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Newtown Creek, the waterway that separates Brooklyn from Queens is filthy, and it’s a problem for both boroughs as elected officials push for federal help to clean up the toxic site.

Largely unnoticed by motorists as their cars pass overhead on the Kosciuszko Bridge, the Creek which empties into the East River on one end, and dead ends at points in Brooklyn and Queens at the other is today a polluted, neglected relic of the City’s industrial past.

To fully clean up an environmental eyesore this massive, U.S. Representatives Anthony Weiner and Nydia Velazquez, two elected officials with a foot in both boroughs are urging the federal government to make an assist through Congress’ Superfund legislation.

Weiner (D-Kew Gardens), and Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) are calling for Newtown to be designated as a Federal Superfund Site, making the creek eligible for $15 million in Federal Funding – up to 90 percent of the average total cleanup costs.

The Superfund program is the federal government’s principal program to clean up the nation’s hazardous waste sites. Despite containing an oil spill one and a half times as large as the Exxon Valdez spill, Newtown Creek is not included as part of the federal program and has never even been tested by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for admission into the program.

The Queens pols this week released a letter to the EPA that calls on the federal government to conduct tests at Newtown Creek to study the pollution levels. If these environmental tests find high levels of toxic chemicals, the entire Newtown Creek area could be included on the federal Superfund list.

Estimates indicate it would take until at least 2026 to finish the remediation.

Finally, the EPA would clean up the site, or force responsible parties to clean up the site. On average, the cleanup process takes 8-11 years.

In the 19th century the estuary was a vital shipping route into the heart of two booming boroughs that helped power industrial growth.

During the second half of the 19th century Newtown was a major commercial waterway and with commerce came polluting ships and industrial and manufacturing businesses that sprang up along the shore.

In large part the City developed for over a hundred years on shipping-based commerce – but the environmental toll was not realized until very recently.

Among the worst, and certainly the most shocking environmental impacts on the Creek happened in 1978, when an oil spill — one and a half times larger than Exxon Valdez — spewed an estimated at 17 million gallons of oil across 55 acres. The oil seeped into the creek and settled under countless homes and businesses in several neighborhoods including Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Maspeth.

After the toxic oil spill, residents of Greenpoint filed lawsuits regarding the disaster.

The spill in 1978 was the United States’ largest underground oil spill, greater than even the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska.

To date, an estimated 9.4 million gallons of oil have been cleaned at Newtown Creek.

Rep. Weiner, who is mulling a bid for mayor in 2009, is urging testing on the site to begin the administrative process and clean up.

“While the oil companies lag in their cleanup responsibilities, the health and safety of Newtown Creek’s residents hang in the balance. Testing these four sites will help us find answers to basic questions about the spill’s health risks and give this national environmental disaster national attention.”

Weiner also wants the EPA, the federal agency responsible for environmental matters, to step up.

“It’s time for the EPA to acknowledge what the people who live here already know: the contamination of Newtown Creek is nothing short of a human tragedy,” Velázquez said. “The EPA should use its strongest tools possible to begin remediation. The time to act is now.”

In April 2008, Congress passed language to fully map the Newtown Creek oil spill. The provision requires new field testing and will create a three-dimensional study of the plume location, detailing – for the first time ever – the extent of the Newtown Creek’s groundwater, soil, and vapor contamination. Pending Senate passage, the study, the biggest, most comprehensive data collection to date, would also be completed by the EPA.

In 2007, Weiner and Velazquez released the findings of an EPA study of Newtown Creek, which found that the spill may be larger than originally estimated but that they say left many questions unanswered.