{"id":106635,"date":"2025-07-31T04:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106635\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T04:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:27:09","slug":"cleanup-nearly-complete-in-long-island-canal-after-psegs-nonhazardous-oil-spill-kills-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/106635\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleanup nearly complete in Long Island canal after PSE&G’s \u2018nonhazardous\u2019 oil spill kills wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of gallons of fluid used in power lines spilled into a Long Island canal<\/a> this month after a buried PSE&G transmission cable ruptured \u2014 leading to an oily mess in the East Rockaway area that harmed the local animal population.<\/p>\n

About 7,000 gallons of dielectric fluid \u2014 a synthetic mineral oil used to insulate high-voltage lines \u2014 were released into the Mill River on July 14 due to the damage to the underground cables, state officials said.<\/p>\n

At least four birds were confirmed dead, as the synthetic substance was found clinging to their feathers, leaving them unable to fly or escape predators, rescuers reportedly said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Thousands of gallons of fluid used in power lines spilled into a canal in East Rockaway after a PSE&G transmission cable ruptured. CBS<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of oil can smother small creatures and interfere with gas exchange in gills or other membranes,\u201d J. Bret Bennington, professor and chair of the Department of Geology, Environment, and Sustainability at Hofstra University told the Long Island Herald.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt floats on water and can be skimmed off, but it is still an irritant.\u201d<\/p>\n

State officials said Wednesday that the efforts to clean the spill site \u2014 which is lined with homes, a park and even a small marina \u2014 were nearly done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cleanup of dielectric fluid is essentially complete,\u201d a spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Conservation told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dielectric fluid seen in the Mill River. Crows Nest Marina<\/p>\n

A bird rescued from the canal cover in the fluid. Crows Nest Marina<\/p>\n

\u201cSpill Response experts are awaiting a final report documenting site activities and proper disposal of all generated material as part of the spill closure process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absorbent booms, containment barriers, and a drum skimmer were deployed across the canal to contain the spread, with five vacuum trucks working the site and over 30 workers involved in the cleanup.<\/p>\n

PSE&G said they shut down the line spraying the fluid as soon as it came to their attention, and that no customers lost power in the process.<\/p>\n

Animal rescue workers cleaning up a bird. Crows Nest Marina<\/p>\n

The company believes the rupture may have been caused by third-party damage to the cable\u2019s external coating, which weakened over time and allowed the leak to form \u2014 but didn\u2019t offer a specific hypothesis on how.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The energy supplier also said the fluid leaking was nonhazardous, despite its damage to wildlife.<\/p>\n

Miriam Rafailovich, a materials science professor at Stony Brook University, said the incident highlights a larger problem across Long Island \u2014 that aging underwater cables like these exist all over \u2014 many unmapped, poorly monitored, and dangerous to wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cleanup process of the canal is nearly complete, according to a spokesperson from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.\u00a0 CBS<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cables are all over the ocean floor and many are uncharted,\u201d Rafailovich said. \u201cWhen they get damaged, nobody knows who they belong to or who to call.\u201d<\/p>\n

She warned that the mineral oils used in the cables can wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems, harming fish, crustaceans, and plant life, and disrupting critical species that help capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

PSE&G said it\u2019s continuing to work with the D.E.C., Coast Guards, local officials, and wildlife rescue groups to manage the ongoing response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DEC said monitoring will continue until the site is fully remediated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of gallons of fluid used in power lines spilled into a Long Island canal this month after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[746,6084,5248,49670,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-106635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-long-island","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-oil-spills","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114945959140397637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}