CALLICOON, NY — For anyone who wants a quick course in government agencies, try losing your car in the river.

A veritable alphabet soup of acronyms put their heads together over the sedan that was swept from the Callicoon boat launch by floodwater last December. The EPA, the NPS, the DEC, the DEP, the UDC.*

That’s because the Delaware River is a navigable waterway, said Myles Bartos, a federal on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He said that federal protections for navigable waters, which are defined as influenced by tides or used for commerce, gives the EPA the authority under the National Contingency Plan to “go get that car,” he said. The poisonous fluids that fill a car’s crankcase and gas tank can do real damage if they leach or spill into the water.

The car is out now, but the way it got there has caused some contention. Bartos said the EPA has a procedure for extractions like this to make sure pollutants do not escape into a precious waterway. But a local towing company, which isn’t as well prepared to do execute the task, went ahead and took out the car, without authorization, Bartos said. He said a member of his team, while at the scene, told an employee of Prestige Towing while “in no uncertain terms” to leave the car where it was.

“They went rogue,” he said.

Sean Brooks, the owner of Prestige Towing, which is located in Liberty, admitted, “We have egg on our face. The responsibility is mine.”

He said there was a miscommunication. His business works with Geico insurance, which insured the sedan. When the water levels got low enough on Wednesday, they saw a golden window of opportunity to retrieve the car. Brooks believed he needed to act within this window, before the water iced up or rose again, carrying the car further downstream or, worse, tipping it over, making leaks much more likely.

He said he met with representatives of the aforementioned authorities who had gathered on Tammany Flats, where the car was removed. The good news is that no obvious leaks have been found. 

Brooks told the River Reporter that his business, with 50 trucks and 100 employees, has 31 years of experience in all kinds of extractions in sensitive areas, including waterbodies. Prestige removed the car not with a tow truck but with a skid-steer with rubber tracks. With it, he said, “you can get into remote areas without destroying property.”

Brooks said the skid-steer has a lift that allowed the car to be examined from all sides. The gas tank, oil pan, and gas tank were all intact. He said he was “110 percent sure” the car was not punctured, and believes little to no remediation will be needed. Bartos agreed that nothing looked obvious but that the car will be thoroughly checked.

The car now is on dry(ish) land waiting for the next step. It’s possible the car could start leaking before it’s carried off the flood plain. It wasn’t removed completely because Bob Ellis, the owner of the riverfront property where the car sits, ordered Prestige to stop. 

Ellis lives in Philadelphia and has a second home on the Tammany Flats. He told the River Reporter on Thursday that he was angered to learn the extraction had happened without his authorization. He wants to make sure his property is left undamaged. 

Bartos told Ellis and the River Reporter that the EPA will not fix damage they did not cause. So Ellis, who received assurances from Prestige that they will do any remediation needed, is deciding whether to let Prestige finish the job or go with the EPA. 

Ellis said he was worried the EPA will take too long, since they have to follow complicated procedures like putting the job out to bid. But Bartos said that’s already done, and a recovery contractor could be expected there shortly.

Now that the car is out of the water, he said, the job will less complicated and less expensive.

As for how the car got into the river in the first place, stories differ. Bartos said he’d heard the owner drove to the edge of the water, which caught the car and sent it sliding down the bank, forcing the driver to exit out the window. Brooks said he’d heard the driver put the car in neutral then left the car as it slid into the water. The River Reporter is waiting to find out the real deal from an incident report from the National Park Service. 

Brooks said that, in his experience, most water extractions are the result of distracted driving.

*The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Upper Delaware Council.