'Combined Overflow' Roundtable Discussion Marks End Of Exhibition At Proteus Gowanus This Friday

triptych with images from Jose Gaytan, Willis Elkins and Jenifer Wightman.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to see "Combined Overflow" - the Newtown Creek & Gowanus Canal exhibit at Proteus Gowanus at 543 Union Street, you still can do so till Saturday May 24th.

The show has been curated by Laura Chipley, Nathan Kensinger, Sarah Nelson Wright, and features the works of Wendy Andringa, Liz Barry, Sarah Christman, Willis Elkins, Eymund Diegel, Jose Gaytan, Jan Mun, Leif Percifield, George Trakas, Mitch Waxman, Jenifer Wightman.

From the curators:

"Combined Overflow is an exhibition of creative responses to the Newtown Creek and the Gowanus Canal, two New York City waterways with similar histories of industry, pollution and neglect. Both of these salt-water inlets were designated as federal Superfund sites in 2010, and are currently undergoing remediation, even as new residents are lured to their shorelines. Both have also inspired dedicated communities of artists, innovators and explorers, who have been working to collectively recalibrate these bodies of water as fertile sites of collaboration, invention and public engagement."

To mark the closing of the show, the curators will be moderating "Combined Overflow Roundtable Discussion" on Friday May 23rd from 7 pm to 9 pm.

"Join us for a roundtable discussion with several artists from our current Water exhibition, Combined Overflow. They will discuss creative collaborations on the Newtown Creek and Gowanus Canal and consider new ideas for how to engage with Superfund Sites, urban waterfronts and environmental pollution in Brooklyn and beyond.
Participants include George Trakas, designer of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk; artist Willis Elkins of the Newtown Creek Alliance and North Brooklyn Boat Club; engineer Jeff Laut of the Brooklyn Atlantis robot project; photographer Mitch Waxman; media artist Jan Mun; and artist/scientist Jenifer Wightman."

RSVP for the Combined Overflow Roundtable discussion here.  Free wine and refreshments will be served.

Read more

Gowanus Herons: Making Their Home On The Edge Of A Superfund

This past Saturday, I came across the bird pictured above, who was sitting on the edge of the Gowanus Canal at Second Street.  Some of my readers have identified is as a green heron. (Someone else suggested it was a cormorant.)
I have seen them next to the toxic waterway before, but I never cease to be amazed by their majestic presence in such a foul environment.
I reached out to Gowanus resident Eymund Diegel, who canoes on the canal regularly.
Eymund sent along a few more photos of  herons and egrets that have been sighted in and around the Gowanus.
Rather amazing, aren't they?

 Egret, May 2011 photo credit: Eymund Diegel

Great Egret at the Gowanus Dredgers' dock at 2nd Street 

photo credit: Eymund Diegel

Black Crowned Night Heron photo credit Eleanor Hanlon

Green Herons on Gowanus Floating Garden

photo credit: Adam Katzman

Egret, April 2011 near birdhouse installed by Gowanus Conservancy 

photo credit: Eymund Diegel

Egret on Gowanus Conservancy Heron Platform at 2nd Ave and Gowanus Canal May 2013
photo credit: Eymund Diegel

Read more

Gowanus Goslings: Pair Of Canada Geese Raises Little Ones Near Canal

Gowanus resident Eymund Diegel came across a pair of Canadian geese who were on an outing with their little ones over the week-end.  Thankfully, he had his camera with him and was able to snap the photos above.
Eymund writes:

"On our way to train for the Gowanus Challenge, the upcoming canoe race, we came across two nesting pairs of Canada Geese, one on the Marmurstein Bus Lot (opposite Bond Street) and another family opposite Public Place at Huntington Street at the base of the former Subway Art History Museum.The brick building on Bond Street behind the Gowanus Goslings was originally built in 1904 (or slightly earlier (construction started 1900) and was built for the Empire City Hygiea Ice Company, the largest Brooklyn shipper of ice around the Gowanus neighborhood (285 tons per day in 1909).Hans [Hesselein] and the Clean & Green Team at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, located directly opposite the building of interest, were kind enough to donate an original beer bottle of the Leonhard Michel Brewing Company that also operated in that building. Historically sensitive beer drinkers can view the bottle at the Hall of the Gowanus at 543 Union Street."

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Eymund.

Read more

Heartbreaking Photos Of A Sad End: The Gowanus Dolphin

The dolphin which got stranded in the Gowanus Canal on Friday and sadly died after hours of struggling in the polluted waterway, was still very much on everyone's mind the day after the event.
The unusual story made its way through media all over the United States.

My friend Eymund Diegel sent me the heartbreaking photos above which he took earlier today. The dolphin was still lying close to the shore near the Union Street Bridge.
The images are now part of the permanent Proteus Gowanus photo archive of  The Fauna of the Gowanus Canal.  More photos of the poor creature can be accessed here.

Thank you for sharing them, Eymund.

UPDATE:
According to the Huffington Post,  the dolphin has been removed and has been sent to a lab on Long Island for a necropsy.



Read more

Hurricane Sandy: Amazing Gowanus Flooding Photos

Sackett St yesterday afternoon: 

Bayside Fuel Depot flood with strong odor of floating gasoline in air.

Last night: at Douglass and Bond

First and Bond Street flooded intersection at 8:20 PM last night

Union St and Bond Street flooded intersection

Second and Bond Street flooded intersection

Second and Bond Street flooded intersection with gasoline and varnish left by flood

Second and Bond Street flooded intersection with fire wood left by flood receding

Surveying the damage this morning. Oil sheen and flooding on Second St.

Storm aftermath. Burnt out bus on President St

Damaged fence at Union and Bond Streets

Damaged insulation on Sackett St

Firewood on First Street and Bond Street

Flood line on 2nd and Bond Street

Pumps at work on Bond

Oil and stranded boat at Canal and President

Stranded house boat at President Street

 Oil sheen on Gowanus Canal

Oil saturation on Sackett St

Overturned container on President Street

Lost bracelet on 4th and Bond

(photos courtesy of Eymund Diegel)

These amazing photos chronicling the flooding and the flooding aftermath in the Gowanus area as a result of Hurricane Sandy were taken by Eymund Diegel.  Thank you very much for sharing the images, Eymund.

No doubt this was the storm of the century.  Scientists have been warning us about this eventuality for a very long time.

Here is a link to an older post that I wrote after I joined a walking tour of the Gowanus Canal with climate change expert Klaus Jacob of Columbia University and with Paul Reale of The Climate Reality Project,which was founded by Al Gore, Nobel Laureate and former Vice President of the United States.

Please take the time to read it here:

Planning For Climate Change In The Gowanus Watershed

Everything they predicted came true yesterday.

Read more

"Star Of The Gowanus": An Official Superfund Clean-Up Surface Sediment Sample Now On Display At Proteus Gowanus

Christos Tsiamis, EPA Region 2 Project Manager for the Gowanus Canal

The "Star Of The Gowanus", a sample of toxic surface sediment from the Gowanus Canal

EPA's Tsiamis handing the sample to Eymund Diegel and to Tammy Pittman of Proteus Gowanus

Eymund Diegel placing the specimen in a secure glass enclosure

A small Gowanus Canal surface sediment sample, collected between Sackett Street and DeGraw Street on February 2011 as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's Remediation Investigation of the polluted waterway, will be on permanent display as part of Proteus Gowanus' Hall Of The Gowanus exhibit.

The "Star of The Gowanus," as the sample has been humorously named, was handed to local resident and urban planner Eymund Diegel by Christos Tsiamis, EPA Region 2 Project Manager for the Gowanus Canal on Thursday morning. The sample was quickly and carefully placed in a secured glass display case.

A "Caution" sticker on the sample warns in no uncertain terms of the toxic nature of the sediment. The primary contaminants that have been found in this black sludge are:

*Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's)

*Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

*Metals (barium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver)

*Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX)

*Non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL)

The contaminants are the results of decades of industrial pollution.

The idea for the "Star of The Gowanus" exhibit came from Eymund Diegel, who has been working with Proteus Gowanus to archive artifacts from the canal's past. Diegel reached out to the EPA to ask the federal agency to donate a sample of the sediment so it could be preserved for future generation.

Diegel plans to use the exhibit to inform and challenge local students. Next to the sample of the toxic sludge, he has placed common, seemingly benign household products available at any local hardware store, which pollute our environment and cause health risks. Diegel has also displayed a broken I-Pod with its Lithium Manganese battery, which was found along the shores of the Gowanus. The parts and the battery are a danger to the environment just as much as the toxins in the canal.

Yes, Diegel argues, the sample of the sludge from the Gowanus Canal is hazardous and represents decades of unchecked pollution. However, everyone needs to be aware of the pollution we create today, which is equally harmful to the environment and to our future.

I would like to thank Eymund Diegel, Christos Tsiamis and Tammy Pittman for allowing me to witness the event.

°°°°°°°°°°°

Read more