EPA Confirms Extent of Exxon Oil Spill Under Greenpoint

The EPA has finally confirmed what environmentalists have said all along: the Exxon-Mobil oil spill sloshing around under Greenpoint is significantly larger than the originally estimated 17 million gallons. It could, in fact, be as large as 30 million gallons. The EPA also reported the results of testing, including the fact that methane gas is present in some industrial buildings (much of the spill is under an industrial part of Greenpoint) and that chemical vapors were found in all of the properties that were tested. The report clocks in at 85 pages and the Daily News has posted it for those who wish to peruse the many unsettling findings. The EPA did not do any of its own mapping of “the free-product plume.” The exact boundaries of the oil flow are not entirely known.

Links:
Brooklyn oil spill may be larger, leaking toxins into homes [NYDN]
EPA says Brooklyn oil spill may be larger than previously thought [Metro]

Exxon Mobil Greenpoint Oil Spill Suit Filed 56 Years Later

No one will ever accuse New York State of acting precipitously in going after Exxon Mobil for the awful oil spill into Newtown Creek and under Greenpoint. A lawsuit to force a faster cleanup and to impose fines was finally filed yesterday. The spill is one of the worst ever in the United States, an estimated 17-30 million gallons. (The Exxon Valdez only spilled 11 million gallons.) Until the suit was filed, the cleanup had been conducted under agreements with the state that had led to a very slow cleanup of the mess. While much of the spill is bubbling around under industrial parts of Greenpoint, it has impacted residential areas and its exact boundaries aren’t even known. The suit would force a faster cleanup and impose millions of dollars in fines. BP, Chevron, KeySpan and Phelps Dodge (which operated a nearby copper smelter) are also named in the suit. The spill originated with an explosion in the 1950s that ruptured oil storage tanks; the Coast Guard “discovered” it in 1978.

Few People Show for the Exxon-Mobil Greenpoint Oil Spill Briefing

Only a handful of people turned up for the three meetings held yesterday at the Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Plant on the big, underground Exxon-Mobil spill in Greenpoint. That could be because the Department of Environmental Conservation did little to publicize the events or because they were held at the off-putting sewage treatment facility, which is both imposing, malodorous and a bit off the beaten path. The underground spill is estimated at 17-30 million gallons and only about 20-30 percent of it has been cleaned up. Its exact boundaries are unknown as the oil move around on the water table underground.

Our Greenpoint correspondent attended, however, and filed a full report on the briefing. She noted that attendees were required to sign in at three separate locations just to gain access to the meeting room. The DEC said that air sampling in neighborhood homes had found no evidence of vapor from the spill. In fact, chemical vapors were only found in two homes. The presence of the Tetrachloroethylene was due to improper disposal of dry cleaning
chemicals, likely from a dry cleaner close to the homes in question.

The DEC did not test every home in the residential areas above the spill. Some residents did not allow DEC into their homes and some landlords could not be reached. The department does not intend to do any follow up monitoring in homes, but will continue to do air sampling. Air samples are said to be “in line” with the rest of the city. The department said that it will do more testing of industrial properties in areas above the underground spill. Officials are reported to have been evasive about any efforts to map the spill beyond its reported boundaries and about investigating pools of underground oil that may exist outside the recognized spill area.

Learn About the Big Exxon/Mobil Oil Spill in Greenpoint

Here’s your chance to question officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation about the massive Exxon/Mobil Oil Spill in Newtown Creek and Greenpoint. (17-30 million gallons depending on the estimate you accept.) It takes place today (June 19) at the the Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant (329 Greenpoint Ave at Humboldt Street), which is a sight to behold in and of itself and frightening in an industrial sort of way. DEC will hold three informational sessons regarding the oil spill. The first runs from 10AM-Noon, the second from 2PM-4PM and the third from 6PM-7PM. Residents and interested parties are invited to attend and ask questions about what DEC and the state are–or are not–doing to clean up one of the nation’s worst oil spills.

Greenpoint Oil Spill: A Traveling Blob the Size of Tribeca

One of the truisms of life in Brooklyn is that every few months, one can look forward to another long and detailed story about the large and nasty Exxon/Mobil Oil Spill in Greenpoint. So it is with the new New York Magazine, which contains a long, detailed and engaging story about North Brooklyn’s 17-30 million gallon underground oil horror. What we like most about the New York article isn’t all the research and detail, it’s the excellent way in which the spill is described. For instance:

To see the extent of the problem, imagine a viscous tar-colored blob stretching amoebalike through the Earth. It starts where Meeker Avenue hits Newtown Creek, seeping out into the waterway. From there it extends south and steadily deeper under the Brooklyn soil, reaching a depth of about 40 feet. It’s contained from below by the groundwater in the Brooklyn-Queens aquifer: The oil is repelled by the water, so the muck “floats” on top. Like the Blob in the eponymous Steve McQueen movie, it keeps changing shape and moving—bulging south beyond the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, slithering north toward Greenpoint Avenue, ballooning west to at least Monitor Street. This black lagoon fills the nooks and crannies in the gravel, sand, and silt that characterize the soil of the area, pooling in pockets that range from just centimeters thick to natural vats that are 25 feet deep. The contaminated zone encompasses at least 55 acres of northern Brooklyn—an area roughly the size of Tribeca.

The article delves into the history of the spill, the public sector’s lack of action and the debate about whether the oil spill has led to higher cancer rates in the parts of Greenpoint beneath which it lurks (fortunately, the bulk is beneath industrial sections, but it is believed to be encroaching further into residential areas beyond the points at which it is known to be). Definitely make it your fun long reading of the week.

Greenpoint Exxon Oil Spill Show Rescheduled

In case you thought you missed it, or in case you didn’t know about it, the WNET 13 New York Voices show on the nasty Exxon Oil Spill in Greenpoint was postponed from Friday May 4 until Friday May 11. It will air at 10PM. Here’s some of the promo copy:

For over 50 years, residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, have been living on top of an astonishing 17 million gallon oil spill that contaminated the waters of Newtown Creek, left behind from the oil refinery industry in the 40’s and 50’s, and seeped into the surrounding land. Many residents are claiming that they and the people around them are sick with cancer as a result of the spill, yet little has been done to rectify this situation.

Of all the Brooklyn environmental issues–and there are many serious ones in other neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Gowanus that get little coverage–the Greenpoint Oil Spill and its 17-30 million gallons of underground oil is one of the nastier ones.

Greenpoint Oil Spill TV Redux

Any coverage of the awful Exxon-Mobil Greenpoint Oil Spill is to be applauded, and so we were interested to get an email from WNET announcing a definite Tivo moment: an episode of New York Voices on the Greenpoint Oil Spill this Friday, May 4 at 10 PM.

The email about the show says:

For over 50 years, residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, have been living on top of an astonishing 17 million gallon oil spill that contaminated the waters of Newtown Creek, left behind from the oil refinery industry in the 40’s and 50’s, and seeped into the surrounding land. Many residents are claiming that they and the people around them are sick with cancer as a result of the spill, yet little has been done to rectify this situation…

New York Voices joins chief investigator Basil Seggos from RiverKeeper, an environmental watch group, on a tour of Newtown Creek. Seggos discusses the damage caused by the 17 million gallons of oil (50 percent more than the amount that saturated Alaska’s coast from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill), and the danger this kind of pollution poses to the surrounding areas, homes, businesses and people of Brooklyn and Queens. Riverkeeper is suing ExxonMobil, among others, to hold the corporation responsible for the spill and enforce a long over-due clean-up.

Greenpoint residents are frustrated with the lack of attention given to the spill. They believe there is a strong connection to the alarming trend among family members and neighbors who are sick with cancer and the oil vapors and toxic soil found under their homes. The New York Health Department has known about the spill since 1978 but they have never conducted an official health study…

Should be interesting viewing. Speaking of which, if you didn’t catch the superb vbs.tv series on environmental issues in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, make sure you watch the seven episodes of Toxic Brooklyn. Knowledge may not change anything, but at least, you know.

Watch Episode 7 of "Toxic Brooklyn"

Here’s Episode Seven of the superb vbs.tv series Toxic Brooklyn. If you haven’t seen it already, click on the embed. Find all the episodes by clicking over here.

Watch VBS TV’s "Toxic Brooklyn," Episode 6

The excellent vbs.tv series called “Toxic Brooklyn” on the environmental issues in Greenpoint and Williamsburg continues with a focus on the horrendous Exxon-Mobil Greenpoint Oil Spill, the impact on the health of residents and the virtual acceptance of the situation by local, state and federal government over many decades. Episode 6 is below. You can catch Episode 5 (also about the oil spill) here. They put a very human face on an environmental mess that has not gotten the attention it deserves.