For Elizabeth Hénaff, the Gowanus Canal is a problem, a lab, a thriving community and an artspace

Elizabeth Hénaff, a professor at NYU Tandon, keeps a jar of Gowanus sludge in her office. The Gowanus Canal is an EPA Superfund site and one of the country’s most polluted waterways due to a legacy of industrial use and sewer runoff. Included in the pollution is PAHs, PCBs, VOCs and heavy metals.

Hénaff started studying the microbiome of the Gowanus Canal after the EPA’s invasive remediation process was announced. Last year, her team did a genetic study of the canal, collecting samples via canoe with the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, and found a thriving community of microbes that have evolved to break down the canal’s pollution. Though these microbes may find application in other remediation projects, they work too slowly for the Gowanus Canal, which is in the middle of an increasingly residential neighborhood.