Oil spill turned once lively East Rockaway canal into wildlife ‘ghost town’

Swans, ducks and fish in East Rockaway have been dying after an underground transmission oil spill on July 14 leaked dielectric fluid into Mill River.

Danielle Wilson, who has lived along the East Rockaway canal for five years, had raised some of the swans since they first appeared in her yard. They would stop by like clockwork — mornings, afternoons and evenings. But since the spill, her dock has been empty.

“Two of the cygnets have passed away since the oil spill,” she told Greater Long Island. “The adult swan had made it up to the center of town, but unfortunately, I just retrieved her deceased body from the creek a couple days ago.”

One of the babies was found alive, she said, but is “not in great shape.”

Over the years, Wilson had formed a bond with the birds, feeding them waterfowl food and even summoning them with a whistle.

“Sometimes they’ll sleep in the canal over here,” she said. “They know me and they come to me for food, but once the spill happened, it was a ghost town.”

Rescue efforts

After spotting wildlife in distress, Wilson reached out to John Di Leonardo, president and executive director of Humane Long Island. He partnered with the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays to treat two mallard ducks coated in oil.

“They were terrified, unable to fly, barely walking, but they are recovering,” Leonardo said.

He credited “good Samaritans” like Wilson for picking up animals and contacting rescuers, but said there was no formal process in place from PSEG to help the affected wildlife.

“I know PSEG was also trying to brand this spill as non-hazardous, but animals were dying left and right,” Leonardo said. “It certainly was hazardous to the environment at large. There were a lot of fish killed and all of the baby animals that were recovered ultimately succumbed because of being trapped in that oil.”

Leonardo explained that the oil affected the buoyancy of the birds’ feathers, causing some to drown.

Flager said the company also worked with the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to clean up the dielectric fluid, which she described as “nonhazardous” and similar to mineral oil.

The cause of the leak is still under investigation, but PSEG said there is evidence it may have been caused by third-party excavation damage to the external coating of a cable pipe, which weakened over time.

Cleanup crews arrived within hours of the leak’s discovery. The work included 24/7 marine support, skimming oil from the water, and installing booms to contain and soak up the fluid.

“There was visible progress made within the first couple of days,” Flager said. “The remediation continued for two weeks to eliminate the remaining sheen. All work was completed in accordance with regulatory approvals.”

Signs of recovery

Leonardo said calls about distressed wildlife have slowed, and Wilson has started seeing some birds return.

“It’s just really sad,” Wilson said. “My once serene backyard is just water.”

Top: Danielle Wilson took the above photos from East Rockaway on July 17, three days after the oil spill. (courtesy photos)

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