East River Oil Spill: 'Catastrophic' Con Ed Fail Spews 37,000 Gallons Of Transformer Oil

VINEGAR HILL, BROOKLYN — Wondering what to make of that oily sheen coating an increasingly large surface of the East River?

UPDATE: East River Oil Spill Not Over Yet: Cleanup Crews Scrambling Ahead Of Big Weekend Storm

According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard, a "catastrophic transformer failure" at the Con Edison station along the Brooklyn coastline two full days ago (!), around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, caused 37,000 gallons of "dielectric fluid," or transformer oil, to spew from the transformer and begin seeping into the ground and the East River.

And by Monday night, the hazardous fluid had spread so far out into the river that the Coast Guard declared a "safety zone" stretching from the waters off Greenpoint (Dupont Street) and Midtown (East 25th Street) down to Red Hook (south end of the Buttermilk Channel).

The safety zone was still in full effect late Tuesday afternoon.

"Recreational and human powered vessels may not enter, remain in, or transit through the Safety Zone during the enforcement period unless authorized by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port or designated Coast Guard personnel," a spokeswoman said. "Mariners are requested to exercise caution while in the area."

The East River Ferry was still running Tuesday, but "very, very slowly" so as to comply with a "no wake zone" in the spill area, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Allyson Conroy.

So how freaked out should we be right now? Conroy explained to Patch that while dielectric fluid is officially an oil — and is officially considered hazardous — it's not quite as toxic as the kinds of oils we usually associate with oil spills, such as diesel fuel and petroleum.

However: "If humans do get in contact with it," Conroy said, they should immediately "wash their skin and avoid touching their eyes."

A handful of public and private crews were carrying out an emergency cleanup effort Tuesday afternoon.

"Con Ed, who is the lead agency, has absorbent materials on the ground to try to soak up as much as the fluid as possible from going into the river," Conroy said. "They're also skimming the water."

Asked why it took so long for New Yorkers to be notified that 37,000 gallons of nastiness were slowly seeping into the city's central waterway, Conroy said the Coast Guard had followed its usual procedure of sending a radio broadcast to boaters every four hours.

She added that she didn't want to "pass the buck or point the finger," but that "normally the lead agency" — in this case, Con Ed — "is the one responsible for sending out those notifications."

Con Ed did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

Company spokesman Allan Drury did send a statement to Gothamist, but it didn't do much to explain Con Ed's lag in notifying the public:

“Con Edison is working to contain and clean up transformer insulating oil that was released from one of our substations in Brooklyn near the East River," he said. "A transformer containing approximately 37,000 gallons of dielectric fluid, mineral oil used for cooling electrical equipment, failed on Sunday May 7th at 12:23 p.m, causing the oil to be released from its main tank. Some oil entered the East River and Con Edison responded immediately, placing boom, absorbents and skimmers in the river. Our own employees and environmental contractors are working on the cleanup, and we are working cooperatively with the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation."

UPDATE, 7:45 p.m.: Con Ed spokesman Philip O'Brien just sent us the following email. (Again not explaining why we all just heard about the spill today in an NYC Ferry tweet.)

"Please check your info on oil leak off Brooklyn. No one is saying 37,000 gallons spilled into river. Unclear how much at this early stage of clean up. The transformer that failed on Sunday contained 37,000 gallons of mineral oil, a good deal of which is still in it and surrounding floor space. Thank you."

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.

Photos courtesy of @kroesserstrat/Twitter