Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Interactive Map Shows What Parts Of Williamsburg & Greenpoint Are Most Toxic
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Oct 27, 2015
Modified Oct 27, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
NAG
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Oct 27, 2015
Modified Oct 27, 2015
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
It's well-established, if not widely advertised at condo open houses, that Greenpoint and parts of Williamsburg are a poisonous wasteland. Still, even if you know the Exxon Mobil spill (17-30 million gallons of oil leaked into Newtown Creek over decades and discovered in 1978) from the NuHart plume (face-numbing and liver-destroying TCE ground contamination from the former NuHart Plastics facility at Dupont and Franklin streets) it can be hard to keep it all in your head. Enter the community group Neighbors Allied for Good Growth's new map, which lays out where Williamsburg and Greenpoint's Superfund and brownfield sites, truck-exhaust-promoting waste transfer stations, and historically industrial lots, along with projected flood risks, asthma rates, and dots marking the spots of many, many spills.
Looking at all the factors together, patterns emerge. The largely industrial areas around the waste transfer stations and areas along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway have higher asthma rates, though mysteriously, an area around the Williamsburg Houses and Borinquen Plaza II NYCHA developments has by far the highest asthma rate, with 31 cases per 1,000 people. The projects are not directly next to either truck traffic source, but do abut Bushwick Avenue, which is popular with trucks though it's not a truck route.
Most of the biggest swaths of contamination are along the East River and Newtown Creek waterfront, past homes of industry and new and future homes of our tech startup overlords, though manufacturing zoning in East Williamsburg may keep condo dwellers out of the muck and mire for a while. Add a major storm like Hurricane Sandy to the mix and the highest-rent and most carcinogenic parts of North Brooklyn become part of a stew that nearly pinches off Greenpoint, leaving Humboldt Street as the only road in, and McGuinness Boulevard the only way out.
What Williamsburg and Greenpoint are projected to look like in the event of a 100-year flood (lighter gray) or a 500-year flood (darker blue). (NAG)
The map was supposed to be completed last month, but for now it's in beta, and the final version won't be ready until the spring, NAG member Rita Pasarell told The Brooklyn Paper.
Tagged
exxon mobil
greenpoint
luxury housing
meeker plume
nuhart plastics
oil spill
pollution
williamsburg
Nathan Tempey
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Queens man found dead, police say, and injured woman is his mother, neighbors say
Police are investigating a related incident in which a 62-year-old woman was found injured beneath the Van Wyck Expressway.
By
Charles Lane
Published Oct 14, 2026 at 7:39 p.m. ET
Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves
The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.
By
Arya Sundaram
and
Samantha Max
News
Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves
The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.
By
Arya Sundaram
and
Samantha Max
Brooklyn school dean says MTA officers assaulted him over a $3 bus fare he says he paid
By
Carol Chen
National Grid customers in NYC will see higher gas bills this winter
By
Rosemary Misdary
Bruce Blakeman joins Gov. Hochul in support for expanding NY rape law
By
Jon Campbell
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .