Greenpoint residents would get an exhaustive map of their neighborhood’s many toxic sites – and diseases possibly triggered by them – under a proposal by a team of community advocates and experts.
The partnership — including LaGuardia Community College and Mount Sinai Medical Center — is seeking nearly $1 million from a $19.5 million environmental fund set aside in a 2010 settlement of the massive ExxonMobil oil spill in Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek.
The Health Outreach Program & Environmental Survey (HOPES) would look for clusters of cancer, asthma, birth defects and heart disease in the 11222 zip code, a hipster-haven wracked by Superfund sites after decades of industrial dumping.
“There was a time in Greenpoint when you couldn’t take a deep breath without gagging. You could taste the oil and sewage in the air,” said lifelong resident Laura Hofmann.
Hofmann, 55, one of Greenpoint’s most vocal environmental advocates, suffers from an autoimmune disorder she suspects was triggered by pollution. Her brother and sister both have a congenital blood disorder, and both parents died of brain diseases. Her 24-year-old daughter has Lupus, and her son’s wife lost a twin before birth.
“How many more things have to happen to how many more people before somebody gets it?” she asked.
Some 17 to 30 million gallons of oil from ExxonMobil tanks and other refineries have spilled into Newtown Creek, the estuary separating Brooklyn from Queens, and into the surrounding community over decades.
The Meeker Avenue Plumes – concentrations of toxic vapors – lurk underground from former dry cleaners and metal companies.
Toxic chemicals have seeped from underground tanks at the old Nuhart plastics factory. Waste transfer sites abound.
Residents worry about the effects on their health.
“I’ve met several people who have had autoimmune disease, brain cancer, and breast cancer in a four block walk from me. So yeah, it’s a little terrifying,” said Kim Masson, 36, a writer.
Robert Cook, said his fiancee, who grew up in Greenpoint, almost died from thyroid cancer at age 46.
The plumber recalled repairing a sewer main on Russell Street. “The whole house stunk of oil. I had to get a breathing apparatus.”
Holly Porter Morgan, a LaGuardia environmental sciences professor, would lead the effort to create a map with overlapping data on toxic sites and health problems “to give people a picture of what they’re facing,” she said.
The project would tap a state database with patient records including diagnosis and residence — but the map would not identify illnesses by address to protect privacy, she said.
Mount Sinai would bring in its pediatric environmental health unit.
“Children are so vulnerable to chemical exposures as their bodies and brains develop,” said Mike Schade, a Greenpoint resident and environmental advocate.
The project would include home visits to help residents avoid exposure to pollutants, and would link them to other services.
The Center for Health, Environment & Justice — a D.C.-based group spawned by New York’s “Love Canal” – will serve as a technical adviser. Other partners include Councilmember Stephen Levin, the Newtown Creek Alliance, and HabitatMap.
The proposal is one of 90 under review by the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund (GCEF), created in 2011 by the state Attorney General’s Office and Department of Environmental Conservation. The fund has yet to award any grants.