2014 Ghost Streams of the Gowanus Study of historic buried streams

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Natasia Sidarta, Gowanus Canal Conservancy

GOWANUS CANAL SUPERFUND SITE, BROOKLYN, NY

CAN WE HELP SOLVE OUR SEWAGE PROBLEM ?

2012, December,

USING DIY AERIALS AND OLD MAPS TO FIND BURIED STREAMS TO SOLVE TOXIC SEWER POLLUTION PROBLEMS AND MAP RESTORATION SITES

The CSI Crime Victim: death by sewage asphyxiation

SACK ETT STRE ET

2012 - Balloon Aerial of the former site of Brouwer’s Farm, the oldest settled part of watershed.

FARM SPRING DIVERTED TO SEWER

2014 - Well cap discovered near large tree.

2014, April,

using high resolution DIY aerials, we discovered clues to buried streams

photo by Mikael Levin

Accountability - Meet your community mapper

Rob Buchanan / New York City Water Trail Citizens Water Testing Program

photo by Shan Jayakumar

PUBLIC LABORATORY FOR OPEN TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

we found springs that could be easily diverted from overloaded sewers and mapped a strategy for restoring urban streams

2012 Balloon aerial with “Ghost Stream” that revealed landfilled stream.

2011 Ice aerial of 4th Street Basin showing Vechte’s Brook melting ice in January.

LARGE TREE

but ice is melting.. Why ?

2011 - Vechte’s Brook - Gowanus Canal Conservancy Grassroots Mapper Hans Hesselein breaking the ice to clear a path for the balloon photography camera canoe team taking DIY aerial pictures of historic stream clues.

NEVIN

S STR

EET

2012 - Balloon Aerial of Denton’s Spring, a historical tidal mill water point: darker spring water is diluting milky sewage.

1880 map showing original now buried Gowanus streams.

Plants only growing here.. Why ? 2012 - Denton’s Spring

2014 - Staats Brook - After Gowanus stream are rediscovered, they are monitored for flow and quality by the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club as part of a City wide Citizen Science Water Quality Testing Program run by the New York City Water Trail.

TREES MATTER:

We found out that the largest trees in the watershed were often growing on old springs. Studying our high resolution balloon aerials for “CSI” clues prompted us to inspect local storm grates and shorelines. We found clean water from historic farm springs diverted into combined sewers, causing unnecessary pollution into the Gowanus Canal. Piecing together all these clues we were able to remap our forgotten streams.

CREEK SCENE INVESTIGATION

We reported these springs to the City as part of their Green Infrastructure Plan to reduce sewer overflows. As part of Community planning, Canal streets end with buried streams will be prioritized for Water Parks.

2014 - Prospect Park; Amara and Asha, detectives from Gowanus CSI (Creek Scene Investigation) have discovered that several watershed streams originate from artesian springs in Prospect Park, which may now be drained to combined sewers.

2014 - Map of the Reconstructed Historic Streams of the Gowanus Watershed with the CSI Forensics Team that made it possible

2012 - Atema Architecture / www.flowcollaborative.com Proposed gravity fed urban street creek system.

PUDDLES COUNT:

We discovered that most of our Parks and Playgrounds are built on landfilled farm ponds and springs. Our open spaces are great opportunities for better managing our rain water. 2012 - Grassroots Mapper launching a kite camera

18 June 2014 - White House Maker Faire

WWW.PUBLICLAB.ORG

Contact: eymund@gmail.com or liz@publiclaboratory.org

STREET CREEKS:

A planning strategy for rebuilding our streams


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