Page 47 - Demo

PHOENIX, Page SevenBalm For The Troubled Waters:StyOf Gcwanys Thon And NowS p e c ia l G o w a n u s C a n a l SectionJ a n u a r y 25, 1973%u25a0 %u25a0%u25a0 .%u25a0 %u25a0 ' .InsurgentsCommitteeKeep VigilTonight%u2019s (Jan. 25) meeting forcommunity discussion of theGowanus Canal, sponsored by theAd Hoc Committee to Clean theGowanus, will be held at theCarroll Park Library on Clintonand Union Sts. at 8 p.m. Thisgathering comes after years ofeffort by South Brooklyn peopleand organizations to promote official and community focus on thepolluted waterway. Now with thenew ecological orientation added tothe long time prodding by suchcitizens as Eileen Dugan, BuddyScotto and Father Anthony F'ailla,and the concentration on thesituation by newly elected officialsCarol Bellamy and Mike Pesce, thequestion of the canal has finallyachieved importance. With theawarding by the state of firstpriority to the building of the RedHook Sewage Plant, glimmers ofoptimism appear. However, thepeople who have worked and havepushed the situation before theeyes of the neighborhood and officialdom, warn that the project%u2019sbeginning, as well as eventualdevelopment of the areasurrounding the canal, is dependent on continued and evenstronger community interest andeffort.Eileen Dugan, chairwoman ofthe Ad Hoc Committee, becameinvolved in the determination toclean up the Gowanus five yearsago. A lifelong resident of CarrollGardens, she looked around at thattime and noted the new peoplemoving into the neighborhood.Since she cared for the communityand unlike other family members,had no plans to move away aftermarriage, she decided that as anold resident, she should %u201ccomeacross%u201d and do something. Thoughthe Ad Hoc Committee began thisfall, Dugan had been working withthe Carroll Gardens Associationsince her civic commitment in1968. Though it looked for yearslike nothing would ever be accomplished, she continued to attend meetings with the city andstate environmental protectionagencies. A setback which becamean advantage later, she feels cameafter the polarization of thecommunity during the GowanusHigh School situation three yearsago. Though she believed that thebuilding of a school on the canalwould force cleanup, she had notanticipated the antagonism to theschool building by some nearbyresidents and the resulting lack ofdesire to work on the canal.However her feelings of futility atthat time led her, and as she says,%u201ca group of us,%u201d to politics. Thoughskepticism still pervaded, theefforts of the members of the newlyformed IND club and the recentplection of proponents of canalcleanup, Mike Pesce and CarolBellamy, led to action she feels.%u2018Things are looking up now, sincethe state announced that thesewage project is first oriorityWith money and a positive attitudeand effort we can also get the canaldredged, though we want to focusnow on getting the Red Hook Plantbuilt,%u201d she said.The problem of cleaning anddredging the canal will come next.Although the Army Corps ofEngineers has refused to dredge at