'Cleanup is needed' in Calverton
Federal reps join push to protect river from Grumman plume
2 comments below
Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Rep. Timothy Bishop, are insisting that the Navy pay for all cleanup and monitoring of the pollution plume -- the heart of which is feared to be heading straight for the Peconic River -- and reimburse Suffolk County for its efforts in trying to better gauge it.
"In particular, we are very concerned that the end of this plume has still not been identified," the representatives wrote in a letter sent to the Navy yesterday. "Suffolk County's monitoring initiative has exposed glaring holes in the current monitoring and remediation plan and new action is sorely needed."
The letter comes less than a week after the Riverhead News-Review acquired and published results of the county Department of Health Services' second round of groundwater testing near the Navy-owned land, the site of a Northrop Grumman weapons plant that closed in 1996.
The county's data revealed that the plume of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, is much wider, and runs much deeper, than previous Navy investigations had shown.
Traces of the chemicals -- industrial solvents that in high enough concentrations could be harmful to marine life and human health -- already have been found in the riverbanks just east of Connecticut Avenue, about a quarter-mile south of the Navy land.
[if "'Our hope is that such a [cleanup] plan will be completed by the end of the summer.' Peter Scully, state Department of Environmental Conservation" equals ""]
Meanwhile, officials with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has jurisdiction over the site, said they believe the Navy will indeed act on developing a plan to clean the plume. This, despite Navy officials telling the News-Review last week they still believe the chemicals are dissipating naturally as they sweep away from the property.
Peter Scully, who heads the DEC's Long Island offices, said he believes a cleanup plan could be hammered out between the agencies within the next few months.
"It is important for people to understand that the agencies involved need complete information about the scope and extent of the groundwater contamination in order to develop an effective cleanup plan," he said. "DEC continues to work closely with [Suffolk County] in this regard, and welcomes the support of the elected officials in pressing for prompt action by the Navy to begin cleanup activities as soon as an effective plan can be developed."
"Our hope is that such a plan will be completed by the end of the summer."
Navy officials could not be reached immediately for comment on the letter, in which the elected officials wrote they "demand that the Navy immediately discontinue applying the 'natural attenuation' policy to the Calverton case."
"It has become abundantly clear," they wrote, "that an advanced remediation action plan to clean up this site is needed, and we call on the Navy to draft such a plan with the NYS DEC and Suffolk County Department of Health Services, and implement it without inundating local taxpayers with the cost."
mwhite@timesreview.com
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2 comments found
Natural attenuation : 7/12/2009
This theory is simply a new face on the old theory that the solution to pollution is dilution. Harmful chemicals don't simply disappear. This is a pipe dream for federal polluters. The only way they disappear is when they are ignored and test wells are drilled in unlikely places.
Want to talk to RAB members : 7/9/2009
I'll be in New York later this month, and I'd like to learn more about this problem from members of the Restoration Advisory Board. - Lenny Siegel, Center for Public Environmental Oversight, www.cpeo.org. Contact me at LSiegel@cpeo.org.
