CBS New York | Con Ed Cleaning Up Oil Spill Along East River CBS New York NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Con Ed is working to contain an oil spill along the East River. A transformer containing about 37,000 gallons of insulating oil failed at a substation on John Street in downtown Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. “It burst and ... East River oil spill damaging to aquatic life, experts say 'Catastrophic' Failure at Brooklyn Con Ed Spills 37000 Gallons of Transformer Oil Thousands of gallons of oil dumped into East River from Con Ed transformer malfunction |