Preliminary Negotiations With the Oil Company Unsuccessful
Councilmembers File Intent to Sue—Pledge to Join Case Later in Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 30, 2004

Contact:
Basil Seggos, Riverkeeper 917.597.6883
Evan Thies, Councilmember David Yassky: 917.715.9265 or 212.788.7348
Eli Richlin, Councilmember Eric Gioia: 917.573.3167

Manhattan, NY – Today at City Hall, Riverkeeper and community co-plaintiffs announced that they have filed their legal complaint in federal court against ExxonMobil for one of the world’s largest underground oil spills, right in the heart of Brooklyn. ExxonMobil is responsible for a 17 million gallon plume of oil that stretches under 55 acres of Brooklyn, contaminating the groundwater and constantly seeping into Newtown Creek, affecting both the Brooklyn and Queens shorelines. Marking their formal involvement, Councilmembers David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) and Eric Gioia (D-Queens) announced their filing of “notices of intent to sue” ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, pledging to join the suit later this year.

“This lawsuit aims to remedy one of the worst environmental crimes in the country,” said Riverkeeper Executive Director Alex Matthiessen. “Exxon has profited for five decades by neglecting this massive spill, at great cost to our waterways and the people of this city. A comprehensive cleanup of this neglected waterway is long overdue and the time of reckoning has come.”

In January, Riverkeeper had filed its intent to sue, proceeding into negotiations with ExxonMobil. Negotiations proved unsuccessful as the oil company refused to admit responsibility.

Newtown Creek is one of the dirtiest waterbodies in North America, and ExxonMobil is its most notorious polluter. Courtesy of ExxonMobil, oil slicks consistently seep from the shoreline and often extend hundreds of yards with the tide. Due to a series of major spills in the 1940s and 1950s and nearly half a century of wanton neglect, a massive 17 million gallon plume of oil migrated into the creek and under the Greenpoint community. A weak consent order with the State of New York in 1990 demanded no penalties, set no benchmarks for cleanup, and allowed ExxonMobil to conduct the most rudimentary remediation. As a result of the main consent order, only 3 million gallons have been removed since operations started, and progress is slowing considerably.

Said Councilman Yassky, “ExxonMobil must take responsibility for this terrible ecological disaster. Every day they do nothing, Brooklyn waterways become more polluted. This spill is a crime against the environment, and it must be remedied.”

Said Councilman Gioia, “For too long, irresponsible polluters and insufficient state enforcement have allowed an oil spill that dwarfs the Exxon Valdez to seep unchecked into our waterways,” said Councilmember Gioia. “From this lawsuit, the oil companies should take one message loud and clear: New York will no longer tolerate pollution that degrades our environment and threatens our health.”

Also in attendance were the East River Apprenticeshop and the Urban Divers, two organizations that use Newtown Creek, and several concerned citizens.

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Learn more about the Greenpoint Oil Spill.