NJ’s probe of Bayonne oil spill left by Sandy may be flawed

After three years, New Jersey officials have admitted they likely screwed up an investigation into a 2012 Superstorm Sandy-related oil spill in Bayonne, The Post has learned.

The state, which has since 2013 maintained that a review of soil samples showed it was only water from the surging storm and not oil that led to the condemning of several homes in an industrial neighborhood, admitted in a recently revealed email that “a more complete review” might be in order.

An official in Gov. Chris Christie’s Department of Environmental Protection tested the soil around five Bayonne homes — located in the Constable Hook neighborhood just west of Route 440 and less than 1,000 feet from an industrial park with dozens of oil storage tanks — is unsure it “provided the full analytical package at the time (because I do not think we had it),” according to the email.

The April 30 email, sent by DEP Assistant Director Frank Pinto to a colleague, was disclosed at an arbitration hearing in Newark last week. A copy of the email was obtained by The Post.

An Australian REIT, which owns the five condemned buildings, filed a $3 million claim with the state’s $17 million spill fund. The DEP, which administers the fund, is refusing to pay out the money because of the initial finding that no oil was in the floodwaters that filled basements in this lower middle class neighborhood.

But try telling that to Helen Snella, who lives on 22nd Street near the condemned buildings. “Everything was oil, oil, oil inside the basement,” Snella told The Post. “I still don’t know how safe we are.”

Indeed, during a late January visit to the area, a strong petroleum smell hung stubbornly in the air inside the homes.

Nearby, Anna Kubiak, 58, showed a visitor knee-high oil stains still covering the walls of her kitchen, bathroom, and hallway — damage that she claims is from the Sandy storm. Kubiak said she’s refusing to clean the stains until she sees some financial relief from her insurance company.

The condemned buildings each had the same telltale signs: first floors rooms each with a slick, wainscot-like covering to their lower walls. The air inside was so thick with the smell of oil that you had to pop outside every few minutes for fresh air.

In all, 12 families have been displaced and a neighborhood scarred because of what now appears to be a botched investigation by Christie’s DEP. The agency, according to the email, knew by at least last April its probe was botched but has not said so publicly.

The five buildings are owned by the US Masters Residential Property Fund. Its $3 million claim covers lost rent ($12,000 a month), remediation costs, restoration of the properties as well as monies to fund a further investigation into what caused the oil spill, according to papers filed in the case.

Administrative Judge Richard McGill, who is overseeing the REIT’s claim, isn’t expected to decide the arbitration case until April.

While the DEP publicly maintains there was never an oil issue, the email tells a different story.

In the email, Pinto, speaking of Terry Sugihara, the DEP investigator, who holds a Ph.D. in ecology and submitted what is now believed to be an inconclusive 2013 report, writes that the investigator “acknowledges that he doesn’t have specific enough data on the contamination levels of oil in the area, and says that a recommendation that it isn’t a health risk is mildly speculative.”

Kubiak, Snella and the REIT hope the email helps them get their homes and ground surrounding them re-tested.

“The people in my community feel that they are the forgotten people of Bayonne,” Pastor Michael Kelly, whose Bayonne First Assembly of God church faces the condemned properties, told The Post.

“When Hurricane Sandy hit, there was almost five feet of water, oil, kerosene and human fecal matter,” he said. “This damage was not all done by water. The damage was done by oil and kerosene.”

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the DEP, declined to comment specifically last week on the REIT’s claim, noting that there are 11 other open claims. Hajna, when told of the emails, refused to give an inch.

“Where’s the big conspiracy?” he asked. “Don’t quote me on that. Are you going to quote me on that? I don’t care. It’s Friday.”