Oyster Bay, DEC reach cleanup deal

Oyster Bay Town has entered into a brownfield site cleanup agreement with the state Department of Environmental Conservation as a first step toward cleaning up a portion of Bethpage Community Park where Freon, a chemical compound used in refrigeration, has been detected.

Parts of the park, on Stewart Avenue near the former Grumman defense complex, have in the past tested positive for other contaminants, including PCBs and industrial solvents left from the manufacture of military planes at the Grumman site.

More recently, Freon was found through tests of the groundwater at and near the park, town officials said. Northrop Grumman and the Navy, which leased the site to Grumman, conducted the tests.

The Freon is thought to be left over from an old ice skating rink at the park, town spokeswoman Phyllis Barry said.

The agreement, approved last week in a 6-0 vote at the town board meeting, with one councilman absent, formally designates a park parcel as part of the brownfield site cleanup conducted by state officials.

More testing must be completed before a plan to clean up the Freon is formed and implemented, Barry said.