Toxic spills are everywhere in Brooklyn

By Lucy Cohen Blatter | April 7, 2015 - 10:45AM

If you live in Brooklyn and are concerned about pollution, this map of the borough's toxic spills will certainly get you thinking — or quaking in your boots, depending on your disposition.

Using records from the New York State Department of Conservation, Brooklyn-based web developer Jill Hubley has compiled the above map, featured in the Atlantic's CityLab blog, which documents 15 months of noxious spills across Brooklyn. The questionable substances include paint, dry-cleaning chemicals, blood and oil from stoves, transmissions and more.

According to CityLab, Hubley was surprised at just how ubiquitous these are. "I expected to see a concentration of spills in the more industrial sections of the borough, like Bushwick," she told the blog. "They are instead fairly dispersed."

She's logged 486 spills since January 1, 2014, and says she'll continue to update it, so keep checking the site — unless you'd rather keep the anxiety in check. Worrywarts, you've been warned.

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