Laura Hofmann and her husband were walking on the Newtown Creek Nature Walk at the end of May when they saw debris washing up on the banks of the pathway.
The culprit: a sunken barge that had storage containers of garbage.
“At first we didn’t know where the debris and trash were coming from,” said Hofmann, who saw pieces of foam and wires washing up on the shore. “Then at the beginning of June we saw the red buoy marking the area. We then realized it was a barge.”
Over the past few months, a company called Pile Foundation has been storing garbage barges along Newtown Creek. The barge in question had broken, with half of it landing in the creek.
Last month, the Coast Guard raised the barge out of the water and removed it from the Creek. Four other barges, however, remain anchored to the Queens side of the creek s across from the Nature Walk.
“Pile Foundation is tying these barges up and we’re not sure why,” said Basil Seggos, Chief Investigator of Riverkeeper. Riverkeeper boat operators first noticed the barges one month ago and made phone calls to the DEC and the New York City Dockmasters Unit.
“What we’re seeing now is pieces of that barge, made from Styrofoam, coming from underneath,” Seggos said. “There are gashes on its side and the barge is losing foam from within. Parts of the barges have sunk into the creek and parts have fallen off with the tide.”
A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said that they have not received any reports of excessive debris at the time of the cleanup, nor have they received any complaints from the public since the time of its removal.
Still, Hofmann and other members of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee (NCMC), which heard from Hofmann about the barge at its July meeting, noted that much of the debris was collecting in Whale Creek as well.
For now, community members are alerting local elected officials and city and state agencies to the problem, urging that the barge be removed without further polluting the waterway.
“Greenpoint has gotten the short end of the stick on too many important issues, from promised parks that have not been delivered to an oil spill that continues to bubble and seep,” Councilman David Yassky said. “The company should pay for this barge to be removed and for any and all clean-up costs associated with the issue.”
According to the Coast Guard, the three responsible parties for the barge are the owner, Pile Foundation Construction Company, the Army Corps of Engineers and Seawolf Marine, the company contracted to salvage the barge.
Arturo Garcia-Costas, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), said that “the DEC is aware of this barge and the negative impacts it is having on Newtown Creek. The department has already initiated an enforcement action against Pile Foundation to compel the company to remove the barge from the waterway.”
That would be a welcome move for the community, especially as the creek becomes utilized for more recreational purposes, such as kayaking, cycling and the almost year-old Nature Walk.
“I haven’t got a clue what that barge contains,” said Hofmann. “For all I know there could be hazardous material. If it’s derelict, sinking and considered trash, it doesn’t belong on our creek.”
Questions to DEC about the full contents of the barge were not returned by press time.
To register a complaint about pollution in Newtown Creek, the Coast Guard asks that community members also call the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802.
