Floating along Newtown Creek while reflecting on water pollution

As part of a special Earth Day broadcast, "All Things Considered" is taking the show to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to explore its industrial past and efforts to remediate the area. To prepare, WNYC host Sean Carlson and an environmentalist took a boat tour along Newtown Creek, one of the country's most polluted waterways, which also cuts through some of the trendiest neighborhoods in New York City.

Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of formerly derelict industrial areas in our region transform into bustling commercial and residential spaces.

I grew up a millennial in northern New Jersey at a time when “redevelopment” seemed to be everywhere in our area. The factories that poisoned the land a stone’s throw from my home had long since closed. It’s been more than 20 years since the decaying buildings were torn down to make way for a Walmart. When I first moved to Brooklyn in 2005, it was a time when post-industrial eyesores were being converted into trendy loft spaces seemingly overnight.

While there is new development near its mouth at the East River, much of Newtown Creek still feels untouched by those decades of change. Its long history as a home for heavy industry – the first kerosene factory in North America was built on the Queens side in 1854 – is still visible in the fuel depots and tanks that line its shores. The water also bears the scars. The entire creek is a federal Superfund site due to more than 50 refineries that once lined its banks. Part of the creek’s contamination is also tied to the Greenpoint oil spill, a massive underground oil spill bigger than the infamous Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska in 1989. Not only is that spill one of two along Newtown Creek, it still doesn’t account for all the other harmful chemicals left behind from other industrial use.

Earth Day is a time for education and reflection, and there is no way to use Greenpoint as a backdrop for a special broadcast without literally getting into the creek and its history. Willis Elkins, the executive director of the Newtown Creek Alliance, hosted our team in a small four-person boat to do just that.

Newtown Creek is still very much an active waterway despite federal intervention and a legacy of community activism to improve environmental conditions there. Our boat shared the relatively narrow creek with ships laden with any manner of cargo. Swimming in the creek, we learned, is inadvisable due to the estimated 1 billion gallons of raw sewage that New York City dumps into it every year. Of particular concern to activists is a 110-acre National Grid site along the creek's banks that serves as a storage facility for potentially hazardous liquefied natural gas.

Change will come to the creek, albeit more slowly than some would like. The Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the cleanup of the Superfund sites, though last year it delayed the start of the oil spill cleanup until 2032. New York City has a plan to reduce the amount of sewage it dumps into the relatively secluded Dutch Kills Inlet portion of the creek by 75% in the coming years. Still, though, our journey along the creek made clear that Newtown Creek still needs time, investment and attention to get past its polluted legacy.

Sean Carlson is the local "All Things Considered" host for WNYC. In recognition of Earth Day, WNYC will broadcast a special edition of "All Things Considered" live from WNYC Transmitter Park in Greenpoint, exploring the neighborhood’s industrial history and the steps the city is taking to remediate pollution amid a large-scale rezoning effort and a population boom. We’ll be at WNYC Transmitter Park on Friday, April 21, starting at 4 p.m. You can also listen live here on Gothamist and on your radio at 93.9 FM.