Yuck! Watch Oil and Raw Sewage Flow Into Greenpoint's Newtown Creek

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — Greenpoint is home to a host of unsettling environmental catastrophes including the largest continental oil spill in U.S. history, the tens-of-thousands of gallons of toxic phthalates under Commercial and Dupont Streets left from a former plastics manufacturer, and TCE plumes near McGolrick Park, to name a few (yes there's more).

The three-and-a-half mile-long Newtown Creek, which borders the neighborhood to the north, is also dealing with its ongoing raw sewage overflow woes, as the Newtown Creek Alliance (NCA) reminded us today with a series of three startling videos.

The creek hosts the largest of NYC's 14 wastewater treatment plants, which finished multi-billion-dollar renovations in 2010 to more effectively capture and treat the human waste it receives. The plant's intake equates to nearly 20 percent of all NYC sewage.

The water quality has seen some improvements since the plant was upgraded, with a return of birds and schools of fish. However, when it rains the treatment system can become overwhelmed leaving the sewage to flow untreated into the creek and the East River.

Bad news came earlier this summer when a whistleblower at The New York City Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) informed the public that water samples tested for toxicity were routinely doctored in order to meet the standards of the Federal Clean Water Act.

The second NCA video posted to Facebook shows what appears to be a large oil slick on the surface of the creek, that also receives runoff from the city streets and drains during rainstorms.

Perhaps the most disturbing of the three videos (we saved the "best" for last), shows a swirling pool of brown sludge during a rainstorm.

This area is also home to the ongoing Greenpoint Landing construction project which will bring 5,000 new apartments to the shore of the creek and East River, one of the largest residential developments in the city.

Top image courtesy of the Newtown Creek Alliance.