The health department is currently digging 20 additional test wells along a private service road that reaches south, perpendicularly from River Road, to get a better handle on the size and direction of the plume, health officials said.

The results of those tests should be known in about two months.

Jim Brantley, a Navy spokesman, previously told the News-Review the Navy has been monitoring the area, which stretches east from the Swan Lake golf course to Connecticut Avenue for several years. The Navy concluded the chemicals are dissipating naturally before hitting the river to the south, a process called natural attenuation.

"...the concentrations decrease toward the river," he said.

The Navy will be trying to better locate the sources of the contamination and "re-evaluating options for more aggressively dealing" with contamination to the north, on Navy property, Mr. Brantley added.

But county health officials said its already apparent the plume is more widespread than previous Navy testing had indicated, and that the contaminants, which include trichloroethane, an industrial solvent, may not be dissipating naturally.

County health officials are taking the stance that the Navy must somehow remediate the plume.

County Leg. Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) whose district includes Calverton, supports the county's stance.

He said at a press conference Monday that letting nature take its course is not an option when the health of residents and a protected river is at stake.

"The VOC levels are off the charts," Mr. Romaine said. "This dangerous plume is the direct result of Navy operations dating back to the mid-1950s. The resistance to immediate remediation is simply unconscionable."

Mr. Romaine sent a letter to the Navy last week, while also writing to Mr. Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Tim Bishop to seek help in pressuring the federal government, he said.

"I have asked officials in Washington to address this issue sooner rather than later; the health and safety of our community is at stake," Mr. Romaine said. "We're glad to see that Senator Schumer has responded."

Mr. Romaine was also joined Monday by civic and environmental leaders and members of the Riverhead and Brookhaven town boards. Both boards indicated they would introduce resolutions calling on the Navy to act.

"If the DEC finds that a commercial establishment is contaminated, they make that establishment clean it up and correct the situation," said Riverhead Councilman John Dunleavy. "The Navy did this. The Navy is the one responsible to clean it up."

Although there are no homes in the suspected area of the plume, the contaminants have already affected drinking water wells at the Peconic Sportsman's Club. The club potentially sits over the heart of the plume.

"We had to start filtering our water about eight months to a year ago," said one member of the hunting club, who was on hand at the event but did not want his name published.

He said he and other members are concerned that the contaminants could also negatively affect the quality of fishing activities at the club.

mwhite@timesreview.com

Short-term exposure to high levels of some VOCs can cause headaches, dizziness, light-headedness, drowsiness, nausea, and eye and respiratory irritation. These effects usually go away after the exposure stops. In laboratory animals, long-term exposure to high levels of some VOCs has caused cancer and affected the liver, kidney and nervous system.

Source: New York State Department of Health

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