NPR: Newtown Creek: Eerie, Beautiful and Teeming with Oil

Newtown Creek: Eerie, Beautiful and Teeming with Oil

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Laura Silver

It's been 19 years since the Exxon tanker Valdez coated Alaska's Prince William Sound with 11-million gallons of oil. Today on our show, we revisited a bigger plume of oil closer to home: New York City's Newtown Creek.

Basil Seggos, chief investigator for the environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper, told us how 17-million gallons of oil got there and what's being done to get rid of it.

Recently, I took a bike ride along the creek -- the slideshow above is what I saw.

Laura Silver

1:42 PM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

My dad swam in Newtown Creek in the early 1920's and he remembered coming out with his body covered in oil.

Sent by Susan | 2:03 PM ET | 03-26-2008

My beloved gay nude beach is right off where oil tankers regularly pass, as they go to the refinery.

Imagine the horror if one of those ships were to spill... The Otters and Bears... where will they go to play? Not to mention the non-human wildlife.

When I was a kid, I didn't think much about swimming in the ocean. But now anytime I'm at any beach, I'm a little nervous about what is in the water.

Sent by Brian | 10:05 PM ET | 03-26-2008

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