2025 Milestones/Activities
As of December 31, 2025, more than 13.2 million gallons of petroleum product has been recovered, and over 7.8 billion gallons of groundwater has been recovered and treated from the three sites comprising the Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project. In 2025, the project recovered a total of approximately 16,390 gallons of product, while recovering and treating over 302 million gallons of groundwater to Clean Water Act standards.
ExxonMobil Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project (EMGPRP – S224150)
ExxonMobil continues to operate the Former Brooklyn Terminal Free-Product Recovery and Containment System (RCS) located within Kingsland Yard (OU-4/OU-5) and the Off-Site Free-Product Recovery System (ORS) serving OU-7 and OU-8. Routine operation and maintenance activities for these systems include critical safety device (CSD) inspections, air stripper maintenance and cleaning, carbon vessel change-outs, filter replacement, system inspections, SVE system monitoring and sampling, SPDES discharge monitoring and reporting, and regular evaluation of treatment system and recovery well performance.
During 2025, approximately 4,033 gallons of product were recovered by the RCS and approximately 2,834 gallons of product were recovered by the ORS. By the end of 2025, cumulative product recovery by ExxonMobil exceeded 9.2 million gallons since remedial operations began in 1979. During 2025, approximately 163,858,438 gallons of groundwater were treated by the RCS and approximately 129,764,143 gallons of groundwater were treated by the ORS.
The OU-4 property has been sold, and ExxonMobil is advancing site preparation activities to support the future redevelopment of the parcel. As part of this effort, ExxonMobil initiated the EMGPRP Treatment System Consolidation project where design and construction of a new centralized groundwater treatment facility at 38 Varick Street began in 2025. The new facility is being designed to replace the existing RCS and ORS treatment plants that are more than 20 years old. The consolidated treatment system is anticipated to begin operation in late 2026, after which the existing RCS and ORS treatment facilities will be decommissioned in accordance with approved project plans and regulatory requirements.
As part of the EMGPRP Treatment System Consolidation project, ExxonMobil also relocated existing recovery wells RW-16 and RW-29 to new locations outside the proposed development footprint, where they were reinstalled as RW-16R and RW-29R in 2025. The relocation work also included upgrades to associated site infrastructure, utilities, and conveyance piping to maintain recovery system operations and support the planned transition to the consolidated treatment system.
As recovery efforts have reduced the size and extent of the off-site free-product plume, ExxonMobil has continued to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of individual recovery wells. Wells that no longer recover meaningful quantities of product are assessed to determine whether they remain necessary for plume containment and hydraulic control. Any proposed well shutdowns are reviewed under a NYSDEC-approved evaluation process that includes an assessment of potential impacts to the remedial system and groundwater conditions before regulatory approval is requested.
In a 2020 Groundwater Modeling Summary Report submitted to NYSDEC, ExxonMobil identified that 7 of the 23 existing recovery wells at that time were not needed to maintain groundwater hydraulic control based on their transient groundwater model (RW-22, RW-23, RW-27, RW-28, RW-C, RW-E, and RW-K). Based on the approved shutdown evaluation process, ExxonMobil has received approval by NYSDEC to shut down five of these wells since 2021 (RW-E in 2021, RW-22 in 2022, RW-27 in 2023, and RW-23 in 2025). However, in 2024 NYSDEC requested ExxonMobil develop an updated groundwater model based on the potential sale and redevelopment of the OU-4 property and this updated model identified it was better to keep recovery well RW-C to maintain groundwater hydraulic control and RW-D could be removed instead. As such, ExxonMobil submitted a request that was approved by NYSDEC to decommission recovery well RW-D in 2026. Based on current recovery well performance metrics, it is anticipated that ExxonMobil will be seeking approval to decommission recovery wells RW-28 and RW-K in the future.
In August 2018, NYSDEC approved ExxonMobil’s Pressure-Pulse Waterflooding Interim Remedial Measure (IRM) to enhance free-product recovery within Kingsland Yard by increasing hydraulic gradients and promoting product migration toward the recovery well network. Injection operations began in May 2019 and continued through 2024. Based on a review of system performance and recovery data, ExxonMobil determined that the waterflooding program was no longer providing a measurable benefit to free-product recovery. As a result, ExxonMobil requested and received approval from NYSDEC to discontinue waterflooding injection operations in January 2025.
The existing Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) system that consists of 21 SVE wells in OU-5, OU-7, and OU-8, and extracts contaminated soil vapor from the subsurface and transports it to a flame oxidation unit located at 38 Varick Street that destroys the contamination. ExxonMobil also has a Vacuum-Enhanced recovery (VER) system that accelerates product recovery at nine recovery wells by applying negative pressure that also removes and transport contaminated vapors to the flame oxidation unit for destruction. ExxonMobil estimated the combination of the SVE/VER systems removed and remediated an equivalent of 8,549 gallons of free-product in 2025.
Former Paragon Oil Terminal (S224083) and Apollo Street Creek Parcels (S224122)
Chevron-Texaco continues to remediate petroleum contamination associated with the Former Paragon Oil Terminal and Apollo Street properties through a combination of groundwater recovery and treatment, free-product containment, indoor air and groundwater monitoring, and institutional controls. The primary components of the remedy include a grout wall installed on the landward side of the steel bulkhead and a series of product recovery wells that removes a combination of free-product and contaminated groundwater, with the groundwater run through their Total Fluids Recovery System (TFRS). Together, these systems provide hydraulic and physical containment of groundwater to prevent contamination from reaching Newtown Creek. In 2024, about 5 gallons of free-product were recovered and approximately 9,762,250 gallons of groundwater were treated by the TFRS.
A significant change occurred at the site at the beginning of 2025 when Chevron-Texaco changed environmental consulting services from Arcadis to AECOM and the TFRS was taken out of service due to a compressor failure. It took the majority of 2025 for the TFRS system to be repaired and by the time the system was ready to resume operation the SPDES-equivalency permit that allows treated groundwater to be discharged to Newtown Creek had expired. AECOM submitted a SPDES-equivalency permit renewal application to NYSDEC in early 2026 that was approved in July 2026. As a result, remediation efforts in 2025 focused primarily on monitoring and assessment of future treatment system improvements.
Despite the lack of active recovery system operation, quarterly gauging, annual groundwater sampling, and semiannual manual product recovery activities continued in 2025, with free-product only identified in eight of the 30 monitoring and recovery wells along the bulkhead.
Chevron-Texaco previously installed vapor-phase recovery (VPR) system where a low-vacuum system removed contaminated vapors from beneath portions of site buildings and some product recovery wells, and these vapors were run through an electric catalytic oxidizer to remove the contamination. However, Chevron-Texaco identified the VPR system had limited effectiveness in recent years through a sustainability evaluation where the amount of electricity used to run the electric catalytic oxidizer didn’t justify the effectiveness of the system and requested to shut the VPR system down. NYSDEC reviewed their data and approved Chevron-Texaco’s request to shut down the system in 2023.
Chevron-Texaco also continued its vapor intrusion monitoring and maintenance program inside the Empire Merchants and Apollo Street warehouses. Semiannual shutdowns of warehouse operations were used to inspect recovery wells, repair and reseal floor slabs, perform vapor surveys, and conduct indoor air monitoring. Ambient air quality in the warehouses is monitored on a semi-annual basis during the shutdowns, with air samples collected across the site to verify air quality inside the building is safe. Product recovery and groundwater sampling are also performed at select indoor monitoring wells during the warehouse shutdown events. During the January 2025 warehouse shutdown, free-product was only identified at sufficient volume for manual recovery in three of the wells.
As part of treatment system operation and maintenance activities, Chevron-Texaco conducts periodic bulkhead inspections and maintains the containment boom systems installed along the former Paragon Oil Terminal and Apollo Street bulkheads. Between March and October 2025, Chevron-Texaco continued to have the bulkhead seams inspected and resealed with marine-grade epoxy as needed and adjusted the containment booms to maintain their effectiveness.
KM Terminal (formerly BP Terminal) (S224082)
Through 2025, Kinder Morgan (KM) continued operation of the Brooklyn Terminal remediation recovery system that consists of 13 dual-phase groundwater and product recovery wells connected to an on-site groundwater treatment system (GWTS). Approximately 9,518 gallons of product were recovered and more than 10.4 million gallons of groundwater were recovered and treated through the GWTS in 2025.
In 2023, KM completed updates to the dual-phase recovery system that included replacement of communications infrastructure, installation of new controls and variable frequency drives, replacement of communication lines, and updates to system programming throughout the recovery network.
The recovery well network underwent routine maintenance and repair throughout 2025 with work including replacement of pumps, totalizers, transducers, pressure gauges, air supply components, and groundwater conveyance infrastructure. Repairs to the RW-9 groundwater collection piping were completed in 2025. Operational adjustments were also made at several wells in response to changing field conditions. KM identified that the RW-1 product totalizer was over-reporting recovery volumes due to air entrainment within the product recovery line, so an air evacuator was installed and recovery values were adjusted to account for previously overcounted volumes. Monthly vacuum extraction events were also conducted to remove accumulated product and impacted water from monitoring wells and to manage liquids collected within Tank 35 and other system components.
The GWTS remained operational throughout the reporting period, although maintenance and repair activities were required for multiple system components. Work conducted during 2025 included repairs to the dewatering sump station, oil-water separator, pumps, air stripper equipment, and associated instrumentation. Based on the age and maintenance history of the system, KM is evaluating upgrades and potential replacement of the treatment system in 2026.
Separate from remediation activities, KM continued implementation of waterfront bulkhead improvements along the Newtown Creek shoreline due to age of the existing bulkhead and increased frequency of observes sheens within the encompassing booms. Geotechnical investigations were performed in 2024 that included bulkhead soil borings and monitoring well installations to support bulkhead project design. During 2025, upgraded steel bulkhead construction activities were performed on a portion of the bulkhead (Section C), with associated site infrastructure modified as necessary to facilitate the work. Additional bulkhead replacement and shoreline improvement activities are planned for future phases of the project in 2026 and beyond.
Site-wide vapor monitoring and annual methane screening continued at the site in 2025. Air monitoring included measurement of methane, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and lower explosive limit (LEL) conditions at locations across the terminal. No conditions requiring additional corrective action were identified during recent monitoring events.