Case Studies — Newtown Creek
Ask people where the largest oil spill in America took place and the likely answer is Alaska and the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. The actual answer is much closer to home for most Americans: Brooklyn, New York, to be exact. Possibly more than twice the size of the Exxon Valdez incident, the underground spill into Newtown Creek began as early as the 1940s and has yet to be cleaned up.
Newtown Creek, a tributary of the East River, is approximately 3.5 miles in length and forms part of the boundary between Brooklyn and Queens. South of the creek lies the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Immediately adjacent to the creek the land is largely industrial in development but there also some residential neighborhoods. How and why this dangerous situation continues to exist is a powerful example of the failure of government and industry to respond to the needs of generations of people denied environmental justice.
Here are some of the significant milestones in the drama that was and still is Newtown Creek:
1950 — On October 5, Greenpoint shook with the blast of a huge underground explosion at the Standard Oil Company plant next to Newtown Creek. The blast ripped out a ten-foot section of pavement, shot twenty-five manhole covers into the air and shattered the windowpanes on more than 500 buildings. City officials investigating the explosion found that gasoline had seeped into the sewer and ignited. The tanks had been leaking throughout the 1940s and the explosion exacerbated the seepage into the ground beneath the creek. Little or nothing was done to contain the seepage. Through mergers and acquisitions, the plant is now owned by Exxon Mobil.
1978 — U.S. Coast Guard helicopter patrols identified oil slicks on Newtown Creek. At least 17 million and possibly as much as 25-30 million gallons of oil have spilled underground and contaminated dozens of businesses and approximately 238 residential units affecting approximately 1000 people, making it the largest oil spill in American history (the Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska entailed 11 million gallons over a period about one-sixth the size).
1979 — A report by the Coast Guard found that most of the spilled oil products layed on top of the water table in a layer ranging in thickness from a few inches to almost 20 feet. The product contained a mixture of degraded gasoline, fuel oil, and naphtha dating back to 1948, two years before the October, 1950 explosion. The Coast Guard attributed responsibility for the spill primarily to the Standard Oil refinery. Only 50-70% of the spill was thought to be recoverable.
1981 — After completing the 1979 report, the Coast Guard claimed its authority in the matter had expired and transferred jurisdiction to the city and state. Two years of inaction ensued until 1981, when Mobil, Amoco, the Coast Guard, and state and city agencies entered into a memorandum of understanding establishing the Meeker Avenue Task Force, which operated a single recovery well on Meeker Avenue. The group rarely met while oil continued to plume unabated into Newtown Creek.
1990 — Virtually no action was taken until 1990, when the state of New York entered into a consent decree with Exxon Mobil. The deal lacked timelines for cleanup, benchmarks, mitigation measures for residents, and penalties for non-compliance. Not surprisingly, Exxon Mobil has dragged its feet in complying with the consent decree. Five years would transpire before any clean-up efforts on the majority of the spill area were initiated. By 2003, according to Exxon Mobil only about four million gallons had been recovered.
2004 — Riverkeeper and six residents of Brooklyn and Queens sued Exxon Mobil under the federal Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The litigation is presently ongoing.
2006 — Introduced in 2005, passed in June, 2006 and signed by President Bush in July, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006 mandated an EPA study of the determine the public health risks of pollution from the oil spill. On October 16, Senator Charles Schumer, Representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez and several local officials announced the EPA study of Newtown Creek, which is to be completed by July, 2007. In addition to the EPA study, which will assess Newtown Creek's soil, water and air to determine the oil spill's health impact on local residents, the legislators are also calling for comprehensive testing to document the prevalence of Methane and Benzene vapors produced by the spill. The legislators also called for creation of a health registry for local residents following news the day before that four cases of the rare sarcoma bone cancer were identified in Greenpoint. Funding for the study will come from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
References:
"Newtown Creek: The Greenpoint Oil Spill, Brooklyn," Riverkeeper, Inc.
"The Invisible Creek," PBS P.O.V. Borders website