Alaska's Prince William Sound or Brooklyn's Newtown Creek?
by Eric Kane, New York, NY on 01. 5.07
The Exxon Valdez incident will always be etched in the collective memory as one of the most horrendous environmental disasters of the last half century. At the very least, the 1989 oil spill into Alaska's Prince William Sound was a vivid example of one risk associated with our dangerous dependence on oil. However, residents of the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn are quick to note that they are literally sitting on an oil spill of greater proportion that has garnered far less attention.
In the late 1800s, Greenpoint housed more than 50 refineries, which by 1892 were primarily controlled by Standard Oil, an Exxon Mobil predecessor. Although it remains unclear when the spills started, leaking gasoline was responsible for a sewer explosion in 1950. More recently, in 1978, the area was identified as an environmental hazard after the Coast Guard discovered an oily plume in Newtown Creek.
The spill, which is more accurately an aggregate of thousands of spills, is estimated by New York State to be 17 million gallons. For the sake of comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill was believed to be 11 million gallons. Regardless of which spill was bigger, Exxon Mobil, BP, and other companies that operated in the area are now the targets of numerous lawsuits. Although Exxon Mobil and BP have made efforts to remediate the site and have recovered roughly 9.3 million gallons of oil, environmentalists, residents, and the state are hoping to accelerate and expand the cleanup process. In response to growing concern over possible health risks, a class action suit has been proposed that seeks $58 billion in damages. While these efforts continue to gain momentum, many residents of Greenpoint are left to contend with the oil fumes that emanate from the soil beneath their homes. Unfortunately, Prince William Sound and Newtown Creek are only two of the environmental disasters that the oil giants have left in their wake.
I'd wager that much of the subsurface oil is from continuously leaking pipes and appurtenances. Historically, it was probably cheaper to bury lines thant to use proper above ground pipe racks where inspections could reveal leaks, drips were caught, and maintenance access was possible. Corrosion happened in these old iron pipes in the same way that it did in the BP Alaska pipeline. But they couldn't put a "pig" in a 3 1/2 inch diameter pipe.
Not saying it is right but there are at least two primary reasons why this has not exploded as a huge story in the media.
1. The spill in Brooklyn took place over several years, really more like a massive leak than what one thinks of when someone talks about a spill. Where as, the spill in Alaska was the result of one catostrophic event and it's easy to point the finger at one person (the captin) as being at fault. Who do you blame for 50+ oil containers leaking? There is no one person you can point the finger at and say "he's to blame!".
2. The spill in Alaska took place in a previously prestene ecologically sensitive environment. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who thinks of Brooklyn as an environmentally sensitive environment.
Along the same lines, the story about GE polluting the Hudson and then being forced to clean it up, also did not get a whole lot of attention in the media
Again, not saying it is right. Just saying I think these are two reasons why this story has not been big in the media.
Does anyone have any more information about the Brooklyn spill? Including maybe the case number of the class action, or what court it's in, or maybe just what the case is called?
I write for a newswire service that now has an Energy law section so if any new news comes up on this, I'd love to pitch it as a story to my editors.