Gowanus CSO Installation — kickoff April 30, 2022

On April 30, a number of community partners in South Brooklyn will convene at the Van Alen Institute’s offices in Gowanus to kick off a new project: “Gowanus CSO Installation.” I had the great pleasure of chatting with the Van Alen team in a Q&A about the project. According to the most recent estimate I could find from a public agency, New York City released roughly 30 billion gallons of raw or partially treated wastewater into its waterways across all five boroughs in 2010. This is due to the fact the city has a combined sewer system, which means stormwater and household wastewater end up in the same pipes. During rain events, the city’s wastewater treatment plants often can’t handle the influx of stormwater, so untreated wastewater (e.g., what you flush) and stormwater runoff get released across the city in what are called “combined sewer overflow” (CSO) events. In the Gowanus Canal alone, NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection estimates that at least 260 million gallons of CSO is released annually, which impairs water quality such that primary contact with the water (e.g., swimming) is unsafe, and some local wildlife are unable to propagate. This also means valuable wastewater resources aren’t being recovered for beneficial uses such as heating, electricity generation, and fertilizer which does take place at small but significant scale around the city.

While water quality across New York City and in the Gowanus Canal has improved drastically in recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Record of Decision for the Gowanus Canal Superfund site does not impose a long-term requirement for complete elimination of CSOs into the canal. One city projection (figure screenshot below) indicates that even after two sewage/stormwater retention tanks—4 and 8 million gallons, respectively—are constructed along the canal within the next decade, the canal will still receive more than 100 million gallons of CSO by 2035.

The purpose of this Gowanus CSO Installation project is to engage with the local community on water management issues in the 1,800-acre watershed at a moment of substantial change for the neighborhood. Climate change is increasing sea levels and leading to more extreme precipitation; a hotly-debated rezoning will further emburden the Owl’s Head and Red Hook wastewater treatment plants; sky-high demand for affordable housing is leading to new development in a historically polluted floodplain, creating environmental justice concerns; the Gowanus Superfund cleanup is still the better part of a decade away from completion, and success is not a foregone conclusion given that the majority of sites that have been listed as Superfunds nationally have not been remediated yet.

This community-led project aims to engage and inform residents about the CSO issue, and potentially catalyze behavioral and/or policy change to improve water quality in the Gowanus Canal so that maybe someday it’s safe to swim in. Feel free to reach out if you’re interested in getting involved!