An oil spill discovered on the Bronx River in White Plains on June 2, has been determined to be heating oil from a nearby apartment building, according to the Bronx River Alliance.
So far, the oil has been contained in Westchester, the organization said in a statement.
The oil entered the river through the storm drain system and has extended for three miles down the river, from South of Main Street in White Plains down to Crane Road in Scarsdale. Officials report that multiple containment booms were put into place as far south on the river as Mount Vernon, but the oil has not reached that far.
The oil was spilled in the basement of the building and flowed into an internal storm sewer which flushed it directly into the Bronx River.
Stormwater poses a major threat to the health of the river, discharging untreated polluted runoff directly into the waterway on an ongoing basis. In the fall of 2009, an oil spill from a Con Ed substation in Yonkers resulted in hundreds of gallons of transformer oil flowing into the river.
A private contractor under the supervision of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is cleaning up along the shoreline, where reports of a foul odor were reported from at least three blocks away following the spill. Preliminary estimates were that hundreds of gallons were spilled into the river.
A version of this story appeared in the July 2010 issue of The Hunts Point Express.
