More Concrete Blocks Found Buried At Bethpage Community Park: DEC
BETHPAGE, NY — Additional concrete blocks were found in Bethpage Community Park on Thursday, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.No additional drums or contamination was found migrating from the portion of the park site, though, Sean Mahar, interim commissioner of the state DEC, told reporters.Bethpage Community Park was a former dumping ground for Northrop Grumman.After six 55-gallon chemical drums were found buried seven feet beneath Bethpage Community Park near the ball field and skatepark in early April, the DEC required Northrop Grumman to investigate the active cleanup site with ground penetrating radar, Mahar said. While the radar found two anomalies, no additional drums were found, according to Mahar.The DEC overlayed historical aerial photographs provided by the Town of Oyster Bay to find potential areas of the park that needed additional investigation, Mahar said. Contractors for Grumman found additional concrete blocks roughly 20 feet to the west of where the drums were found in April, Mahar said.After finding the additional concrete blocks seven to eight feet below ground, the DEC is requiring Grumman to "immediately" develop additional work plans and excavate the new area of the park inside the ongoing cleanup area, Mahar said."We have a lot of questions for Grumman," Mahar said. "We want to know why the ground penetrating radar and the work they did, did not detect these anomalies below ground. We're requiring the immediate excavation work to be conducted expeditiously. They are developing work plans actively, and we're going to oversee the work they're doing on the park immediately."Mahar said the DEC will keep the community informed through the entire process, and the agency is leaving "no stone unturned.""The safety and health of Long Island residents and the environment is paramount, and that's why we're requiring all this additional work to take place in this portion of the park," Mahar said. "Our goal here is to make sure we're moving as quickly as we can to get this park put back into the community's hands and put back into productive use. We're not happy that we find ourselves here, but what you're seeing is the true power of the state superfund program and overseeing the responsible party to do an investigation and address contamination that's found."The area remains closed to the public.Grumman did not respond to Patch's request for comment on the finding of the additional concrete blocks.A whistleblower in 2016 suggested that drums were buried underground in the park, Newsday reported. The Town of Oyster Bay in April said the claim was "deemed unfounded by the DEC, yet chemical-filled drums were discovered in the park just this week.""Previous claims of buried drums were taken seriously," the DEC stated.It was not illegal for drums, chemicals or other waste to be buried or dumped when Grumman owned the land, a former DEC official told Newsday."It’s not atypical around industrial areas to find pockets where they used to dump stuff," the former DEC official told Newsday.The Town of Oyster Bay filed a federal lawsuit against the Grumman Corporation in September because officials believe the company has long stalled cleaning up the park, Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said. It marked the town's second lawsuit against Grumman.Saladino called on Gov. Kathy Hochul, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state's U.S. Senate and Congress members to join the Town of Oyster Bay in compelling Grumman to remove all contaminated soils from Bethpage Community Park and truck them off Long Island.Elevated levels of soil contamination in parts of Bethpage Community Park were first discovered in 2002, and the park was closed to the public. Sections reopened following extensive testing, the town said. The park in 2006 underwent a $20 million remediation project funded by Town of Oyster Bay taxpayers."Grumman has not reimbursed taxpayers for these costs to date," the town previously stated.The ball field, however, remains closed as soil contamination far below the ground continues to exist, the town stated.The contamination was caused by a plume of toxic water because of industrial waste dumping from U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman manufacturing facilities, state officials said. The underground plume was nearly four miles long and two miles wide.The contaminated water led to a New York State Department of Health investigation into several cancer cases in Bethpage, Newsday reported.Grumman gifted the land that would become Bethpage Community Park to the town in 1962 under the condition it would be used as a park. The 18-acre parcel was previously used by the company as a dumping ground for toxic chemicals containing high concentrations of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Environmental investigations in the 1980s and 90s found the extent of the contamination of the land.According to the EPA, volatile organic compounds can be emitted as gasses. Exposure can cause damage to the liver, kidneys and the central nervous system, as well as cancer.Saladino previously said the town has taken several steps to clean the contaminated areas of the park's ball field so the community can use it again, "despite Grumman's lack of action."The town, with cooperation from the Department of Environmental Conservation, was working with Grumman to remediate two types of contamination under the ball field, but the project was stalling, according to Oyster Bay.Grumman installed remediation equipment above the contaminated soil but "refuses to expedite the process and wishes to leave behind PCBs deep below the surface," the town previously stated.PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyl, cause cancer in animals, while studies in humans support evidence for potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency."Studies in animals provide conclusive evidence that PCBs cause cancer," the EPA's website reads. "Studies in humans raise further concerns regarding the potential carcinogenicity of PCBs. Taken together, the data strongly suggest that PCBs are probable human carcinogens."The DEC oversaw the collection and laboratory analysis of thousands of soil and groundwater samples at the former Grumman Settling Ponds — now the park. A groundwater containment system, soil vapor extraction system, and a first phase of a thermal remedy were constructed to remove thousands of pounds of site-related contamination, according to the DEC."DEC and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) are focused on finding and eliminating any possible exposures to the public from the contamination," the DEC stated.That work is complete, but the cleanup remains ongoing under different design and construction phases.The DEC said the former ball field will be restored once the "remedy" has been fully implemented. The area was fenced when the town closed the ball field in 2003 and is inaccessible to the public.The former ball field area is where the "bulk" of the disposal took place while the property was owned by Grumman, the DEC stated.The DEC stated it is not uncommon to find buried underground storage tanks, intact drums, drum carcasses, drywells, tank lines, and more when investigating and remediating large and complex former industrial sites."This typically occurs when redevelopment or a cleanup is happening, as is the case at the Bethpage Community Park," the agency wrote.The article More Concrete Blocks Found Buried At Bethpage Community Park: DEC appeared first on Farmingdale, NY Patch.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings