Someone has been dumping oil into the Newtown Creek, further polluting the notoriously filthy waterway, according to the state.
Environmental watchdogs at the Department of Environmental Conservation are on the hunt for the culprits after fresh oil sheens appeared atop the fetid channel in recent weeks, a rep said.
“The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s environmental conservation officers are actively investigating this and earlier incidents of oil sheens and black oil slicks on Newtown Creek,” said spokesman Peter Constantakes.
The agency started hearing reports of oil on the water this summer, but it wasn’t until Monday, when it got an anonymous tip about a fresh spill, that it launched an investigation and cleanup in tandem with the Coast Guard, Constantakes said.
The state and Coast Guard placed absorbent booms in the water near a bridge over an inlet on the Queens side of the creek.
A neighbor says she is disappointed that someone is pouring petroleum products into Newtown Creek, but given that it is a federally designated Superfund cleanup site that once suffered an oil spill three times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, she is not surprised.
“It is par for the course when you consider Greenpoint history with environmental issues,” said resident Holly Fairall, who is planning to move her family out of Greenpoint because she is concerned about being poisoned.
