Newtown Creek, the heavily polluted spit of water separating Brooklyn and Queens (dolphins love it), got its Superfund status last fall and now the decades long project of cleaning it up begins. The feds are now saying that the multi-million dollar cleanup project should start later this summer.
"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," Judith Enck, the US Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator, told the Post. The full cleanup of hazardous materials, some of which date back to the '50s, is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take two decades.
But first the EPA needs to figure out who will foot the bill. Under an agreement Exxon Mobil, the city and four other entities have said they will pay for an investigation of contamination throughout the waterway as well as pay up $750,000 for the EPA's previous cleanup work at Newtown Creek. According to the Post the investigation alone is expected to cost $25 million.
In the meantime, just because the Creek is toxic doesn't mean it isn't a great place for a picnic. In 2008 the city opened the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, a surprisingly entertaining and edifying quarter-mile park on the water itself with interesting plant life and spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline as well as the nearby sewage treatment plants and car dumps. It's way more magical than it sounds.
