EPA Launches Long-Awaited Cleanup of Gowanus Canal

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun preliminary work on a major cleanup of the Gowanus Canal, which the agency has called "one of the nation's most seriously contaminated bodies of water."

The canal became a Superfund site in 2010, but has been notoriously dirty for much longer—even earning the nickname "Lavender Lake" in the 1900s, Jackson Rollings reports in The Architect’s Newspaper.

At present, 26 million gallons of raw sewage flood into the canal per year, which the advent of new underground sewage tanks is expected to reduce to 11 million gallons per year. Flooding is still a common occurrence for nearby residents.

The dredging that began this month is the first step in a $506 million, multi-phase plan to revitalize the channel. The first remediation attempt in the canal's history, it coincides with recent development interest at the Gowanus waterfront, as well as a community planning process associated with New York's citywide rezoning program.