More than 17 million gallons of oil spilling from its container, contaminating waterways and wreaking havoc on the environment. Exxon Valdez? Er, no. Though the first part's right. In the 1940s and 50s, Exxon refineries in New York leaked millions of gallons of oil into Newton Creek, a shipping tributary of the East River that forms a natural boundary between Brooklyn and our neighbor to the north, Queens.

That leak gives the surrounding neighborhood of Greenpoint the honor of being the site of one of the world's worst underground oil spills. (For the record, the Valdez lost about 11 million gallons.) To get your bearings, here's a Google street map/Google satellite map of the area we're talking about. The affected area is about the size of forty football fields.

It's a ginormous environmental mess. But I'm not sure how many people in New York City, not to New York state know about it. Heck, I live in Brooklyn and only about six miles south of the spill. And it was news to me when a friend from Greenpoint casually dropped it into conversation a few weeks back. (Though, to be fair, I'm kinda a newbie Brooklynite -- I've only been here about 16 months. I concede that it's entirely possible that everyone in the state knows about this and didn't tell me.)

By way of abbreviated history -- way back when, oil refining was a messy, leaky business. And in 1950, a gasoline leak reportedly caught fire. That set off an explosion that shot manhole covers 25 feet into the air. But we were more relaxed back then about things like, you know, oil, um, seeping into our rivers and streams. As soon as the manholes landed and quit rattling around on the ground, everyone moved on.

Then, about 28 years later, a Coast Guard helicopter spotted a big old plume of oil flowing into Newtown Creek. In one location, under Kingsland Avenue, the gas and oil layer was more than 20 feet thick! Everybody took twelve more years to think things over. Then in 1990 the state of New York told ExxonMobil that it just had to start cleaning up its mess.

And then...not much happened.

Until now, dun dun dun.

In 2004, the Riverkeepers (an environmental group you might know for employing a guy by the name of Robert Kennedy) filed "notices of intent to sue" against ExxonMobil and a few other oil companies. In 2006 or so, the residents of Greenpoint organized. The big news in 2007 is that new Attorney General Andrew Cuomo seems to eager to be on Exxon like white on rice. He's tired of their sweet talking, late night phone calls and promises of "baby, I will...":

This is one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation, larger than the Exxon Valdez and slower in the cleanup. ExxonMobil must and will be held accountable. 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.

Cuomo is finally hauling Exxon's tuckus into court. Gov. Spitzer's behind it, so are Sen. Schumer and Rep. Weiner. And, heck, Erin Brokovich's on the case. This situation has gone on way too long and we have a chance now to finally things right. What we can hope for -- and work for -- now is that remediation and resolution won't take another fifty years.