnishings. more ›