There Ought To Be A Law - The Newtown Creek Travesty

I had been planning on taking a walking tour of the area in and around Newtown Creek in Brooklyn, which has been a part of the federal Superfund cleanup program for as long as I can remember. This being in the center of one of the largest cities in the world and in a robust residential area makes this slow cleanup and continued contamination almost criminal...well, criminal. In Greenpoint where most of this spill is centered, the residents complain of high incidences of cancer, birth defects and other afflictions. I went down to the beginning of the Newtown Creek and followed it at different points and took the following pictures. As a child, we used to go down to what we referred to as "the freight yard" and played tag along the rail road tracks and the rail bridge and no, no one ever fell in. The last person who probably swam in the Newtown Creek, were probably members of George Washington's army during the revolution as that was probably the last time the Newtown Creek was clean enough for it.



This is an old building, still in operation, at the beginning of the freight rail yard that leads to the railroad bridge over the Newtown Creek. Note the 1858.



Here is a look at the rail corrider to the entrance of the rail bridge over the Newtown Creek




Here is a look at the beginning of the Newtown Creek. Note the ducks and geese in this putrid liquidway (can't call it water)




Here is another look at the beginning of the Newtown_Creek. Note the geese.



Here is the first picture of Newtown Creek on our little stroll upstream. Note the containment boom. I'm not a marine biologist or an environmental expert but isn't a containment boom supposed to either contain something or keep something from getting in or out? Guess what business this containment boom was deployed next to? See the next photo:




and the next:



You may be able to see the containment boom along the shoreline with a two feet gap to contain whatever it is that it's meant to contain. "Black gold, Texas tea, well the first thing you know...Sorry, I was humming a few lines from the Beverly Hillbillies.



Had to quickly circle back. This is under the railroad bridge at the beginning of the Newtown Creek.



A fish-less liquidway



Upstream on Newtown Creek. Eerily lifeless