Environmentalists are calling for better protections around waterfront electrical substations in the wake of a "catastrophic" transformer failure at a Con Edison's DUMBO location that likely leached thousands of gallons of mineral oil into the East River. While the Sunday afternoon transformer failure occurred on land, the oil swiftly flowed across the porous ground into the river nearby, said John Lipscomb, a clean water advocate with Riverkeeper, who has been keeping tabs on cleanup efforts from the U.S. Coast Guard, the State's Department of Environmental Conservation and the public utility.

There are little details available at this time but reports indicate a small float plane has capsized or crashed in St. Marys River in the vicinity of the Pine Street Marina. The plane's pontoons were spotted above the water level shortly after 4 p.m. today and emergency crews were dispatched.