Newtown Creek Gets Cleaned Up

Here's a rare bit of good news: the US EPA has finally designated Newtown Creek a Superfund site.

Newtown Creek is that sliver of water, often overlooked on the map of NYC, that separates Brooklyn and Queens. For more than a hundred years it has been a dumping ground for chemicals and pesticides and all sorts of other nasty stuff that came from the factories and refineries and other industrial businesses that used to exist near there. Superfund designation means that the government will conduct a review and direct a clean-up effort that will be partially funded by the government and private companies (including ExxonMobil that spilled some oil there back in the day).

Believe it or not, the pollution in Newtown Creek is three times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill up in Alaska. Needless to say, cleaning it up is way overdue and the economic potential for a rehabbed creek are big.

This is a really great thing, a rare instance of the government doing the right thing for the right reason. NYC will be the better for it.

Newtown Creek Alliance