The New York state attorney general is to sue US oil giant ExxonMobil and four other energy firms over oil spills and illegal discharges dating back to 1978.
The lawsuit under the auspices of the federal resource conservation and recovery act (RCRA) covers a spill in 1978 in Newtown Creek, in which, according to the state, 17 million gallons of oil caused an underground contamination of over 55 acres in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn.
The other four firms are BP, Chevron, KeySpan and Phelps Dodge. Several of these operated storage facilities along the creek that released oil into the ground.
Attorney Andrew Cuomo said Exxon had failed to abide with a 1990 clean up deal with New York state.
"This is one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation, larger than the Exxon Valdez and slower in the cleanup," he said.
"The toxic footprint of ExxonMobil is found all over this area. It is ExxonMobil’s oil that remains under the homes and businesses.
"And it is ExxonMobil that has dragged its feet and done as little as possible to address the dangers that it created."
Although Exxon has extracted 9.3 million gallons of oil from the ground to date, it has insisted that no acceleration of the current rate of extraction is possible.
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