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Each year, during the annual New York City marathon, approximately 30,000 athletes cross the Pulaski Bridge. The Pulaski Bridge not only marks the halfway point of the marathon, it is also the most polluted and noxious waterway in the United States. The marathon walkers and runners will most likely notice the smell radiating up from the waters below, most will not know the name of the tributary they cross. In fact, many people do not realize that this waterway even exists.

This is Newton Creek – A murky estuary stretching some three and a half industrialized miles, which borders Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Maspeth, Queens. The shoreline of Newton Creek was once decorated with the mansions of the area’s wealthiest and was considered the perfect spot for shipbuilders. After the mansions came industries and refineries. What’s left over is now a toxic mix of raw sewage, floating oil from the nearby refineries as well as other noxious contaminates that bubble to the surface each time it rains.

For Newton Creek, February 12, 1933 marked the final voyage of the ferry that connected Greenpoint to Manhattan. With this last voyage went what many call the “glory days” of Newton Creek. While the ferry did not survive the Great Depression, the oil refineries continued to thrive.

Riverkeeper, an advocacy group that monitors the Hudson River, its tributaries as well as the watershed of New York City, is a watchdog group focused on tracking down and stopping polluters. Beginning in 1966, Riverkeeper has been working to improve, preserve and protect the waterways in and around New York.

According to one of Riverkeeper’s environmental reports, Newton Creek “fails to meet even the most basic goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Nearly the entire stretch of the Creek is heavily industrialized, there is virtually no public access and water-dependent industries have stagnated. A boat trip up the creek is a journey into the heart of darkness, with the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline as a reminder of its real world locale.”

Photo Credit: Santino DR

About every two weeks, Riverkeeper conducts river patrols, including the Hudson and East Rivers. During these patrols, workers take samples from the murky water. Samples taken from the waters around the ExxonMobil refinery have been determined to be almost pure oil. Riverkeeper takes samples from various places along Newton Creek – by the Pulaski, Greenpoint Avenue and Kosciuszko bridges as well as by the Peerless refinery.

Although samples taken from the East River, at the point where Newton Creek and the river meet, are considered the cleanest, layers of floating oil can still be found. At this point in the river, there is still enough life-sustaining oxygen, which allows fish to survive. Like us, fish require sufficient oxygen to thrive, and, it is important to note, that at various spots along New York’s Newton Creek, there is zero oxygen.

The reason there is no oxygen present at different locations along the Creek is that there is no source of fresh, oxygenated water. No exchange of water can take place because Newton Creek is simply too far away from East River. In fact, the only watery substance that flows into the Creek originates from sewage pipes. In other words, the water of Newton Creek is overrun with toxic bacteria.

At some point in the future, the State Department of Environmental Conservation plans to create a system that will oxygenate the Creek’s water. With those plans still in the very distant future, some of New York City’s municipal raw sewage also seeps into Newton Creek. Combine this sewage with the already highly contaminated and impure water and you will find no place capable of sustaining life.

Occasionally and as expected, fish are pushed up stream by strong waves and powerful winds. They do not survive long. When birds land on the water and attempt to drink or feed, they swallow the tainted water, which poisons the birds. The birds, in turn, innocently spread the contamination. With the toxic waste adhering to their bodies and wings, wherever the birds fly next will receive a dose of the same contamination found in Newton Creek.

TOXIC FUMES AT GREENPOINT

Polluted water is not the only health hazard found at Newton Creek. When the rain comes, water is absorbed deep into the already tainted ground. As it seeps deeper and deeper, it eventually reaches and further contaminates the groundwater. The groundwater in Greenpoint, Brooklyn is deemed useless.

Photo Credit: Santino DR

The fumes and vapors from raw sewage and oil spills are not only horrible to smell, they also present another potential health hazard. Those who work in local factories as well as area residents and business owners must inhale the potentially dangerous fumes. Interestingly, no research has been done to determine the composition of the fumes at Newton Creek.

It appears that nobody in authority wants to reveal what contaminates are really in the water and the vapors that engulf the Creek. Newton Creek’s pollution problems, and there are many, fall under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Apparently, either they don’t know or they aren’t talking.

The problem will likely remain until there are more defined answers and until the nature of all contaminates, including their irresponsible sources, are revealed.

A WORM IN THE BIG APPLE

It seems odd that the most highly contaminated tributary in the United States is in the heart of New York City. Newton Creek’s dirty little secret remained undetected for so long because not many people actually knew about it. In fact, even Riverkeeper found out about the Creek by accident.

Many lower income families rely on fish taken from the East River for food. In an attempt to find the most popular fishing spot and get the City Council to erect warning signs, Riverkeeper workers were patrolling the shore of East River. The goal was to stop people from eating the tainted fish, which are full of poisonous contaminates. It was during this patrol that the Riverkeeper patrol stumbled onto Newton Creek.

A LESSON IN HISTORY

Big industries have long been blamed for the pollution of Newton Creek. Government regulations prohibiting companies along Newton Creek from ignorantly dumping vast amounts of industrial wastes right in the Creek were not implemented until 1972.

The pollution of Newton Creek actually commenced some 150 years after the first European settlers reached Maspeth, New York in 1642. The eastern edge of Maspeth abuts Newton Creek and was developed into a highly industrial and commercial area. After the Revolutionary War, New York was developing economically and the business of trade was gaining strength along Newton Creek. There were agriculture fields, residential homes and a growing number of factories and shops where rope and various chemical products were manufactured.

The start of the 19th century marked a high point in the shipbuilding industry. Beginning in the 1840s and continuing throughout the Civil War, hundreds of ships were brought to life on Newton Creek. It was not until the Industrial Revolution that the shipbuilding industry began to slow down.

Shipbuilding was replaced by new oil refineries and various textile industries. The new booming industries made barge and ship traffic on Newton Creek extremely heavy. The only other river in America more congested and busy was the Mississippi.

As early as 1889, the New York Times began writing of Newton Creek’s squalor. A committee of concerned New Yorkers created the Brooklyn’s Smelling Committee in 1891. They called the Creek the most foul-smelling area in the entire city. Brooklyn’s Smelling Committee recorded that there were “piles of rotten meat from local butchers.” This was just the beginning.

Newton Creek’s pollution crisis intensified with the increasing number of refineries. The first kerosene refinery was started in 1854, and, by the end of the 19th century, the country’s highest concentration of industrial factories could be found in Long Island City. The state’s population boomed as thousands moved to communities along Newton Creek to find jobs. They found work in sugar mills, cooperages, textile factories and, of course, the refineries.

By 1880, there were already 50 refineries on Long Island City’s side of Newton Creek. Each of these refineries only compounded the already declining condition of the water. Each refinery is said to have poured roughly 30,000 gallons of toxic material in the Creek. Disaster was imminent.

Starting at some point in the 1940s, oil began spilling into the sewage pipes along Newton Creek. Eventually, the spilled covered a span of nine acres. On October 5, 1950, an explosion was prompted by the oily mess. Windows of at least 500 area residents and businesses were shattered and some 25 sewer covers flew as high as three stories in the air.

The massive explosion caused 17 million gallons of oil to spill into the earth. This enlarged the size of the entire spill to cover 55 acres. The size of Newton Creek’s spill continued to grow and is now said to be six times larger than that of Alaska’s legendary Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.

Oil first started leaking into ground water in the Greenpoint area during the beginning of the 20th century. This began after, and as a result of, the arrival of Standard Oil, ExxonMobil and BP Amoco to Newton Creek. Of course, the explosion intensified the already toxic situation.

Amazingly, there has been very little effective cleanup action. Even with the obvious floating oil covering the Creek’s surface and black, shiny grease along the shoreline, nothing substantial was ever done to remedy the problem. However, from the beginning of this sickening problem, the undisputable stench of oil permeated Newton Creek’s neighborhoods giving little question about the murky substance in the water and along the shoreline.

City officials first learned of the oil spill in 1950, when the powerful Greenpoint explosion erupted. As it happened, gasoline seeped into a sewer and somehow was ignited. It took almost 30 additional years for the problem to be rediscovered.

It was in 1978. A Coast Guard pilot on a routine patrol just happened to notice the vast oil spill. Further investigation revealed that this spill was actually part of a massive oil spill, which originated from oil tanks coming directly from an Exxon facility.

According to Riverkeeper, because ExxonMobil ignored the oil spill, the Creek’s environmental problems aggressively expanded. To date, the Newton Creek spill extends from Greenpoint Avenue to beyond the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The oily slime that plagues the Creek measures anywhere between 30 centimeters to 3 meters thick.

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

Finally, in 1990, the corporations responsible for and that owned the polluted sites were ordered to start the cleanup process. The cleanup process, however, was and still is not very successful. If clean up would have been ordered shortly after the explosion in 1950, maybe Newton Creek could have been salvaged. But, as it turned out, very little was done to improve the Creek’s condition for 40 years.

While not everyone knew about the spill, those who did know about the disaster seemed not to care. The huge corporations responsible were in the business of making money by selling millions of gallons of oil yearly. They showed little concern for the poor, immigrant neighborhoods along Newton Creek.

To date, among the companies deemed responsible for the cleanup are PB Products North America (previously Amoco Oil Company) and ExxonMobil. These corporations were ordered to use pumping stations, which collect water and separate out the oil. The oil is then placed in barrels and the supposed “free” product is eventually sent to refineries in New Jersey. This is a very slow-moving process.

It was not until 1990 that ExxonMobil signed a consent order from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, ExxonMobil repeatedly made and broke promises and ignored legal orders to clean up their mess at Newton Creek.

Riverkeeper continues a legal battle with ExxonMobil and the other responsible corporations. Along with Exxon and PB Products North America (previously Amoco Oil Company) are Texaco (previously Paragon Oil) and Peerless Importers. Each corporation is accused of negligently storing, transporting and/or disposing of oil, petroleum, petroleum products, oil additives, petroleum additives, petroleum product additives, gasoline, gasoline additives, such as lead, benzene, toluene, xylene, kerosene, refinery oil, solvents, and other hazardous chemicals.

As a result of their actions (or inactions), these corporations have caused devastating pollution along the Newton Creek shoreline. They have also caused damage to an estimated 230 homes and 80 businesses. Local Newton Creek residents and business owners are still being affected by contaminated soil, water pollution and air pollutants.

Riverkeeper still patrols Newton Creek by helicopter and by boat. Even now, with the level of the Creek’s contamination well known and more highly publicized, many companies still blatantly dump hazardous, toxic chemicals into Newton Creek.

In addition to the oil spill, Empire Transit Mix, a concrete manufacturer in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally dumping concrete slurry into the creek. Riverkeeper also sued Maspeth Concrete Loading for similarly dumping concrete, which changes the pH balance of water and kills fish.

Riverkeeper continues to fight big corporations who pollute Newton Creek. As recently as January 25, 2007, they began a new legal fight with ExxonMobil. This most recent case of blatant pollution alleges that ExxonMobil is discharging toxic chemicals into Newtown Creek from two pipes without required federal Clean Water Act permits.

It is obvious that much more needs to be done to prevent big companies from polluting the environment time and time again.