A spill grows in Brooklyn

NEWTOWN CREEK, which separates Brooklyn from Queens, is nowhere near as picturesque as its name suggests. The 3.5-mile (5.6km) waterway is flanked by industrial buildings and warehouses. There is little, if any, marine life. Much of the surrounding land is considered to be a brownfield zone. The only people on the river are on the gridlocked bridge overhead. The creek is coated with an oil spill that floats on the contaminated water.

After decades of neglect, the state is at last intervening. Last week Andrew Cuomo, New York's attorney-general, filed a suit against Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest privately-owned company, to force a faster clean-up of the spill. It is about one-and-a-half times bigger than the infamous one caused by the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11m gallons of oil off the Alaskan coast in 1989. The Brooklyn spill is estimated to have been at least 17m gallons (64m litres) at one stage, extending over 100 acres (40 hectares). It still covers about 55 acres.

According to the complaint, a swarm of toxic pollutants is being discharged, including benzene, arsenic and lead. Tests also indicate that methane, an explosive gas, is in vapours near the spill. Some think the oil has been leaking since the early 1900s. A 1950 industrial explosion exacerbated the problem. It was ignored until the Coast Guard “rediscovered” it in 1978, and determined that the oil was coming from nearby refineries and storage facilities. It was not until 1990 that Exxon Mobil, the company primarily responsible for the spill, signed a consent agreement with the state to clean up the creek.
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