Newtown Creek has joined the Gowanus Canal on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund list of toxic sites, and is slated for a cleanup that will take over ten years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, officials announced September 27.

“We are now poised to get this cleanup to happen,” said EPA’s Regional Administrator, Judith Enck.

The state nominated the polluted 3.8-mile creek, which separates Brooklyn and Queens, for the Superfund list two years ago. The plan was proposed last September.

An investigation into the contamination of the industrial waterway is underway, and a formal study will start next spring. The study will determine how long it will take to clean the creek.

Enck said a timetable “in the range” of ten to 15 years was accurate.

The federal government will go after companies along the creek believed to have contributed to its pollution to pay for the cleanup. The EPA has sent letters to National Grid, BP America, Exxon Mobil, Texaco and the City of New York, among others.

“The various parties are going to have to pay their fair share,” Enck said. “They realize that they have financial responsibility.”

The process of placing Newtown Creek on the Superfund list was far less contentious than the one which played out over the Gowanus Canal, where the city and pro-development forces pushed to block the listing, claiming it would stymie local growth.

In the case of Newtown Creek, which winds its way through less-affluent neighborhoods with fewer development projects, the city supported a Superfund cleanup, as did civic and environmental groups who have lobbied for a comprehensive cleanup for years.

The Newtown Creek Alliance “supports the EPA Superfund cleanup,” the group said on its website.

“For generations Newtown Creek has been one of the most polluted waterways in the country,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, whose district covers the creek. Now “we can begin the process of cleaning up this long-ailing body of water.”

It will take time and money, officials cautioned.

The EPA’s Walter Mugdan said it would be costlier, and take longer, than a similar cleanup of the shorter 1.8-mile Gowanus Canal, a project expected to take ten to 12 years and cost between $300 million and $500 million.

The cost of cleaning Newtown Creek “is likely to be more, and possibly significantly more,” Mugdan said. “It’s a much longer waterway.”

The EPA will remove contaminated sediment from the creek, which is home to PCBs, pesticides, heavy metals and other pollutants. The ongoing work of improving the creek’s water quality- and addressing the underground Greenpoint oil spill- will be left to the state.