Greenpoint Oil Spill: A Traveling Blob the Size of Tribeca

One of the truisms of life in Brooklyn is that every few months, one can look forward to another long and detailed story about the large and nasty Exxon/Mobil Oil Spill in Greenpoint. So it is with the new New York Magazine, which contains a long, detailed and engaging story about North Brooklyn's 17-30 million gallon underground oil horror. What we like most about the New York article isn't all the research and detail, it's the excellent way in which the spill is described. For instance:

To see the extent of the problem, imagine a viscous tar-colored blob stretching amoebalike through the Earth. It starts where Meeker Avenue hits Newtown Creek, seeping out into the waterway. From there it extends south and steadily deeper under the Brooklyn soil, reaching a depth of about 40 feet. It’s contained from below by the groundwater in the Brooklyn-Queens aquifer: The oil is repelled by the water, so the muck “floats” on top. Like the Blob in the eponymous Steve McQueen movie, it keeps changing shape and moving—bulging south beyond the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, slithering north toward Greenpoint Avenue, ballooning west to at least Monitor Street. This black lagoon fills the nooks and crannies in the gravel, sand, and silt that characterize the soil of the area, pooling in pockets that range from just centimeters thick to natural vats that are 25 feet deep. The contaminated zone encompasses at least 55 acres of northern Brooklyn—an area roughly the size of Tribeca.

The article delves into the history of the spill, the public sector's lack of action and the debate about whether the oil spill has led to higher cancer rates in the parts of Greenpoint beneath which it lurks (fortunately, the bulk is beneath industrial sections, but it is believed to be encroaching further into residential areas beyond the points at which it is known to be). Definitely make it your fun long reading of the week.