Facebook X Email Print Save Story Not long ago, the residents of Gowanus, in Brooklyn, began to notice that the smell of their canal, known for its unpleasant odor since the Gilded Age, had reached a new level of pungency. An ongoing Superfund cleanup, begun in 2020, along with the hubbub of development projects and the raw sewage that flows into the canal whenever it rains, had stirred up an unpredictable blend of contaminants. Ridding the waterway of its stinky pollutants is a years-long process.
For now, the city has a temporary fix: perfumery. The Department of Environmental Protection, with the help of what it calls an “odor-neutralizing misting system,” has been pumping citrus and “Christmas” scents near the canal—a civic version of the powder-room staple Poo-Pourri. Is it working? Maybe not.
The Christmas scent drew complaints for its cloying cinnamon notes. Frustrations boiled over last month at a virtual meeting of the Gowanus Advisory Board. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for fifty years,” one resident told the board.
“I’ve smelt bad . But I have never smelled the canal as bad as it is now.” On a recent afternoon, Raymond Matts, a fragrance designer (or “nose”) who once led various perfume departments at Estée Lauder and Elizabeth Arden, travelled to the canal’s banks to assess the situation.
From the Whole Foods parking lot, Matts got his first whiff of eau de Gowanus: he discerned a note of oak moss, similar to the base he’d used .