Huntington to clean former landfill site

A former landfill that's part of a Town of Huntington-owned nature area is slated for cleanup this month.

The roughly 3-acre site, in the Veterans Nature Study Area off Bellerose Avenue in East Northport, is part of a 34-acre parcel of woodlands that the federal government donated to the town in 1976 on the condition it be used for environmental education. The town discontinued that use after it was determined that the landfill was on the site in the early 1990s, said Margo Myles, the town's senior environmental analyst.

Since then, the town and the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health have been working on a plan to clean up the site, which had been owned by the nearby Veterans Affairs hospital and was used to burn hospital trash and dispose of ash from the hospital's incinerator.

Starting early this month, contractor D.F. Stone is scheduled to remove the contaminated soil, a process expected to take from three to six months. The Huntington Town Board authorized the $672,333 contract; the work is being paid for through state grants.

The town plans to reopen the site for educational purposes after the cleanup, Myles said.

"We're quite pleased," Myles said. "Whenever you have an opportunity to turn any type of a problem into an asset, it's a good thing for the town."