Clean water advocate swims through Newtown Creek

A man swam through Newtown Creek Wednesday morning to campaign for clean water in the city. Christopher Swain, a clean water advocate, braved toxic sludge and dangerous bacteria and viruses like gonorrhea

News 12 Staff

Dec 24, 2015, 3:52 AM

Updated 3,290 days ago

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A man swam through Newtown Creek Wednesday morning to campaign for clean water in the city.
Christopher Swain, a clean water advocate, braved toxic sludge and dangerous bacteria and viruses like gonorrhea when he swam in Newtown Creek.
Swain calls the 3-mile swim one of the most disgusting he has ever done.
His goal by swimming in the creek is to bring attention to the pollution and push for a full cleanup of Newtown Creek.
The entire length of the Newtown Creek Superfund site is being cleaned up by the federal government after being home to one of the largest oil spills in America.
"So whatever it takes to clean up the sewage, whatever it takes to clean up the oil, whatever it takes to fix the storm drain systems so we don't have floating trash in here, I think we owe that to ourselves," says Swain.
This is not the first time Swain has swam in polluted water. In April, he swam the Gowanus Canal, which is labeled a Superfund site in need of being cleaned by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Swain says he wants all city waterways to be safe and swimmable every day.