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Earlier this year, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi asked that the Department of Environmental Conservation not negotiate a settlement agreement with ExxonMobil about a 1978 oil spill of 17 million gallons (bigger than the Valdez spill) off Newtown Creek. And now, tests that the DEC performed show there are "elevated levels of the carcinogen benzene and the potentially combustible gas methane in the soil". Oh, dear.
There will be a public hearing to discuss the new findings on September 27 at 92 Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn, 7PM. Read the DEC's press release on the findings here and what the environmental group Riverkeeper, which sued over the spill, is doing here.
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1978? I thought the major spill was in the late 1940's or 50's, when some underwater tanks ruptured. Were there two?
Cancer Cluster--- NY Post and Senator Schumer Mislead Where It Is Leaving Williamsburg Residents at Risk
As reported in the NY Post on Oct 15th by Angela Montefinise, reiterated by Senator Charles Schumer at a press conference on October 16 and posted on his website, there is a potential cancer cluster in Greenpoint on Devoe Street, near an oil spill that these cases are reported to be potentially linked to. However, three cases of an extremely rare sarcoma cancer are actually on a single block in Williamsburg (where Devoe Street is and nowhere near the oil spill, not even in the same zip code). One more case is five blocks away and even further away from Greenpoint and the oil spill. In fact, one victim got cancer after residing in the same apartment as an unrelated cancer victim and previous tenant. Sarcomas are a very rare form of cancer, and as reported in the Post article, "You don't see three in one block," Dr. Isaac Eliaz, a California expert on metal detoxification, said. "Someone should be paying attention to this." Dr. Kanti Rai, chief of oncology at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, agreed that it was "worth an investigation." Unfortunately, the Senator is calling for a health study with regard to the oil spill and is ignoring a potentially very serious heath disaster in the Williamsburg community. Neighborhood Roots has reached out numerous times to Senator Schumer's Washington office's communications director Eric Schultz, and Bret Rumbeck who handles environmental issues for the Senator, with no calls being returned. Curiously, at the same press conference Congressman Anthony Weiner stated that Greenpoint has a 25% higher asthma rate than the rest of the city. The only problem is that the two health studies done by the state and city show the asthma rate in Greenpoint to be between 25% and 50% lower than the rest of the city along with a 10% lower cancer rate. Where are they higher? You guessed it- Williamsburg. The State DEC is aware of toxic industrial sites in Willliamsburg near Devoe Street that could potentially be the cause of these rare cancers, but no one is calling for that study.
"Instead, there seems to be a no holds barred attack on Greenpoint and a blatant disregard for the health concerns of the Willamsburg community", says John Kupiec, founder of Neighborhood Roots, who wonders if Sen. Shumer and Congressman Weiner are in the pocket of Williamsburg real estate developers trying to cover up a serious health concern that may hinder the sales of their luxury condo developments. "Public officials are to serve and protect life and property- not serve and protect property of their cronies." Neighborhood Roots questions whether the recent support of massive residential development in Williamsburg and the historic resistance from Brooklyn politicians (including Borough President Marty Markowitz and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez) to residential development along the recently rezoned Greenpoint waterfront has anything to do with this dissemination of lies.