The activation of the Flushing Tunnel is the culmination of a project begun in 1994. The plan called for improving water quality by bringing aerated water from Buttermilk Channel (between Brooklyn and Governors Island) in the East River to be pumped into the head end of the Gowanus Canal at Butler Street.

The Canal was authorized for construction in 1849 as part of New York City’s efforts to improve navigation around the city. After its completion in the late 1860s, the Canal became an active waterway, crucial to the development of commerce and industry in the thriving city. But the two-mile waterway suffered from the boom in manufacturing and residential communities that bordered it. Inadequate systems for sewage disposal and unlimited discharge of raw sewage into its waters transformed the Canal into a polluted, stagnant eyesore. The Flushing Tunnel was built in 1911, containing a propeller that pulled water from Buttermilk Channel. It operated until the mid-1960s when a mechanical failure suspended service, causing the Canal to return to its polluted state. Since then, repairs to the tunnel were postponed several times due to the city’s fiscal crises. Click Here to See a Close-Up Diagram of the new system.