Vapors of carcinogens seep into homes and offices of Brooklyn: the district wants to be entered into a special register

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to add Meeker Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to the federal superfund. This is a fund for the fight against chemical pollution of the environment. If the area is added to the EPA's National Superfund Priority List, it will qualify for special cleanup and become the fourth Superfund site in New York. Gothamist.

Superfund program aims to remediate the most contaminated sites in the United States. The EPA bills those who caused the pollution for cleaning them. Three other toxic Superfund facilities in New York are currently undergoing a lengthy clean-up process. It takes many years and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since 2007, the New York State Department of Environmental Protection (NYSDEC) has been working to mitigate the effects of harmful fumes on Meeker Avenue. Under it is an underground reservoir of a chemical pollutant, but the full extent of the problem has not yet been determined.

The fumes are already poisonous in the houses of the boroughs

Toxic fumes from this reservoir have been found in dozens of homes and businesses across the vast area of ​​Greenpoint and East Williamsburg. The area affected by pollution from Meeker Avenue includes about 45 blocks - the area between Norman Avenue in the north, Monitor Street in the west, Withers Street in the south and Newtown Creek in the east.

Greenpoint in Brooklyn has long been one of the most polluted neighborhoods in New York City. For more than a century, it has been polluted with industrial waste, toxic chemicals and untreated sewage. The Greenpoint oil spill (the largest urban oil spill in the United States) occurred here. Spills over the decades have left 17 to 30 million gallons of oil underground. Greenpoint also borders the Newtown Creek Superfund facility, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country.

The reservoir below Meeker Avenue is a collection of underground chemical pollutants. They seeped into the soil and РіСЂСѓРЅС‚РѕРІС ‹Рµ РІРѕРґС‹ district from local dry cleaners, foundries and metalworking workshops. Contaminants, primarily chlorinated solvents and petrochemicals derived from carbon, were first discovered in 2005 by Exxon Mobil Corporation and the New York State Department of Transportation under Greenpoint Oil Spill Response.

Liquidation has been going on for 40 years

The oil spill has been cleaned up since 1978, when the Coast Guard first noticed an oil spill in Newtown Creek. According to Newtown creek allianceMore than 12,9 million gallons of oil have been pumped out from under the homes and businesses of Greenpoint so far.

The spill area of ​​22 hectares largely coincides with the area of ​​air pollution. The most common pollutants on Meeker Avenue include:

• tetrachlorethylene
• trichlorethylene
• cis-1,2-dichloroethylene
• vinyl chloride.

Each of them poses a threat to health. Chemicals enter the basements of homes and businesses as invisible carcinogenic vapors. National Cancer Institute links exposure to these toxic materials to cancers of the kidney, liver, brain, and lungs, as well as lymphoma and leukemia.

These chemicals and gases are commonly used in the production of the following products:

• dry cleaning liquids;
• brake cleaners;
• degreasing agents for metals;
• a hard plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Thoroughly cleaning up the dense urban landscape that surrounds Meeker Avenue will be an extremely challenging process. Streets above contaminated soil - busy roads lined with apartment buildings, cafes and restaurants.

Where else is dangerous air in New York?

Three other Superfund facilities in New York:

• Newtown Creek, located along the border between Brooklyn and Queens. It is still awaiting approval for an official cleanup plan, even though it has been ten years since it received federal Superfund status.
• Gowanus Channel in Brooklyn. Its bottom is currently being deepened to remove a century-old poisonous "black mayonnaise".
• Site of the Wolff-Alport chemical company in Ridgewood, Queens. An investigation is being conducted there to determine the total volume of radioactive waste dumped underground.

The New York City government publicly supports the designation of Meeker Avenue as a Superfund. Local authorities continue to monitor the toxicity of outdoor fumes. To date, the city has installed systems for reducing soil vapor emissions in 16 residential buildings and three enterprises of the region. The levels of pollution there have exceeded the normative ones.