Exxon pumping half a million gallons of oil a year in Newtown Creek

September 30, 2007 at 1:25 pm | Posted in environment, Exxon, oil | Leave a comment

A report this month from the Environmental Protection Agency suggested that the Newtown spill may be twice as large as first believed — some 30 million gallons, nearly three times the size of the Alaska spill. It has polluted the 4-mile strip of waterway and some 55 residential and commercial acres around it, gathering in subsurface reservoirs, mixing with groundwater, creating toxic vapors and and seeping, slowly but inexorably, into the creek. One major concern is the reported leakage of chemical vapor into homes….The spill is believed to have originated 57 years ago, when oil leaked from refinery tanks owned by Standard Oil, a corporate predecessor to Exxon Mobil. It went unnoticed until a Coast Guard helicopter noticed a plume, which led to the discovery of an huge pool of oil at the creek’s bottom.