Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project (GPRP) records

This history of the Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project is excerpted from the NYSDEC website.

The northeast area of Greenpoint, between North Henry Street, Norman Avenue, and Newtown Creek, has been heavily industrialized and the site of various petroleum industries for over 140 years. Oil refining operations date back to 1834 with the refining of whale oil. According to one published report, petroleum refining operations began as early as 1854, with the production of kerosene, as naptha and gasoline were considered by-products of the refining process. By 1870 over 50 refineries were located along the banks of Newtown Creek and by 1892, the majority of the area refineries were purchased and consolidated into the Standard Oil Trust. Around 1900, gasoline and fuel oils became the dominant product refined or stored in terminal facilities in the Greenpoint area. Following the breakup of the Trust in 1911, ownership of the refinery property in Greenpoint reverted to the Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY) and these operations became the SOCONY (later Mobil Oil Corporation) Brooklyn Refinery. The refinery reportedly had a capacity to refine over 33,000 barrels (1.4 million gallons) of crude oil a day and produced fuel oils, gasoline, kerosene, and refinery oil. Also stored within the former refinery were petroleum additives and miscellaneous refining by-products.

On September 2, 1978, the U. S. Coast Guard was making a routine helicopter patrol of Newtown Creek when it noticed the signs of an oil spill entering Newtown Creek from the area at the end of Meeker Avenue. A subsequent investigation concluded that the area of the spill under the Greenpoint area was in excess of 52 acres and the total spill volume, as estimated in 1979, was approximately 17 million gallons of petroleum products.

Petroleum product recovery operations are currently being conducted within five distinct areas: the former ExxonMobil Terminal, the KM Terminal, the commercial/industrial/residential area southwest of the KM Terminal known as the ExxonMobil Off-Site Plume, the site of the former Paragon Oil Terminal, which is currently the location of the Peerless Importers/Empire Merchants distribution facility, and the Apollo Street Creek Parcels located between the KM Terminal and the site of the former Paragon Oil Terminal. Product recovery systems have been in place since 1979. ExxonMobil entered into two consent orders with NYSDEC in 1990 and began upgrades to its recovery systems, including the design and construction of a new and expanded system to recover free product from the Off-Site Area. Following the discovery of free product seepage through the facility's bulkhead into Newtown Creek, ExxonMobil also began recovery activities at the Peerless Importers/former Paragon Oil site in February 1991. Mobil continued recovery activities until May 2005 when Texaco took over that portion of the project.

Four different free product recovery systems are currently operating in Greenpoint. These include the former ExxonMobil Terminal Recovery and Containment System (RCS), the KM Terminal Recovery System, the ExxonMobil Off-Site Plume Recovery System and the former Paragon Oil Terminal Recovery System. Significant treatment system upgrades to increase the free product recovery capacity and water treatment capabilities of all the recovery systems have been completed over the years.