BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
A barge sank in Newtown
Creek off the coast of Greenpoint
on Monday, sending tens
of thousands of pounds of steel
and dirt to the bottom of the
3.5 mile tributary of the East
River.
Allocco Recycling Company,
an industrial recycling
fi rm founded on Kingsland Avenue
more than 30 years ago,
had used the barge to store and
transfer recycled fi ll materials
— essentially, dirt, rocks,
and concrete — to other ships
and barges, which sail out of
the creek to deliver the fi ll to
its next home, likely a new construction
site.
The barge was stationary
and didn’t have a motor or any
oil or fuel onboard, so there’s
no risk of a chemical spill in the
already heavily-polluted waterway,
said a representative of the
federal Environmental Protection
Agency, who noted that the
fi ll material itself isn’t much of
an environmental concern.
Though the barge itself isn’t
much of a concern, the enormous
COURIER L 6 IFE, JANUARY 21-27, 2022
vessel is now sitting directly
atop a series of six pipelines
carrying oil, gas, and jet
fuel to facilities across the city,
including John F. Kennedy and
LaGuardia airports.
As of Wednesday afternoon,
there was no indication of a
spill of any kind, according to
the EPA.
A similar Allocco barge
sank in Newtown Creek in
2016. At that time, a DEC representative
told the now-defunct
website DNAinfo that the thick
layer of toxic sludge coating
the bottom of the estuary cushioned
the pipelines from damage.
It is not clear how large the
barge that sank on Monday is
— the owner of the vessel, Coeyman
Towing Company, declined
to comment, but a U.S.
Coast Guard representative
confi rmed to Brooklyn Paper
that the barge is a “hopper,”
which cannot move on its own.
According to Coeyman’s website,
the company owns several
hoppers, which range in size
between 159 feet and 260 feet
long. The vessel that sank in
2016 was 260 feet long.
Newtown Creek, which
fl ows between Greenpoint and
Long Island City, is a federal
Superfund site, with water
and sediments being heavily
contaminated with dangerous
chemicals from the neighborhood’s
industrial past and
present.
As such, the EPA is monitoring
the sunken barge and
the efforts to remove it, but
doesn’t feel the need to take immediate
action, the representative
said.
Willis Elkins, the executive
director of the Newtown Creek
Alliance, said the risk for a
major environmental hazard
is minimal. There is a concern
for the integrity of the pipelines,
but so far, the EPA has
reported no leaks.
“The other aspect of the
situation is the sediment, the
muck that’s at the bottom of the
creek, is fairly contaminated,”
Elkins said. “I guess there’s
cause for concern that anything
is coming in contact with
the bottom of the creek and disturbing
those sediments, or potentially
migrating contaminants
that are already down
there.”
The local arm of the U.S.
Coast Guard is also monitoring
the situation, said Mariana
O’Leary, a public affairs supervisor
with the New York offi ce,
as it presents a navigational
hazard for other boats traversing
the Creek. As such, the
Coast Guard has set up lights
and sent out broadcast warnings
to other mariners to make
sure they take special care
when passing the barge.
A barge used by Allocco Recycling sank in Newtown Creek on Monday,
but doesn’t present much of a threat to the environment, say state and
federal offi cials. Photo courtesy of Willis Elkins/Newtown Creek Alliance
LAND HO!
Barge sinks off Greenpoint,
though threat remains small
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