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July 14, 2008

Pols on Newtown: Superfund Us!


Yesterday Reps Anthony Weiner, Nydia Velázquez and residents held a press conference calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to be declare the Newtown Creek a Superfund site. New York Shitty was on the scene and took the video above. "We are standing amidst the largest environmental disaster in American history," said Weiner, "We are standing above a subterranean oil and chemical spill that covers dozens of acres, up to 55 acres, in this area." As the Times notes, between 17 to 30 million gallons of petroleum are estimated to have been spilled in the creek and its surrounding area over the course of more than a century, and a recent study found that vapors from the spill could affect nearby homes and businesses. According to the Daily News, Superfund designation would start a cleanup process that would take more than a decade and result in up to $15 million in federal cleanup funds.
Press Conference At Newtown Creek [NY Shitty]
Lawmakers Ask E.P.A. to Help with Creek Cleanup [NY Times]
Lawmakers Want Feds to Declare Newtown Creek a Superfund Site [Daily News]
Video by NY Shitty.




Posted by Gabby at 9:00 AM | Comments (7)
Categories: Environmental, Greenpoint, Queens

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Comments

About time. It's ridiculous it's taken so long to do anything about this. Not ridiculous, Crazy!

Posted by: guestula at July 14, 2008 9:23 AM

$15 million? These things always end up costing at least twice as much as expected. Money well spent though.

Posted by: itsagas at July 14, 2008 9:30 AM

As a Greenpointer, I think we should show a little pride in our poisoned creek. I'm thinking of Brazil boasting that the deforested Amazon beat the Sahara as the world's largest desert in Ignacio de Loyola Brandao's 'And Still the Earth'...

Posted by: deadnancy at July 14, 2008 10:11 AM

Oh, and this:

In the same way you can't have Love Canal with the LOVE, you can't have a Superfund without the SUPER!

Posted by: deadnancy at July 14, 2008 10:20 AM

Between this, cleaning up the Gowanus, and kicking the auto biz out of Willets Point, there won't be any industrial wasteland left!

Posted by: Carol Gardens at July 14, 2008 10:24 AM

17 million gallons is about 550,000 barrels. That's about $80,000,000 in oil right there at today's prices. Maybe even twice that.

Sounds like this cleanup project could be profitable for someone.

Posted by: Polemicist at July 14, 2008 12:16 PM

And they wanted to put the Olympic village here? That would have been interesting. I wonder how many athletes would have flunked a drug test due to the unknown toxins in the air?

What's next? An eating contest at Fresh Kills? How about Dupont's Hudson river triathlon - first to swim, vomit and die wins a lifetime supply of teflon cookware.

Speaking of which - on an aside - why the hell are people still fishing in the Hudson and East River? I saw someone with a rod and reel in Brooklyn Bridge park two weeks ago. Sewage spills out near there when it rains. Enjoy your dinner!

People should not live anywhere near Newtown or Gowanus. I'm not some environmental nut job, but I do not understand why people are paying good $$ to live in these toxic areas.

Posted by: Knickerbocker at July 14, 2008 1:25 PM

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