Roebling Oil Field Progress Report

Our friends at the Roebling Oil Field, the development at N. 11th Street and Roebling in Williamsburg that is formally known as McCarren Park Mews, are making progress on the coverup remediation. Much foundation has been poured, but the scent of oil still wafts from the environmentally-challenged site, which a few weeks ago smelled like an oil field in Kuwait. The workers have also tried closing up all the holes in the tarp covering the fence around the site, but where there's a will (and a small lens on a Canon Powershot), there's always a way. What we found on Sunday were workers bulldozing around black dirt on the western side of the site.

What, you might ask, is down there? Well, a look at the big Environmental Impact Statement that went with the Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning is revealing. It shows a tank with used oil across the street at 5 Roebling Street, which has been used as a truck repair facility (but no indication the tank has leaked). Of interest, at least if you want to know what used to be near the condo you're buying is the report for 215 North 10th Street, next door to the Roebling Oil Field. That site used to house a tank for 5,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid, a tank for 12,000 gallons of ammonium hydroxide and a tank for 2,000 gallons of nitric acid. (The tanks were "closed" in the early 90s and there is no indication of any leakage, but it's always interesting to know who the neighbors were.)

Not listed in this document, but noted on Property Shark, is another interesting issue: a "tank failure" at 223 N. 11th Street, which would be the current site of a condo called N. 11th & Roebling. "Tank failures," according to Property Shark, involve "releases of gasoline, fuel oil, industrial chemicals or other toxic pollutants often cause extensive air, water, groundwater or soil contamination that threatens the environment or the public health."


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