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That's what State Comptroller Alan Hevesi is asking. He advised the Department of Environmental Conservation not to negotiate an agreement with Exxon over the Greenpoint oil spill clean up because the spill needs to be thoroughly examined. Back in 1978, a Coast Guard pilot noticed an oil plume off Newtown Creek: It turned out that 17 million gallons (more than the 11 million from the Exxon Valdez spill) of oil had been spilling since the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1978, the spill covered 55 acres. We've found it odd that the Greenpoint oil spill hasn't been a bigger deal - maybe that's because there aren't any photographs of Alaskan animals in an oil slick - but it's possibly scarier, as it the oil has been seeping into the soil and exposed in an urban area.
Hevesi included photographs (1, 2, 3) showing that oil is not being contained by "booms," and says that the Oil Spill Fund, the NY Environmental Protection and Spill Compensation Fund, should pay for a more extensive public study of the spill and the damage it has caused. And, of course, the oil companies would have to pay the Oil Spill Fund back if necessary.
The Riverkeeper Group filed a lawsuit on behalf of Greenpoint residents in 2004: Check out the Residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn V. Exxon lawsuit website - it has tons of documents and maps. The New Yorker in 2004 and Village Voice last month looked at this little-known spill; NPR also covered it, because the area of the spill was one of the sites for the NYC 2012 Olympic bid. And Erin Brockovich (the real one) is working on the case, too.
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Since the Exxon Valdez I have purchased a total of 2 tanks of Exxon (and later Mobil after the merger) fuel. I avoid all Exxon products.
I recommend all NYers do the same in light of this development. I also bought a Hybrid to save more fuel.
what I'd like to know, and can never find in any of the accounts, is how safe is the water in Greenpoint as a result of this spill? My landlord says to avoid it, but I can't find anything online saying it is or isn't full of oily toxins.
NYC gets it's drinking water from upstate reservoirs, not ground water, so it has nothing to do with the spill.
The oil spill is a decades old story, and since Greenpoint, Brooklyn has a 10% lower cancer rate than the rest of NYC according to the NYC Dept. of Health Study (see NYC.gov), I believe the story may have popped up again due to developers looking to get property cheap by using scare tactics. It's funny how that oil spill story popped up again after all these years, just when the neighborhood was rezoned and redevelopment has started. Very Curious. It sould also be noted that the oil spill is almost entirely under industrially zoned land reaching just a block or two of residentially zoned land. The rezoned waterfront, the historic district and the area where the olympics were to be held are no where near this industrial section where the spill reached.
I understand where NYC's water comes from, however, the pipes still go through the ground that is soaked in oil. Hence the concern.
Industrial land or not, the spill is 2 blocks from our apartment as well as being close to hundreds of other people's apartments. This is a neighborhood concern and the people affected are certainly not trying to devalue their own property. Not every issue in NYC is created by shady real estate developers, despite what people constantly looking for conspiracy theories may think.
The old "we get our water from upstate" argument is ridiculous, oil spill or not. I love the thinking that the water travels magically and is protected by elves from any impurities, or something.
The old "we get our water from upstate" argument is ridiculous, oil spill or not. I love the thinking that the water is untouched by anything and protected by elves or something.