New York State and Suffolk County have begun a “comprehensive investigation” of the Southold transfer station property in Cutchogue after forever chemicals and other toxins were found at unsafe levels in groundwater migrating offsite and potentially impacting drinking water wells.

The site is surrounded by businesses and homes, some served by Suffolk County Water Authority water but upward of three dozen are on private wells, according to emails reviewed by Newsday. Suffolk’s Department of Health Services last week began notifying residents in the surrounding area, according to responses to Newsday questions to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. 

The first notices about the findings went out to selected Southold Town officials on May 22, according to the email sent by the DEC. The notice said based on groundwater tests of wells on the landfill site, the DEC and state Health Department were "offering to test eight private drinking water wells in the vicinity" of the landfill. 

Suffolk County, after a review of potential impacts, has ordered a considerably larger sample study of 36 private wells. 

"The contaminants from the landfill are troubling," said Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine in an interview Tuesday afternoon, adding he'd ordered private wells testing to determine the extent of the plume. "It is a clear and present threat to public health." 

Emails between Suffolk and the state detailed "contamination that has been detected in groundwater leaving the Town of Southold Waste Transfer Station."

Suffolk's expansion was based on its own assessment of the "groundwater flow and historical site operations," which included solvents from a local machine shop during landfill operations. 

Tests of water thus far have turned up concentrations of Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and 1,4-Dioxane “above New York State’s maximum containment levels for drinking water,” the DEC said in an email response to Newsday.

Newsday visited several homes to the east and west of the site on Tuesday and found chiefly homes that were connected to Suffolk County Water Authority system. 

Justin Csajko, a homeowner just east of the landfill, said he had both a private well for irrigation and a public well for drinking. "We don't drink the well water," he said. 

Mike Boken, the Cutchogue fire chief who also owns a home there, said he'd been told his house had been converted to county Authority water after the landfill was capped in the 1990s.

Last week, Romaine referenced the Southold plume as an area of concern during a news briefing about an unrelated toxic plume in East Hampton that shut down public drinking water wells. Suffolk is conducting extensive testing around that site, and on Tuesday, East Hampton Town formerly requested battery owners NextEra and National Grid to take action to address fire-water containment and other safety concerns. 

The 41-acre Southold site, located near Cox Lane and County Road 48, contains a closed and capped former municipal landfill and an active transfer station, according to the DEC. The transfer station accepts household and commercial garbage and recyclables, and is home to a yard-waste compost facility, according to a DEC site database.

“This facility accepted municipal and domestic wastes, demolition, and landscaping debris, and cesspool and septic tank wastes starting in 1951,” according to the DEC site. “This landfill also reportedly accepted solvents from a local machine shop.”

The landfill closed in October of 1993, and the DEC completed a Phase I investigation in 1985. Southold Town also completed investigations in 1991.

“Based on the information contained in these reports, the wastes disposed at this site are not hazardous waste, and analytical data did not confirm the presence of documented hazardous waste on site,” the DEC site concluded.

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said a reporter's call was the first he'd heard of the investigation or the findings. 

"It's disappointing that they wouldn't contact the town on something like this," he said.

Krupski noted the town has been involved in a "rigorous testing program with the state since" the site was capped in the 1990s. He said he believed most local residents in the vicinity are on public drinking water.  

He also said the town has worked to preserve farmland around the site so that "if there was something in the water the local population wouldn't be affected." 

Krupski said the monitoring wells on the site continue to be tested, and "we have to rely on that testing. That’s what they're there for. That’s a requirement for a capped landfill." 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.