Cleanup Efforts and Seepage Mitigation
The first pumps were installed at the site in late 1979, and recovery efforts have increased over the years. The pump systems are operated by the site owners ExxonMobil, BP and, more recently, ChevronTexaco. Environmentalist organizations have said that there was little effort until the early 1990s and have labelled the clean up operations "rudimentary". In January 2006 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, backed by the involved companies, asserted that 9 million US gallons (34,000 m3) of free product had been recovered and cleaned up.
In 2007 a report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the spill raised the estimated size of the contaminated area to 100 acres (0.40 km2) and the estimated spillage volume to 30 million US gallons (110,000 m3), three times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. The report also criticized the recovery efforts and a recent slowdown of the clean up.
According to an Environmental Protection Agency study, "the American Petroleum Institute (2002) indicates that 40% to 80% of a product spill may be retained in soils as residual product". The Department of Environmental Conservation's website states that petroleum companies participating in the cleanup have used a Free Product Recovery System for groundwater, rather than the soils.
A New York State Department of Health study, completed in May 2007, indicated that no vapor was coming from the spill into homes. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "Newtown Creek/Greenpoint Oil Spill Study Brooklyn, New York" states that vapor concentrations in “some commercial establishments” were found “above the Upper Explosive Limit”. The study also said, "A review of the data collected by the NYSDEC shows that, in general, chemicals were detected at all locations in each home, but not in a pattern that would typically represent a vapor intrusion phenomenon."
A recent New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reported that tested residential blocks above the spill area concluded that there is no evidence of either oil or dangerous vapors seeping into people’s homes. Brooklyn Paper columnist Tom Gilbert wrote, "This stands to reason, as the spilled oil tends to lie deep underground, capped by a nearly impermeable layer of clay." Soil vapor tests by both the DEC and the non-profit environmental organization Riverkeeper have come out positive.
As reported by NYU's ScienceLine, ExxonMobil's testing indicates that the existence of oil vapors remains unclear: "This summer, a contractor for Exxon Mobil conducted a soil vapor study in Greenpoint. It took ten samples from a residential area; of five samples that detected benzene, one was from an area above the oil plume at a level below 5.4 parts per billion."
Read more about this topic: Greenpoint Oil Spill
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