BROOKLYN -- At a press conference on Sunday, Congressman Anthony Weiner and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez announced they are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to consider Newtown Creek as a sight to be included in the Superfund program, a designation that could procure millions of dollars in federal aid for the polluted waterway.

Th oil spill at Newtown Creek was discovered by the Coast Guard in 1978, and is estimated to consist of 17 to 30 million gallons of underground spillage, significantly more than the Exxon-Valdez disaster. The creek runs between Brooklyn and Queens, and the underground plume of oil covers 55 to 70 acres in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Clean-up efforts have been stalled time and time again by legal difficulties in determining who is exactly is responsible for the spill, since it is unclear whether it was caused by a single incident at Standard Oil (now Exxon Mobil) in 1950, or from decades of industrial pollution along the waterway, which was at one time home to 50 oil refineries.

A Superfund designation would allow federal funds to be used for up to 90 percent of cleanup costs, according to NY1.

The EPA would have to do an analysis of the water to determine whether the chemical and hazardous material content tests high enough to become a part of the program.

Related Stories:

ExxonMobil Boasts of Progress in Oil Cleanup

State Doubts ExxonMobil Is Using Best Technology To Clean Newtown Oil Spill

State Sues Exxon for Greenpoint Oil Spill

A Brief History of Newtown Creek

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008 All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law. Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net