Newtown Creek Superfund Bound

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    Did you know that more oil has leaked into the Newtown Creek, the waterway separating Brooklyn and Queens, than was spilled from the Exxon Valdez? Yup. The Valdez dumped 11 million gallons into the ocean while somewhere between 17 and 30 million gallons have seeped into the four-mile-long creek in recent decades. The impact is more subtle than in the gulf, Phillip Musegaas, a lawyer with the environmental group Riverkeeper that sued ExxonMobil in 2004, told The Times. The spill is unseen, and it’s in an area that was industrialized and already polluted. But the waterway is severely stressed, and it’s not a functioning ecosystem anymore. As a result, the federal government is considering placing the creek in the Superfund program—just like it did the Gowanus Canal—as soon as next month. Bloomberg supports the Newtown one, and there are no major real estate developments that would be derailed by the estimated ten-year clean-up.
    Between Queens and Brooklyn, an Oil Spill’s Legacy [NY Times]
    Photo by astoria4u

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