For the second time this year, there’s this weird green stuff oozing onto the streets of New York City, and nobody has a clue about what it actually is.
New Yorkers got a bizarre shock as certain streets in the city appeared to start leaking green slime out of nowhere. It’s not a Spongebob prank, though, and locals are totally puzzled about what this mysterious liquid could be.
The curious incident of the green “ooze” grabbed public attention on X, the social platform previously known as Twitter. It all started when a user shared a photo showing what seemed like green slime emerging from a manhole.
“So there’s literal green sludge bubbling up from the ground next to World Trade Center right now,” Dan Pantelo, an X user, posted, on November 2, 2023. His post has gained over 4.4 million views as of now, sparking a bunch of other X users to chime in on this seemingly strange occurrence.
Lots of folks joked that the vivid green puddles looked straight out of a comic book. Pantelo even cracked a joke, saying New York had turned into “full-blown Gotham.”
Some users quipped that it was “Ghostbusters time” and that the bubbling green goo appeared “radioactive.”
Certainly, a bunch of New Yorkers, likely used to witnessing oddities on the streets daily, simply strolled past the green goo puddles as if it were just another day in the Big Apple, as noted by Insider.
“Knowing New York, stuff happens. Weird stuff happens,” stated 17-year-old Diego. “People just walk by and don’t pay attention to it… I guess it’s just like the waste coming out of the sewers.”
On the flip side, people from outside New York were a tad more worried about the green liquid — and they found it surprising that the locals weren’t.
“If we saw a green substance on the ground, we’d be very concerned,” Richard Johnston, a Texan in New York with his wife Shayla, mentioned that the green liquid seemed like “Freon,” and he admitted having no clue about what it might be.
“But it’s definitely not good, whatever it is.”
Up to now, no one has figured out where the green slime is coming from or what it’s all about. Insider contacted the New York State Department of Environmental Protection, and they pointed the publication to Con Edison and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A Con Ed spokesperson only confirmed that their equipment wasn’t the cause of the mysterious fluid.
Giovanni Marin, who works at O’Hara’s restaurant and pub, shared with Insider that he thought the liquid might be connected to a sprinkler test at the nearby Cloud One Hotel. However, Michael Black, the manager at Cloud One, contradicted this, stating that the hotel wasn’t undergoing any sprinkler tests, and they had no knowledge of the green sludge.
Other X users provided more details on Pantelo’s initial post using the “Community Notes” feature, Elon Musk’s tool for fact-checking instead of a moderation team.
The Community Note reads: “This is water full of green dye. Plumbers frequently use harmless, fluorescent green dye to detect leaks in plumbing and sewage systems.” The note also includes a link to a Wikipedia article about dye tracing.
It’s important to mention that X’s Community Notes feature has faced criticism for fueling the spread of misinformation. A report from Wired recognized that, despite Elon Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino promoting Community Notes as a robust fact-checking tool, it has often exacerbated the platform’s issues with misinformation.
In simple terms, even if some X users think the green goo could be harmless fluorescent dye used by plumbers, it’s crucial to note that this info hasn’t been officially confirmed as true.
The puzzle is still unsolved, but it brings to mind a curiously similar event that Gothamist covered in 2017. During that incident, an equally mysterious green substance floated through Midtown.
Gothamist figured out that the substance was probably antifreeze. A few months later, they came out with another report saying that green goo was discovered at the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station. But this time, it turned out to be just green dye.
In March of this year, a similar incident happened at the entrance of the Seventh Avenue subway station in Prospect Heights. Once more, folks speculated about dye tracing, antifreeze, and the chance of supernatural happenings.
The second assertion was strongly rejected.
“Unfortunately, [there were no] reports of anyone gaining superpowers and/or any teenagers becoming sword-wielding turtles. I haven’t heard any news of any particle accelerator explosions or lightning storms,” a representative from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told the New York Post.
No matter what the green stuff is, here’s a simple tip: Don’t touch it.
