sometimes described as the sewer of the Industrial Revolution New York's Newtown Creek is perhaps one
of the most disgusting waterways in America this is the site of the country's largest oil spill
with up to 30 million gallons of oil leaching the soil from processing facilities that once
lined the water and it might be a lost cause environmental activist Christopher Swain has
perhaps the most intimate Insight on the water here and at the risk of being too graphic heat
really lays out the cards when recalling his decision to swim in this toxic Basin
willingly remarking on the smell of the chemicals stating it smelled like cinnamon toast the fumes
from the gas and oil and the sulfur smell stood out Swain said he was ready for the gas and oil
but he wasn't prepared for the visible sight of sewage he explained that every time you
flush a toilet in lower Manhattan the water is piped to the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment
and when it's raining they can't handle the load leaving the activists to quote swim right through
it in fact 22 combined sewage overflows are draining directly into the creek discharging
some 1.2 billion gallons annually so how did things end up this way how did this overlooked
Estuary become such a disaster surprisingly some say that the damage goes back to the
times of Native Americans who use the area as an energy center be that as it may the fathers of
the Industrial Revolution sent the situation into overdrive so join me as we discover the
story of Newtown Creek I'm your host Ryan so cash and you're watching its history [Music]
the geological history of the areas surrounding Newtown Creek in Queens Brooklyn and the entire
Long Island region traces back to the retreating glaciers over 18 000 years ago before this period
the glaciers covered New York City for over a million years as the glaciers began to melt
away they left behind deposits of sediment that eventually gave rise to the landscape we see today
for instance the highlands and ridges bordering Newtown Creek were formed by the accumulation
of glacial debris known as moraines these Mounds are a mix of sand Boulders and gravel resulting
in a large hill-like formation that defined the surrounding topography the influence of these
ancient glaciers can still be seen in the region today for Native Americans Newtown Creek was a
critical source of peat an organic layer of soil made up of decomposed matter that can be used as
a fuel but when the cow arrived demand surged and land disruption was furthered by harvesting lumber
from the hills and Flatlands surrounding the creek Dutch explorers first surveyed and mapped this
Waterway between 1613 and 1614 just a few short years after Henry Hudson sailed into the harbor
according to the EPA historically Newtown Creek drained the Uplands of Western Long Island and
flowed through the wetlands and marshes however due to heavy Industrial Development and government
activities dating from the 1800s formerly wet areas have been filled Newtown Creek has been
channelized and its banks have been stabilized with bulkheads and riprap meaning the historical
development had resulted in changes like Newtown Creek from a natural drainage condition to one
governed largely by engineered and Industrial Systems from the 1800s back then over 50 in
industrial facilities were located along its banks including oil refineries chemical plants Sawmills
and coal and lumber yards this would also be the time that the first wooden bridges were built to
cross the creek allowing for a better access via horse and wagon the Long Island railroad tracks
were also laid along the northern shore of Newtown Creek in the 1850s and Were Meant to move people
and Freight from Eastern points in Long Island along the creek to Long Island City in Western
Queens this connection brought materials from the Eastern headwaters of Newtown Creek to the East
River where they could be moved onto larger ships or crossed over into Manhattan on barges this was
also the main rail line connecting Long Island to All Points North including Canada and New England
naturally with so much development the creek was heavily trafficked with commercial vessels
transporting raw materials fuel oil chemicals and metals even back then the area was frequently
abused by criminal dumping for example the city began discharging untreated sewage directly
into the water in 1856 you see as New York was experiencing a population Boom the infrastructure
couldn't keep up a massive sewer system was being installed in other parts of the city you have
Brooklyn elected to dump all of its raw sewage directly into the Headwater of the creek enhancing
the cholera pandemic apparently the smell of the area was so unbearable that the neighboring
residents and the Board of Health were complaining to the authorities Brooklyn was building its own
sewer system but the federal government's interest was to make the Waterway more suitable for heavy
shipping traffic hence the dumping issues were not prioritized and the city Only focused on
making the creek wider and deeper with the banks flattened and prepared for heavy industry the U.S
Army Corps of Engineers ultimately designed the modern shape of the Waterway very much
as we know it today in the 19th century there was also a variety of business here outside of
your more chemical based operations such as the Chelsea fiber and jute Mill which manufactured
Maritime rope Wales Creek saw the manufacturing of sperm whale oil by Ambrose Kingsland one of the
wealthiest men in the 1830s New York City however these types of factories weren't exactly suitable
for the environment apparently the pollution was so bad that fires raged every few years due to the
unregulated byproducts poured into the water and yet this was nothing compared to what was in store
the petroleum industry by 1912 the New York Times reported that Newtown Creek had a grander traffic
scale than that of the Mississippi River in fact three billion dollars of cargo passed through here
annually around this time oil tycoons turned the area into one massive Refinery occupying most of
the space on both sides of the riverbank the New York kerosene and Gaslight company was located
on the queen side of the Waterway and was the largest facility of its type in the country at
the time at this plant steam was used to extract hot burning oil from coal Charles Pratt of Pratt
University took over the plant renaming it the Queens County Oil works of Astral oil
and ultimately Standard Oil under the direction of John Rockefeller took over the stake by 1911
Rockefeller controlled 91 percent of the country's oil production only to ultimately be broken up by
Anti-Trust laws throughout the first half of the 20th century the Standard Oil Company of
New York continued its operation here rebranding from vacuum oil to Mobile Oil other businesses
here were still booming as well by the 1930s Freight movement throughout the creek reached
more than 5.5 million tons most was connected to the refining of raw materials animal rendering
or other organic materials in many ways World War II was the Creek's climax as it played an
important role due to its strategic location and the industries operating along its banks
the area was home to several shipyards that produced the famous Liberty ships cargo ships
used by the United States during the war the oil refineries played a crucial role in reducing fuel
for the Allied Forces in fact the creek was so crucial for fuel production that German U-boats
heavily targeted it but fortunately to no avail what's more due to its strategic importance the
creek was also a target for Espionage during the war German spies were known to operate in this
area attempting to gather information about the shipyards and refineries then in 1942 a massive
fire broke out at the Standard Oil Refinery on the banks of Newtown Creek the fire was so intense
that it could be seen from Manhattan and caused over 3 million dollars in Damages however refining
would slow by the end of the war and by the second half of the century it stopped altogether other
businesses also slowed such as shipping which was no longer possible at scale with the development
of much larger container ships requiring deep harbors in 1966 primary refining facilities
were taken over by the then New Jersey oil giant known as Exxon Mobil it was at this moment that
the area's pollution was noticed perhaps it was just a matter of bad luck or coincidence but
around the same time that a new jersey-based oil company took over a new york-based Oil Company the
local authorities discovered the Green Point oil spill New York state was able to prove that up to
30 million gallons of petroleum were spilled in the area and sued Exxon Mobil for damages Exxon
has been working to clean up the site ever since to be clear this mess was not the result of a
single spill there were many oil spills and leaks over the decades but to understand why this is the
case we really need to understand the complex network of subterranean pipes tunnels vaults
and River Logistics Newtown Creek is divided into five tributaries Dutch kills Mass pith Creek whale
Creek East Branch and English kills an epicenter for this is the area around Apollo Street which
was the dividing point between the two primary plants Sona Fleming and Locust Hill on the queen
side was the so-called Buckeye pipeline which connected a massive Network both above ground and
Below as the years passed some of these pipelines had unnoticed leaks especially the abandoned parts
of the network perhaps making matters worse was what many of these pipes connected to storage
tanks many of which were not properly maintained another source of oil pollution came from spills
off the barges that would service the many tanks along the riverbank even today it's not
uncommon to see oil tank or river barges being pushed around by tugboats as storage is still
relatively popular as the oil arrives by barge and then is shipped out by hundreds of nearby
trucks another huge source of pollution was caused by the manufactured natural gas this process was a
surprise to me as I had always assumed natural gas was somehow piped out directly from the
ground when in many cases the gas is produced by heating coal or fract oil in a low oxygen furnace
the result of this process is the natural gas that is released from the fuel source and this
is what we often use in our kitchen stove it's a dirty process leaving the Waterway riddled with
coal tar a terrible toxin considering that in 1967 Governor Nelson Rockefeller commissioned
a new Wastewater Pollution Control plant on the grounds of the then abandoned Green Point
refineries then in 1972 the Nixon Administration passed the Clean Water Act carefully regulating
all materials discharged into navigable Waters so at this point in the story the cleanup
efforts really seemed promising still the more authorities attempted to resolve the pollution
issue the more they discovered just how bad it was the ultimate low Point perhaps was when a
Coast Guard helicopter spotted an oil slick on the Creek's surface in 1978 the oil was seeping out
of the grounding Green Point from the bulkheads at Apollo Street for what turned out to be the
largest terrestrial oil spill in U.S history with over 17 million gallons covering 55 Acres as it
made its way towards the creek this event brought National headlines and in 1980 Congress passed the
comprehensive environmental response act which was a tax on chemical and petroleum industries
by 2010 Newtown Creek was designated a Superfund Site by the federal United States Environmental
Protection Agency the cleanup should be completed by 2035 at the expense of billions of dollars
with such a wretched history you might be wondering what the Creek's Legacy is in modern
day well let's have a look When approaching the Estuary from water level you'll notice abandoned
pillars of a once Grand Pier on the South Bank on the North Bank is the luminescence Park perhaps
the greatest departure from an industrial past as you enter the Waterway you probably
wouldn't guess that it possesses a health risk the site of Modern Skyscrapers lining the banks
and Hunters points South Park playground give a rather welcoming impression however you need to
remember that Newton Creek was designated a super fund the compounds in the water here pose serious
potential risk to humans and the ecosystem hence warnings have been posted in the area advising
visitors not to eat fish or shellfish from the creek swimming or waiting is forbidden and boaters
are advised to bathe after spending time on the water anyhow by the time you reached the Pulaski
bridge the vibe starts to change you'll pass some more recreational boats and then you'll be
met with a mix of warehouses and post-industrial fixtures and the Long Island City terminal can be
found here as a freight train slowly decays not far away Wales Creek now has a few recreational
boats and a nature walk starkly contrasting the putrid Waters and Dutch kills follow the creek
Beyond Kosciusko bridge and you'll dead end at Maspeth Creek or you could take the creek to its
conclusion where the water indeed looks extremely disconcerting and although some New Yorkers are
optimistic about the future of this toxic Waterway I can't help but notice that all the industries
unfolding here were both demanded and consumed by the public at large making it extremely difficult
to know just where we should point the finger I'd be curious to hear your assessment in the comments
section below foreign now this is not the first controversial topic we've covered on New York
people were outraged by my video about the history of tourism in the Big Apple if you'd like to find
out why click this link and see for yourself otherwise a huge thanks to our friend Max Tui
for providing the Drone footage in this episode and until next time I'm Ryan silkash signing off