“You smell it way before you see it,” said Alyssa Kerper, a Park Slope, Brooklyn, resident who lives just a few blocks from the Gowanus Canal. She enjoys breaking up her work days from home by taking walks around the neighborhood, though she wishes she could enjoy the water more without the gnarly smell.
In a city with few green spaces, a waterway in Brooklyn is a draw. The problem is that the Gowanus Canal is one of the most heavily contaminated water bodies in the country. More than a dozen contaminants like coal tar as well as other heavy metals, including mercury, lead, and copper, are present in the canal’s sediments, left behind by industries like manufactured gas plants, concrete plants and chemical plants. The Gowanus Canal was placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list of heavily contaminated sites in 2010 and has been undergoing a federal cleanup since 2020.
Many fundamentals of Superfund cleanups remain stable no matter who is president, as they are established through hundreds of policies and guidelines. But the 2024 presidential election is unusual because of the stark contrasts between the candidates’ approaches, which could impact how efficiently the program runs.
