Residents File Greenpoint Class Action Lawsuit
April 10, 2006The Brooklyn Rail chronicles the story of Dorothy Swick one of 23 Greenpoint neighborhood residents who filed a Greenpoint oil spill lawsuit in December. The lawsuit names Exxon Mobile, BP and Chevron Texaco as defendants.
Oil companies and government officials have said clean-up of the remaining 9 million gallons of the spill could take another 20 years, but residents want to know what the harmful vapors and other pollution are doing to them now. Swick is curious as to whether the spill contributed to the liver cancer which killed her husband in 1999.
As she rummages through the plastic bin on her dining room table, Swick sighs. "One time I came home," she says, pointing to photos of her backyard after a three-story filtration system was set up, "and it looked like a damn oil well in my backyard." When it rained one December, the smell got so bad that the DEC was forced to expand the ventilation system, installing a pipe on the side of Swick's building that extended well beyond the roof. A rotating fan at the mouth of the pipe whirled the vapor away from her home.
Read the full Greenpoint Brooklyn oil spill article.