Newtown Creek

People living close to Morgan and Johnson Avenues are familiar with a rotting marsh smell. Carried by the breeze and powered by the summer heat, the foul stench coming from the English Kills area is just another fact of life for residents near the Bushwick-East Williamsburg line.

Citing the toxic site as one of the most polluted water bodies in the country, Representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez have been pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to retest Newtown Creek and its connecting tributaries — English Kills, Whale Creek, Maspeth Creek and Dutch Kills. On Monday, the agency agreed to conduct preliminary tests that could qualify the industrial waterway for the Superfund Program, a designation that would accelerate the cleanup effort of the long polluted estuary, the New York Times reported.

If the tests turn up significant levels of chemicals and other hazardous waste, the site could potentially achieve Superfund status, meaning the clean up would be aided by millions in federal funding. Also, the designation would allow the EPA to sue Exxon Mobil and other companies for polluting the area.

Beth Totman, a superfund specialist for the EPA, said the agency will test four industrial facilities along the waterways that are suspected to be heavily polluted: the Phelps Dodge, BCF Oil, Quanta Resources and National Grid sites.

“We’re going to review the data from those sites and determine if any further action is necessary on the property,” Totman said.

Historically, the industrial area near Newtown Creek was home to oil refineries from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s and was used for petroleum storage until 1993. After a refinery explosion in 1950, corroded tanks and pipelines began leaking oil into the ground, where it would slowly seep into the Creek and its tributaries.

The leak was discovered in 1978 when the U.S. Coast Guard found an oil slick on top of the water in Newtown Creek. It is estimated that between 17 and 30 million gallons of oil are currently sitting underground in a 55-acre pool below Greenpoint and East Williamsburg -– making it three times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.