New York City’s Newtown Creek to Get Exxon Cleanup, EPA Says
The Obama administration reached an agreement with oil and gas companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to begin a Superfund cleanup of Newtown Creek, a waterway separating Brooklyn and Queens.
The six parties responsible for cleaning up the contaminated area -- Exxon; Chevron Corp.; BP Plc (BP/); Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.; National Grid Plc (NG/); and the City of New York -- will conduct a study determining the best options for detoxifying the area, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement today.
The parties must pay EPA $750,000 for the agency’s prior work at Newtown Creek and reimburse it for oversight costs. EPA added the waterway to its list of the most hazardous Superfund sites in September 2010. The water and sediment is contaminated with pesticides, heavy metals and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a banned carcinogen, according to the EPA.
“Newtown Creek is one of the most polluted urban water bodies in the country, and EPA is committed to making sure this waterway receives a thorough cleanup,” EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck said in a statement.
The agreement announced today ensures that “the parties responsible for the pollution, not the taxpayer, will foot the bill,” she said.
The EPA said it expects to identify more parties responsible for contaminating the 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) of Newtown Creek.
Sediment, Water, Air
The investigation will begin within a few months, starting with an analysis of contamination in the creek’s sediment, surface water and surrounding air, according to the EPA. The federal Superfund law seeks to make polluters pay for eliminating environmental hazards.
In 2007, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, now the state’s governor, sued Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, over a Newtown Creek oil spill first discovered in 1978. The company settled the case last year for $25 million.
In addition to Exxon and London-based BP, companies involved in the EPA agreement include Texaco, now owned by San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. (CVX), the second-largest U.S. oil company after Exxon; Keyspan Corp., based in Brooklyn and now a unit of London-based National Grid Plc, owner of natural- gas and power networks in Britain and the U.S.; and Phelps Dodge Corp., which was acquired by Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), the largest publicly traded copper producer, in 2007.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
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