Andrew Cuomo
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil to force the cleanup of a decades-old oil spill in New York City.
The suit concerns a 17-million gallon leak that was discovered in 1978 in Newtown Creek, the waterway that separates the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. It has formed an underground contamination over 55-acres of the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, Cuomo said.
Cuomo said in a statement that besides the cleanup, he is asking Exxon to restore the creek and is seeking substantial financial penalties and damages for the injuries to financial resources.
The attorney general filed a notice of intent to sue the company in February.