Get this body of water a shot of penicillin.
Scientists have discovered that the long-contaminated Gowanus Canal is not just toxic, it’s also infected with gonorrhea.
The cringe-inducing find was revealed by New York City College of Technology biologist Dr. Niloufar Haque in this month’s Scienceline, an NYU publication.
While developers have envisioned the canal someday turning Brooklyn into a bit of Venice with idyllic gondola rides, Haque’s team found their own emergence of hanky-panky in the Gowanus’ waters.
“One group of students found gonorrhea in a water drop,” the professor told Scienceline.
It’s not the first time the toxic waterway – dubbed the Lavender Lake because of its oily, purplish hue – has come up positive with disease. In the mid-1970s, the channel was found to contain typhus, typhoid and cholera.
But after years of activists’ lobbying, the Gowanus Canal has made brilliant strides of late at limiting the presence of life-threatening diseases, let alone venereal ones.
In fact, in 2003, a seal was found swimming at the mouth of the channel.