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Page Six, PHOENIXThe Continuing Gowanus StoryA 1^. I *, m mH I M C W DAnalysis:'Sleeper%u2019BY CORRINE COLEMANThe Gowanus Canal seems to have become the city%u2019s %u201cSleeper.%u201d lake those low-budget movies consigned to third string theaters that are suddenly discovered and promoted into the mainstream, the canal has been picked up and pushed into prominence, w'ith new champions out there seeking additional backers.After years of work by locals %u2014 like Buddy Scotto w'ho had to map the Gowanus location for city officials %u2014 like Eileen Dugan and Ira Irvine, who arranged meeting after meeting, pleading and pressuring for canal cleanup and ultimate development of the surrounding area %u2014 city, state and federal officers have at last begun to recognize the possibilities for the South Brooklyn waterway. And with this recognition has come an awareness by some of New York%u2019s Colleges of the canal%u2019s significance %u2014 in ecological and urban planning terms. %u2022The Committee for Redevelopment of the Gowanus, which was set up by Mayor Lindsay after the insistence on immediate action by 300 attendants at the Carroll Gardens Library Ad Hoc Gowanus Committee meeting last January, met for the third time last week. Headed by former City Planning Commission Chairman Don Elliot, the group celebrated the federal approval of funds to begin construction of the canal%u2019s Red Hook Sewer Treatment Plant. In addition, plans were made for two appearances in Washington; one on March 21 for discussion of dredging the waters with the Army Corps of Engineers, and the other on March 27 for another meeting with theC n u /n n u c W n t e r 1Tetanus,Cholera,Gas Gangrene,etc...A second series of standard microbiological tests conducted at New York City Community College has disclosed that the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn contains organisms that cause cholera, tetanus, gas gangrene, and other harmful communicable diseases.Earlier laboratory tests by microbiologists at the college showed that the foul-smelling canal, once the world's busiest commercial waterway, contains bacteria that produce typhoid fever, salmonella, and dysentery.Prof. Jeanne Holker, a microbiologist on the faculty of the biological sciences department, said the new finds should strengthen community pleas aimed at cleaning up the canal.For the past ten years local residents have been calling for the construction of a treatment plant that would halt the dumping of raw sewage into the once-pure tidal creek, where 300 years ago the Gowanus Indians held feasts on luscious clams and oysters.Last week the Federal Environmental Protection Administration approved an $11- million grant to build a two-mile sewer line and pumping station as a first step toward the projected $300 million treatment plant.Students enrolled in a Human Ecology Laboratory course assisted the faculty teams that collected scores of samples of Gowanus water during the winter months.Engineers, and a get together with the Federal Office of Management and the Budget.The committee of elected and appointed officials and South Brooklyn community leadership is moving ahead now in a cross factional togetherness in behalf of the Gowanus. Present at last week%u2019s meeting when Chairman Elliot expressed his assumption of the group%u2019s unity behind the shortterm goal of cleanup and a longrange plan emphasizing residential rather than industrial development were State Senator Carol Bellamy, City Council Majority Leader Thomas Cuite, State Assemblyman Mike Pesce, Councilwoman-At-Large Ruth Lerner, Tony Vaccarello, Asst, to Borough President Leone, City Water Resources Commissioner Martin Lang, Mayor%u2019s Task Force Chief Sam Azadian, President of Community School Board 15, Phillip Kaplan, plus SouthCRANLYN MEATSP r im e M e a t s a P o u l t r yF is h - S. a w. C a n G o o d sB a r -B -Q C h ic k e nWe DeliverP h o n e M A 4 - 1 0 7 0 1 0 2 H ic k s S t r e e tBrooklyn activists Dugan, Levine, Scotto, Joseph Bruno and Father George T. Voiland.Discussion, which will be continued over a series of meetings, began to focus on the specific concerns of members relating to the long-range planning. Questions of rezoning of commercial areas near the canal arose, as did suggestions for health and traffic studies. A special session, it was decided, will be devoted to the Gowanus Gas Works high school issue, which the board of education is said to be discussing now. According to Councilman Cuite, Chancellor Scribner is awaiting memos from board agencies about the Gas Works site, which has now been established as 9 and a half acres. A later meeting will concentrate on the traffic issue, Elliot said.With the recent publicity received by the Gowanus situation, students focusing on ecology and the urban mess have taken on the canal as an example of institutional neglect, which could, with proper concern, be redeveloped into a thriving residential, recreational and.Continued on Page 12Leone,Cuite to SeekMoney to DredgeEfforts to obtain a last minute amendment to the proposed 1973-1974 Capital Budget to obtain $500,000 in city funds to dredge the northern or nonnavigable portion of the Gowanus Canal were announced Monday by Borough President Sebastian Leone and Councilman Tom Cuite.According to Leone and Cuite, who will work for the amendment in the Board of Estimate and City Council, the purpose of pledging the city%u2019s half million dollars is to persuade the federal government, through the Army Corps of Engineers, to go forward with dredgingthe navigable portion of the canal running south fromthe President St. Bridge.%u201c The unsanitary condition of the Gowanus Canal has reached the stage where it is a public health menace of major proportions,\Leone and Cuite. The canal was last dredged in 1949 when it was under the jurisdiction of the Borough President%u2019s office.Raw sewage dumped in it politicians say conscionable to canal in this situated as it is trance to thehas been and both it is unleave the condition, at the enGowanCisr* *%u2605 **-*%u2605 *%u2605 %u2605 iSr * * * * * * * %u2605 il ik e to a m mFPAMFPST XflST?QUICk IV- CONVENILNTLV- REASONAgW%u2019 $ c r exafuptz; lbtx> uMode* *3GATHER Turn UP IH A BAG, MDte r n n iH to stevl 4, rawCLAM 6 W W S ts.IN r n ^ T . G f t O R Ws ry Motel , m5 * * * %u00b0 PEN 7 PAVS A wf r K ^ Y %u00a5 %u00a5 %u00a5 4 Y Y T T ^W illiam H. Van Vleck%u2022 WINES & FINE SPIRITSRecommended by116MontagueLowest DiscountLiquor Pricesi n m i#State ofNew YorkDelivery:M A S.ZAA AHouses and its thousands of residents. Leone and Cuite said they will go to Washington on March 21 as part of a Gowanus Canal Improvement Committee of which Donald H. Elliott, former City Planning Commissioner is Chairman, to try to prevail upon the Corps of Engineers to reconsider its refusal to dredge the navigable portion of the canal.\Cuite, %u201c the federal government has applied a formula which bans the expenditure of federal funds on a dredging project which does not have a dollar for dollar benefit to the shipping interests of the community.%u201dSATA 522-7330iKica%u00a9 m m m iA U CRIiT CARDS HONOft%u20acDALFREDO AtrurmMARIA ASENCIO173 COL!*?m o o k iy n , n r 11201