Parcel 6 – Block 2277, Lot 1
Historic Operations:
The majority of Parcel 6 was originally created by filling shoreline areas of the East River and the Bushwick Inlet in the mid to late 1800s. From approximately 1867 to 2014, Parcel 6 was used by various oil companies for petroleum refining, bulk storage, and transport. Parcel 6 was originally occupied by Pratt Oil Works (ca. 1868 to 1910), which refined crude oil to produce petroleum products including kerosene, naphtha, gasoline, lubricating oils, bulk tar, acids, asphalt material and turpentine. The refinery was one of the earliest and largest refineries in New York, handling over 50 million gallons of petroleum per year. Parcel 6 also included a can factory making tin cans for filling and shipping (via barge) of petroleum products. Historical records show there were multiple large fires and tank explosions in the late 1800s and early 1900s at the Pratt Oil Works, which resulted in crude oil and refined petroleum being released to the surrounding environment, including to upland soils and into the waters of the East River and Bushwick Inlet. From 1910 to 1951, Parcel 6 was owned by Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY), which succeeded Pratt Oil. ExxonMobil is the successor to both Pratt Oil and SOCONY.
Pratt Oil/SOCONY also constructed and operated pipelines in the late 1800s that connected Parcel 6 to SOCONY facilities on neighboring parcels, specifically SOCONY’s petroleum shipping operation on Parcel 5, the petroleum storage yard at 25 Kent Avenue, and SOCONY’s facilities on nearby Newtown Creek. As SOCONY’s refining operations were transferred outside of Williamsburg to other facilities in the Newtown Creek area in the 1930s and 1940s, Parcel 6 transitioned into a small petroleum packaging/storage operation that ultimately closed in the summer of 1949. SOCONY sold the facility to Maspeth Rail and Terminal Corporation, which subsequently owned it from 1951 to 1959.
From 1959 to 1988, Parcel 6 was owned by Paragon Oil Company/Texaco, and in 1988 ownership was transferred to Star Enterprise/Motiva, which owned property on Parcel 6 until 2014, with a portion of the Parcel owned and operated by Bayside Fuel Oil Depot Corporation from 1997 to 2011. Operations at the facility from 1959 to 2011 included petroleum bulk storage (over 5-million-gallon capacity), vehicle storage and repair, and scrap metal storage and baling. The Chevron Corporation is a successor to Paragon Oil Company, Texaco, Star Enterprise, and Motiva.
Between 2014 and 2016, New York City (NYC) purchased Parcel 6 and continues to own the property today, with plans for redevelopment of the parcel into a public park.
Investigation / Remediation:
Environmental investigations at Parcel 6 commenced in 1997 on behalf of Chevron (formerly Star Enterprise) brought about by the need for removal of petroleum Underground Storage Tanks. Soil and groundwater sampling in subsequent years revealed organic and inorganic contaminants in soils and groundwater, including gasoline related impacts, as well as Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL), aka petroleum, greater than 2 feet in thickness, floating on the groundwater. By 1999, Chevron disposed of some of the contaminated soils surrounding the removed tanks and pumped out hundreds of gallons of fluid from wells on Parcel 6. From 1998 to 2007, routine groundwater monitoring was performed by Chevron and continued to reveal the presence of contaminants in the subsurface and of additional NAPL. Chevron ceased investigations and remediation on Parcel 6 when, in a 2008 No Further Action (NFA) letter, NYSDEC indicated that the “site has been contaminated by MGP [Manufactured Gas Plant] source material, and coal tar migrated from the Williamsburg Works MGP site.” In 2008, monitoring wells on or adjacent to Parcel 6 were decommissioned on behalf of Chevron.
In 2007, National Grid entered into an Order on Consent with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to evaluate environmental conditions at several sites including the former Williamsburg Works MGP site located on adjacent Parcels 1, 2, 3, and 4. As part of that effort, which began in 2009 and continued through 2015, National Grid sampled soil and groundwater on Parcel 6 to delineate potential for MGP impacts. A Remedial Investigation Report (RIR) was submitted in 2015 on behalf of National Grid identifying both MGP related and non-MGP related contamination in site groundwater, soil, and adjacent sediment.
In addition, between 2006 and 2015 NYC conducted several environmental investigations at Parcel 6, as part of diligence efforts related to their future acquisition of the property.
In 2018, ExxonMobil and NYC entered into an Order on Consent with NYSDEC requiring investigation at Parcel 6. After the demolition of site structures by NYC, ExxonMobil’s site investigation activities, which took place from 2019-2020, revealed NAPL as well as other contaminants exceeding state standards in Parcel 6 groundwater and soils. ExxonMobil’s results were summarized in a 2020 Site Characterization Report. In January 2021, NYSDEC provided various comments, including stating that there are additional environmental impacts present at Parcel 6 that require ExxonMobil to “provide follow-up investigations and actions to identify and remove all potential sources of these contaminants.” A revised Final Site Characterization Report was submitted in March 2021. To date no further investigation or remedial activity has been conducted by ExxonMobil.
In 2022, NYSDEC notified seven parties, including Chevron, Motiva, and ExxonMobil, of their potential responsibility for the contamination at Parcel 6. In 2024, NYSDEC formally notified Chevron that the 2008 NFA letter was being rescinded based upon NYSDEC’s determination that additional investigation and response is required to address contamination on Parcel 6. Currently, the parcel is listed under the NYSDEC State Superfund Program and is owned by NYC. The site is vacant, covered by concrete slabs and asphalt, and zoned for commercial use with future plans for parkland.
National Grid has continued investigations and remediation related to its Consent Order for Parcels 1, 2, 3, and 4, with revisions to the draft remedial investigation report submitted to 2023, 2024, and 2025. In 2025, a Supplemental Remedial Investigation Work Plan was submitted on behalf of National Grid which included work at and around Parcel 6 (completed in July 2025), including installation of soil borings to be converted into monitoring wells.