Navy nixes 'fix' for Grumman plume
Officials tell residents more data is needed before considering ways to tackle pollution
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U.S. Navy officials told residents Thursday that they will not install a temporary mechanism to treat groundwater chemicals flowing from the former Grumman plant in Calverton into the Peconic River.
Officials explained during a public meeting that they need more data before trying to treat the plume of volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs, which can have harmful effects on humans and wildlife.
Community members on the Restoration Advisory Board, which meets with the Navy to discuss its cleanup efforts, had asked that a pump-and-treat system be installed in the suspected heart of the plume while the Navy hammers out a more extensive and permanent treatment plan.
"We've been concerned for years about what's going into the Peconic River. We're not seeing anything concrete and positive toward mitigating the situation," board member and retired biology teacher Bob Conklin told Navy officials Thursday. "I can't see how putting in one well is going to hurt or cost you a lot of money. We're not asking you for a major cleanup. Just show something positive toward doing it instead of talking about it.
"You get tired of this after a while," he added.
Lora Fly, the Navy's remedial project manager who oversees the federal cleanup, responded that the government cannot circumvent its procedures.
Mr. Conklin then fumed, "This could take years and years, and then more years."
Ms. Fly said the Navy hopes to have a grip on how the plume is behaving by mid-December, when federal, state and county officials meet to discuss the area's geology and their ongoing testing efforts as they try to determine the plume's source, direction and speed of flow.
Well tests conducted by the Navy and the county health department have found a band of high VOC concentrations -- at points 200 times higher than drinking water standards -- in groundwater stretching about a mile along River Road, south of the former fighter jet plant.
But VOCs, though in lower concentrations, have already been found in the Peconic River, to the south of the band.
"We've identified, in this sampling round, two distinct discharge points [into the river]," said the health department's Andrew Rapiejko, while presenting the county's latest round of findings. "The highest concentration we had was about 70 points per billion total VOCs. The drinking water standard is five."
But Mr. Rapiejko described the numbers as "screening data" and cautioned that they shouldn't be used to evaluate impacts on wildlife.
"But the data does indicate that the plume is not dissipating naturally before it gets to the river," he said. "It is getting to the river. It is discharging."
The Navy has contended that the plume is disappearing from the groundwater as it flows southeast toward the river.
mwhite@timesreview.com
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