District seeks to do new test for tainted water in wells

The Massapequa Water District wants to use a unique type of analysis to see if contaminated water from a Superfund site in Bethpage has the same chemical composition as tainted water showing up in plume monitoring wells, some as far as 4 miles away.

The district asked the Navy and Northrop Grumman in early November for access to the wells to perform an isotope analysis, essentially a forensic technique to identify a specific signature.

The request is to see if there is a correlation between the chemical trichloroethylene found in the Bethpage plume and what is showing up in off-site monitoring wells, Massapequa Water District Superintendent Stan Carey said.

“They could trace back contamination to a source with a high degree of certainty,” he said.

The Navy is in the process of reviewing the request, said Lora Fly, a remedial project manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Christine Restani declined to comment.

Assemb. Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa) supported the water district’s request.

“Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy have the ethical responsibility to take any steps which would protect uncontaminated wells and remediate contaminated wells,” he said. “One of the biggest problems we are facing are Grumman and the Navy were allowed to drag their feet. . . . This speaks to the ethics of protecting people.”

For decades, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Navy, Northrop Grumman and area water districts have struggled with soil and groundwater contamination emanating from a 609-acre site in Bethpage once used by the Navy and what was then the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.

Manufacturing started in the 1940s, bringing about advancements such as the Hellcat fighter plane and the Apollo Lunar Module.

The first signs of contamination were documented in 1947 when hexavalent chromium was found in what is now a Bethpage Water District well. Taste and odor issues were traced in 1975 by Nassau County health officials to water tainted with vinyl chlorides and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE.

By 1983, the Grumman site and Navy operations were added to the state’s Superfund program. Production stopped in 1998. A second cleanup plan was issued in 2001 and a third in 2013 to address a hot spot plume of contaminants coming from Bethpage Community Park. In 2014, the Navy disclosed that it found levels of TCE up to 4,600 parts per billion in a monitoring well north of Hempstead Turnpike.

Massapequa wants to examine five to seven wells belonging to the Navy and Northrop Grumman. The closest is a monitoring well on the old manufacturing site and the farthest is near Alken Avenue in Seaford, about 4.5 miles south of the Superfund site.

Carey said the tests would likely cost about $15,000.

“It inches further and further south as every day goes by,” Carey said. “For what we’re trying to protect I wouldn’t say that’s an exorbitant cost.”

The analysis will also look at 1,4-Dioxane, which is an emerging contaminant but not one that is regulated.

The compound specific isotope analysis is not a new technology, but it is uncommon and has not been used in relation to the Navy and Grumman plume, said Richard Humann, president and CEO of H2M architects + engineers, which represents water districts.

“This is a way to be as accurate as you can in analytical work,” Humann said. “The farther away from the site you get the greater potential you can have other interference in a monitoring well.”

Meanwhile, Bethpage Water District approved a 2015 Capital Improvement Plan in October that details 16 projects “so that the district can adequately respond to the treatment demands generated by the ever increasing intensity of the Grumman Plume.” The plan includes building new wells, transmission lines, treatment systems and storage, as well as repairs and upgrades of existing facilities.

The details were revealed in a nearly $20 million bond request submitted to the Town of Oyster Bay and approved at the end of November.

Levels of TCE also have been found in Levittown, which prompted Town of Hempstead officials to authorize construction of two treatment facilities, estimated to cost more than $7 million. One well along Wantagh Avenue will be online in early 2016 and the other west of Entry Lane in the summer, said John Reinhardt, the town’s water commissioner.

Wells at the two sites were turned off when TCE was discovered and town officials began planning to treat the water, even though it still met drinking water standards. The town went ahead with treatment to be proactive. “We know it’s coming,” Reinhardt said. “All the data says they’re coming.”