News

Water Quality on Long Island

About a dozen residents rallied Sunday outside the Nassau County Legislature for improved water quality and to bring an end to what they said are unfair water rates on the South Shore.
Claudia Borecky, director of the advocacy group Long Island Clean Air Water and Soil, said residents in 44 Nassau communities — including East Rockaway, Roosevelt, Bellmore and parts of Merrick — are serviced by privately owned New York American Water and see significantly larger water bills than residents in public water districts. Borecky said the discrepancy is because about 40 percent of their bills go toward paying the company’s property taxes.
“All of us on New York American Water are paying property taxes that benefit everyone else,” David Denenberg, also a director of the advocacy group, said at the rally in Mineola.
Carmen Tierno, president of New York American Water, said Sunday in a statement that the company “meets or surpasses strict federal, state and local water quality standards,” and that it is “consistently on the forefront of researching and treating for emerging contaminants.”
Tierno added that in the past five years the company has returned more than $20 million in tax refunds.
“New York American Water’s rates reflect the true cost of providing water service, including property taxes paid by the company,” Tierno said. “The company contests property taxes that we consider to be excessive, and oftentimes we are successful.”
Protesters, who chanted and waved signs, called for the county to make water utility properties tax-exempt.
A Nassau County spokesman said only New York State could “make that designation by amending the real property tax law.”
Sue Moller, 38, of North Merrick, said she pays considerably more than her neighbors in public water districts.
“They can get bills where they’re paying $40, when ours can be over $200,” she said.
Others voiced concern that a private company would not be as transparent about its water quality as public entities.
“We’re asking for more transparency and for [New York American Water] to make everything open to the public and available online, so that we can see what’s in our water,” Borecky said.

Long Island

Nassau

LIWATE0424

Protesters  call for improved water  quality on South Shore

Residents want better water quality, lower rates

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced a bill Thursday that would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set drinking water standards for a probable carcinogen and certain other contaminants or compounds.
The bill would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and force the EPA to regulate the probable carcinogen 1,4-dioxane, two perfluorinated compounds that affect the immune system, and perchlorate, which disrupts the thyroid.
“When it comes to drinking water, you have to live by the theory of ‘It’s better to be safe than sorry,’ ” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview Friday. “We will push hard to get this through.”
The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, of which Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is a member. Representatives of other senators on the panel did not respond to requests for comment Friday or to the question of whether the bill would be called for a hearing.
President Donald Trump has pledged to increase defense spending and reduce other spending, including at the EPA.
The two senators said it is necessary to press the agency into action and to do so in a transparent way, so that people are aware of what is in their drinking water.
“We’ve seen very clearly how much damage can happen to our local drinking water supplies when toxic chemicals . . . aren’t monitored by the EPA,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Every five years, EPA requires all large water suppliers and a sampling of smaller suppliers to test for up to 30 contaminants that are not regulated. It’s one way the EPA gauges how prevalent a contaminant may be, and if it needs to be investigated further or if a drinking water standard should be set.
The most recent testing included 1,4-dioxane and the compounds known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS.
Long Island’s drinking water supplies detected perfluorinated compounds in Westhampton Beach, and 1,4-dioxane was found in trace amounts in 36 of 38 water suppliers sampled. More than 70 percent of those sampled had detections of 1,4-dioxane at a 1-in-1 million cancer risk after prolonged exposure.
Perchlorate was part of the EPA sampling conducted between 2001 and 2003. In 2011, EPA said it would regulate the chemical, but the process stalled. The Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, an environmental group, successfully sued the EPA in February 2016 and finalized regulations are required by 2019, said Mae Wu, a senior attorney in the defense council’s health program.
“We fully support all three of the chemicals having limits and hope this bill is what will push the agency to act in that direction,” Wu said. “Drinking water is one of these issues that should be pretty consistent across this country, in that everybody wants to know their water is safe to drink.”
Manhattan attorney Lawrence Schnapf said the proposed legislation was not a surprise.
“There have been instances in the past when Congress enacted very specific instructions to EPA because it was not confident that [an] administration would not enact requirements without ‘hammers,’ ” he said.
Last month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, along with the state’s health and environmental conservation commissioners and local leaders on the Island, urged the EPA to set a drinking water standard for 1,4-dioxane. Without that action, Cuomo said the state would work to set its own regulation.
“We are standing together at all levels of government to call for consistent, national guidance that equitably protects not just New Yorkers, but all Americans,” Cuomo spokesman Leo Rosales said Friday in an statement.

LIDIOX0304

Gillibrand bill would require EPA to set drinking water standards

Bill would require EPA to set drinking water standards

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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, state and Suffolk County officials on Saturday pressed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set a drinking water standard for 1,4-dioxane, a probable carcinogen found in trace amounts throughout Long Island’s drinking water supply.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it will expand New York’s Superfund program to require that all hazardous waste sites be evaluated for the man-made chemical, a manufacturing solvent that is also found in detergents, shampoos, deodorants and other products.
The announcement came after state officials, politicians, activists, and water industry professionals met at Stony Brook University’s Center for Clean Water Technology. Several of those in attendance co-signed a letter Cuomo wrote to acting EPA Administrator Catherine McCabe, asking her to regulate 1,4-dioxane nationally and invest in treatment technology.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said New York will give the EPA about three months to respond before moving to set its own safe drinking water standard.
“This is a national issue and the federal government needs to step up and provide clear guidance to states on how to address 1,4-dioxane,” Cuomo said in a statement to Newsday. “If they don’t act, we will.”
Every five years the EPA selects up to 30 unregulated contaminants for suppliers to test for in order to get a picture of how prevalent they may be and at what concentrations. It’s one way the federal agency decides whether to set a drinking water standard.
Last month, Newsday reported that 1,4-dioxane had been found in 71 percent of water districts sampled on Long Island at a level that poses a one-in-a-million cancer risk after a lifetime of prolonged exposure, according to the EPA data.
Nationwide, the same risk was reported in only 7 percent of water supplies tested as part of an EPA survey of all large suppliers and a sampling of smaller suppliers.
The highest hit in the nation — 33 parts per billion — was detected in a Hicksville Water District well, which is now used for emergency purposes only. New York State has a standard of 50 parts per billion for all unregulated organic chemicals, which includes 1,4-dioxane. It does not have a specific health-based limit for the chemical.
“Emerging contaminants such as 1,4-dioxane are something we shouldn’t have to be messing with,” said Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-East Setauket), who chairs the environmental conservation committee. “The federal government is not keeping up with the frequency of the insults to our water supply.”
DEC Regional Director Carrie Meek Gallagher said adding additional sampling of Superfund sites will help detect legacy contamination, as well as identify new sources.
It’s unclear how many Superfund sites may have 1,4-dioxane contamination. But in 2014, the EPA said the chemical was likely present in water supplies where chlorinated solvents such as 1,1,1-trichloropropane, or TCA, is found. A 2013 Newsday analysis found that TCA is present at nearly 50 state and federal Superfund sites on Long Island.
The call for a national standard and the expanded Superfund testing is key, said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environmment, a not-for-profit based in Farmingdale.
“The quicker we act, the more people we are going to protect,” she said. “We need to prevent further contamination and we need to clean up what’s there.” 
Water suppliers say that even if the cancer risk is low, they are concerned because there is no state-permitted removal method.
The Suffolk County Water Authority will start a pilot removal system in April but will likely need at least a year of data to show if the treatment works.
“We believe this is going to work very well,” Zucker said of the pilot. 
The state has also awarded the Center for Clean Water Technology $5 million to research new treatment methods and work with water suppliers.
In the past month, DEC began a pilot program to monitor how much 1,4-dioxane is released into groundwater from coin-operated laundries; state Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) filed a bill that would require the state Department of Health to assess the risks of 1,4-dioxane; and both of New York’s senators called on the EPA to speed up a health risk study of 1,4-dioxane.

LIDIOX0212

State: EPA needs to set drinking water standard for 1,4-dioxane

Officials call for carcinogen protections

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High levels of a potential carcinogen have been found in groundwater in Bethpage near a former naval industrial site, and local water districts worry that public-supply wells could be affected. 
The toxic waste, an industrial solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, has been found in groundwater under and around the former defense plant that once housed Northrop Grumman and U.S. Navy operations. 
While the Navy has been monitoring groundwater and treating it to remove TCE, new results this year from a monitoring well the Navy installed north of Hempstead Turnpike show TCE levels as high as 4,600 parts per billion in groundwater hundreds of feet below the surface. 
"We've never seen a groundwater concentration this high," said Rich Humann, president and CEO of H2M, an engineering firm retained by several water suppliers, including the Bethpage Water District. 
The Bethpage district has a drinking-water well 1,700 feet away from where the elevated TCE levels were found, he said, prompting concerns that the spike could find its way into that well. 
Water suppliers must treat drinking water to no more than 5 parts per billion of TCE. Bethpage treats to levels that are undetectable, Humann said. 
The Navy plans to investigate the elevated levels, which were detected in March and reported to the state in August, an official said at a Wednesday public meeting in Bethpage hosted by the Navy. 
The investigation will focus on whether the high levels are due to a failure of the existing treatment system or a new finger of contamination, and the solution will involve either adding new removal systems or additional treatment wells, said Lora Fly, remedial project manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, the entity overseeing the Navy cleanup. 
The Bethpage site has two plumes of contamination -- a shallow one found in 1986, and a larger, deeper one discovered in 2009 under Bethpage Community Park, where Grumman had legally dumped chemicals decades ago. The Grumman facility used TCE, among other chemicals, in its operations. 
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has written a letter to the Navy regarding the findings, said Jim Harrington, director of the state Division of Environmental Remediation bureau that covers Long Island. 
"We expect them to do some action with these spots," Harrington told water district officials and residents at the Wednesday meeting. 
The discovery has local water districts -- which use expensive systems to treat groundwater to make it safe before it is delivered to the public -- concerned about the future. 
Bethpage will likely have to alter its engineering plans for advanced treatment systems to account for the additional contamination, Humann said. 
"If the hot spot isn't addressed and continues to move, it's going to impact other water suppliers," he said. 
That list includes several districts south of the area, including the Massapequa Water District. 
"The concentrations are increasing as they go further south, and we are very alarmed at that," Massapequa's superintendent Stan Carey said at the meeting. "We're still pushing to have this thing contained. There are at least a dozen more public-supply wells that could be contaminated as this thing moves south."Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he plans to monitor the situation closely. 
"I will keep holding the Navy's feet to the fire to ensure that monitoring and remediation continues," he said.

LIBETH07

High levels of toxic waste found near Bethpage well

High levels of toxic waste found near well

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The region's purest, most protected source of drinking water could become contaminated and infused with saltwater if New York City and a Nassau County water district are able to pump from the ancient Lloyd aquifer under Long Island, local officials and experts fear. 
The Lloyd, lying along the bedrock deep under geographic Long Island, already is becoming increasingly salty and unfit to drink at the edges because of overpumping to slake the human thirst for water. 
Now, as New York City readies a plan to begin pumping anew from its shuttered network of Queens wells -- which includes four sunk in the Lloyd -- and an inland Nassau County water district attempts to become the first non-coastal community to surmount a state moratorium on drilling into the Lloyd, policymakers and experts are viewing the moves with concern. 
"The Lloyd is special, it's limited, and it should be held as a reserve for coastal communities, period," said Sarah Meyland, director of the Center for Water Resources Management at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury. 
Long Island is a federally designated sole-source aquifer region, meaning the Island's 2.8 million residents rely solely on the underground aquifer system for drinking water. 
Of the three main aquifers under Nassau and Suffolk counties, the Lloyd is the oldest and deepest, with water on the South Shore more than 8,000 years old. 
It's also thought to be the purest water, largely untouched by the contamination from years of industrial and other human activity that has marred the higher aquifers -- including the Magothy, the aquifer from which much of Long Island gets its water. 
The Lloyd holds about 9 percent of Long Island's freshwater, but for some coastal communities where the upper aquifers have been overwhelmed with saltwater, such as Long Beach, the Lloyd is the only source of water. 
Moratorium on most wells 
A 1986 state moratorium bans all but coastal communities from sinking new wells into the Lloyd. The state Department of Environmental Conservation grants exemptions only for "just cause and extreme hardship." 
The state has never granted such an exemption, although the Suffolk County Water Authority made the first serious attempt at one in 2003, seeking to use Lloyd water to dilute elevated nitrate levels in the water from its Northport wellfield. 
While DEC staff and an administrative law judge recommended granting the exemption, it was denied in 2007 by then-DEC Commissioner Alexander "Pete" Grannis. 
After the rejection, the water authority ended up spending $500,000 to run a line from another well to Northport instead. 
"I think the real concern of the commissioner was not what we were doing in Suffolk County, but what they would do in Nassau County based on the determination he made," said Timothy Hopkins, the water authority's general counsel, reflecting on the Lloyd application. 
This year, in the second application for an exemption since the moratorium was created, the Bethpage Water District -- affected by underground contamination from the former Northrop Grumman Naval site -- applied to the state to deepen one of its wells from the Magothy aquifer into the Lloyd. 
"Use of the aquifer requires specific permission," the district's January application reads. "But with no future viability of existing Well No. 4-1, and the deteriorating water quality throughout much of the district, the Lloyd formation must now be considered as a potential water supply source." 
While the drinking water supplied to Bethpage residents is treated so it is safe and exceeds all quality standards, the "options are inadequate" for the district to develop other sources of water outside the plume, said district spokesman David Chauvin. 
"The district feels strongly about the merits of this application and we are hopeful the DEC will recognize the extraordinary circumstances facing the Bethpage community," he said. 
The DEC responded to the application by deeming it incomplete, telling Bethpage it should have considered drilling new wells outside of the area, among other measures. 
H2M, Bethpage's engineer, told the DEC in April that it wasn't possible to find parcels of land for new wells -- and even if the district were to build new wells, those too would be threatened by the advancing plume. 
Once Bethpage's application is considered complete, it must go through an adjudicatory hearing process before it is considered by the agency's commissioner, according to the DEC. 
Glen Head applies for site 
The state agency is considering another Lloyd application, from New York American Water for a new well in Glen Head. 
While New York American Water argues that the proposed well -- part of the agency's Sea Cliff operation -- is in a coastal community and thus not required to seek an exemption, DEC considers it in a "gray area," and needs a full technical review, a DEC spokesman said. 
The moves have garnered intense interest from environmentalists, policymakers, other water districts and Nassau County, which penned a letter to DEC in February opposing Bethpage's application. 
The two-page letter from Michael Alarcon, director of the county Department of Health's Bureau of Environmental Engineering, opposed the application on three main grounds: the well is prohibited by the moratorium, drilling into the Lloyd could contaminate it, and the new well would "present an unacceptable stress" on the aquifer. 
Alarcon also wrote to New York American Water's engineer, H2M, in September, urging the water agency to withdraw its Lloyd application and seek instead to drill a new well into the Magothy or Upper Glacial aquifers. 
"We think this source of water supply should be reserved for communities that don't have any other source of water supply available," Alarcon said at a meeting of the Long Island Regional Planning Council last month. 
Along with the Bethpage application, observers also have expressed concern about New York City's planned reactivation of part of its network of wells in Queens, four of which tap into the Lloyd, as part of the city's plan to find new sources of water while it addresses leaks in its upstate aqueduct system. 
The aquifer systems that lie under Nassau and Suffolk counties also run under Queens and Kings counties, which are geographically on Long Island. 
The city's Department of Environmental Protection, which did not respond to a request for comment, plans to issue a draft environmental impact statement on the planned Queens wells' reactivation in the spring, according to a stakeholder letter the agency sent out in September. 
But Long Island's coastal communities, such as the City of Long Beach, which relies solely on the Lloyd for its water due to saltwater intrusion into the upper aquifer system there, are girding for a fight against both Bethpage's application and New York City's plans. 
"Long Beach's water quality is impacted by how much water is pumped from the Lloyd aquifer on a regional basis," Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman said, addressing the regional planning council. 
The city's plans "could potentially make the Lloyd aquifer unusable for residents of Long Beach in the future," he said, adding: "Long Beach does not have an alternative water source." 
But even without the additional pumping, either in New York City or in Nassau, it appears that the Lloyd already may be overextended. 
New research conducted by Frederick Stumm, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's New York Water Science Center in Coram, appears to show that the line of saltwater intrusion -- where the Atlantic Ocean pushes against the underground freshwater -- in the Lloyd is much closer to the coast than previously thought, although it's still unclear exactly where that line lies. 
That points to the fact that the Lloyd aquifer likely already is overpumped, he said. 
"Obviously you wouldn't have saltwater intrusion in some of the coastal communities if the resource was managed at a level that would be sustainable," Stumm said. 
That news underscores the importance of keeping the Lloyd as pristine as possible, Meyland said. 
"The policy has been, given all the other water that is available to water utilities, the Lloyd is there as a backup emergency supply -- especially for coastal communities that have nowhere else to go," she said. 
That was echoed by geologist and State Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who said the Lloyd -- pure, ancient and in limited supply -- should be kept "for a true emergency." 
"That's our fallback," he said. "That's our ace in the water hole."

LILLOY26

LI aquifer's drinking water could be threatened by pumping, fear officials, experts

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New York's two U.S. senators announced Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse Nassau County more than $4 million for sludge dewatering work at the superstorm Sandy-damaged Bay Park Sewage Treatment facility. 
"We all remember the tremendous damage at Bay Park during Superstorm Sandy, which caused an immediate public health threat to the communities serviced by these facilities," Schumer said in a news release. 
"This much-needed federal funding will reimburse the Nassau County Department of Public Works for their efforts . . . and will help make sure local residents are not entirely on the hook for expenses incurred during Sandy," Schumer said. 
The $4.6 million in funding will reimburse the county's Department of Public Works for rental of temporary sludge dewatering and odor control systems, mobilization equipment and materials, weekly labor to operate the systems, labor for extended and weekend operations, demobilization of equipment and materials and contract costs. 
Dewatering is usually the final step in large-scale wastewater treatment when water is removed from solids in the sewage. 
The storm wreaked havoc on Long Island, flooding the dewatering facility with 12 feet of saltwater, officials said, making it impossible to treat sewage properly and causing a sanitation and health hazard for communities serviced by the plant. 
"Bay Park suffered severe damage and this federal funding will provide much needed reimbursement for Nassau County Department of Public Works," Gillibrand said in a news release. 
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment, also welcomed the news. 
"The dewatering is a critical and essential component to the treatment plant," she said in an interview. "This is one more giant step forward." 
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano thanked the senators: "Together with the Federal and State governments, we will continue to strengthen the facility's infrastructure so that it is resilient against future storms."

LISEWE24

FEMA reimburses Nassau for Bay Park work, senators announce

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Suffolk County will study the prospect of installing high-tech wastewater treatment systems in Orient to replace cesspools and septic tanks buried throughout the hamlet. 
If the project comes to fruition, it will be a first for a pre-existing Suffolk community. Some new developments have included the systems, which remove nitrogen before releasing effluent into the ground. 
Scientists blame nitrogen pollution from cesspools and septic tanks for fueling the algal blooms degrading water quality and harming marine life across Long Island. 
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement that combating nitrogen pollution is his administration's top priority and "the greatest environmental challenge" facing the county. 
Orient, at the tip of the North Fork, sits in an environmentally sensitive position within the Peconic and Long Island Sound estuaries. 
The county has allocated $60,050 for an engineering report on the costs and feasibility of installing nitrogen-treatment systems in Orient. 
"The whole point is to try to get a pilot working model so it becomes an option for towns and communities," said Glynis Berry, executive director of Peconic Green Growth, a Riverhead nonprofit that will conduct the study. "And we may fail. It may be just too big a leap for people, but you don't know until you try." 
Berry said the study will focus on "clustered" systems that collect waste from multiple properties at a central location where equipment can remove 75 percent to 90 percent of nitrogen. Suffolk officials have said the East End may benefit from those smaller systems in lieu of sewers. 
Berry said she expects her nonprofit and an engineering firm to complete the study in a year to 15 months.

TOSEPT19

Suffolk to study installing wastewater treatment systems in Orient

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Policymakers and scientists went on a boat tour of the Forge River in Mastic Wednesday morning, surveying the nitrogen-polluted waterway in advance of the governor's third public meeting on Long Island's water quality and storm protection.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone had targeted the Forge River as one of the areas in the county most in need of sewers.
The river has excessive nitrogen levels caused by surrounding cesspools and septic systems, resulting in a weakening of coastal marshes that are key in protecting communities from storm damage, experts have said.
"We've devastated our surface waters, as highlighted by the Forge River," Bellone said. "It's the greatest example of the damage that we've caused here, and it's our obligation to do everything we can to reverse it."
Bellone was joined by state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens.
"Not too long ago, we thought places like the Forge River and the bays could handle unlimited amounts of nitrogen," Martens said. "We now know that's not true."
The group, including county legislators Kate Browning and Al Krupski and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward Romaine, split up to board three boats, which made their way down the river. At one point, they observed workers from the Suffolk County Department of Health taking oxygen measurements of the bottom of the river.
One reading came back at 2.9 parts per million. Below 3 parts per million is unsafe for aquatic life, said Walter Dawydiak, director of environmental quality with the Suffolk County Department of Health.
Bellone, Martens and several others later regrouped in Brentwood, where they held the third of the governor's four planned meetings on Long Island's water and coastal resiliency, hearing presentations from experts and comments from the public.
During the fourth meeting, which has not been scheduled, policymakers will present a set of recommendations on how to improve Long Island's coastal resiliency and water infrastructure that will be sent to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Suffolk

LIWATE29

Tour of nitrogen-polluted Forge River precedes talk of possible solutions

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The sale and use of liquid waste from hydraulic fracturing will be banned in Suffolk County under an aquifer-protection bill expected to be signed by the county executive this month.
The legislation, sponsored by Legis. William Spencer (D-Centerport), is aimed at the byproducts of the hydraulic fracturing process, used to extract natural gas from rock formations using chemicals, water and pressure. The bill passed unanimously at the legislature's April 29 meeting.
New York has not issued rules on hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, so the procedure is not currently performed in the state. But it is done in other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania.
Spencer's legislation bans the sale of fracking byproducts within the county. It also prohibits the wastewater from being processed in any sewage-treatment plants in the county and keeps the waste from being used as a brine on roads and property.
Violations carry a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and 30 days in jail.
Spencer said the aim is to protect the environment -- in particular the aquifer that serves as the area's sole source of drinking water -- from contaminants.
"Whether you agree or disagree with fracking, we realize here in Suffolk County it's too much of a critical issue because of our aquifer," Spencer said.
Wastewater from fracking can contain "fluid additives, metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials," in addition to solids, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently studying impacts on groundwater and drinking water.
The legislation was co-sponsored by legislators Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Robert Calarco (D-Patchogue), Sarah S. Anker (D-Mount Sinai) and Jay H. Schneiderman (I-Montauk).
County Executive Steve Bellone will sign the legislation, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Fracking wastewater already is banned from county treatment facilities in both Nassau and Suffolk, but the new legislation puts Suffolk ahead in terms of environmental protection, said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
"It closes all the loopholes to strongly defend Suffolk County from this type of contamination," she said.

LIFRAC08

Suffolk bill aims to protect aquifers by banning fracking waste

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is launching an investigation to find the source of the refrigerant contaminating a drinking-water well in Roslyn Estates.
DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said in a letter to state Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) that the agency would "soon begin an investigation" into the source of the Freon 22 leak.
In the March 21 letter, Martens said the Nassau County Department of Health "suggested a possible source" of the chemical compound and that investigators would look into that.
Martens did not name the possible source, and the DEC did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The health department referred questions to Mike Martino, spokesman for the Nassau public works department.
"The DEC is going to need to determine the source," said Martino, who declined to comment further.
Lavine wrote to the DEC on Feb. 14, asking the agency to investigate the contamination.
"Our grave concern over Freon being discovered in our wells is fully justified because Freon is not an element that occurs naturally," Lavine said Thursday. He said he didn't know when the state investigation would start.
Increasing levels of Freon caused the Roslyn Water District to shut down the well on Diana's Trail in November. A second well site is also closed due to a different contamination, leaving the district with six in operation.
"The fact that the DEC is willing to begin this, that's great," said Michael Kosinski, chairman of the district's board of commissioners.
Adam Krupp, who lives adjacent to the shut well, said he hopes the state can pinpoint the pollution source, which could help secure cleanup funding.
"Ultimately, if we can find out what the source is, there's a way to point to getting someone else to fund the process," he said.
The district sought $20.9 million in bonds from the Town of North Hempstead for several projects, including $4 million to build a facility known as an air stripper to treat the contamination at the well.
The town granted the request in February, but urged the district to consider locating the air stripper in adjacent Christopher Morley Park to appease nearby residents, who have expressed health and other concerns about the facility. It would force air through the water, removing the Freon and dispersing it into the air.
District officials have been working on locating the air stripper in the county-owned park, about 400 feet from homes.
Attorney Peter Fishbein, who represents the district, said it will likely seek a use-and-occupancy permit from the county, which would allow the district to build the stripper in the park without owning the land. The district would later seek to buy the property with approval of the State Legislature.
The facility is expected to be in operation by summer 2015, officials said.
For this summer, the district has issued irrigation restrictions for its roughly 5,800 residential and commercial customers, anticipating that it won't be able to meet the peak season demand.

LIWATE04

Roslyn Estates well contamination probed by DEC

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New York State is asking the State Supreme Court to jail the owner of a Port Jefferson Station industrial Superfund site unless he immediately cleans up hazardous petroleum spills that he promised to address more than seven years ago. 
The state attorney general plans to go to Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead next week to seek criminal and civil contempt charges against Lawrence Aviation Industries Inc., and its owner and president, Gerald Cohen of St. James. 
In two filings made with the court last month, state Assistant Attorney General Andrew Gershon argued that Cohen has not cleaned up petroleum leaks and machine pits filled with waste oils. Cohen had agreed to do this in a 2006 consent judgment, made after the state sued him and his company for numerous violations of state environmental laws. 
"The contamination within the facility poses a growing threat to public health and safety and the environment," Gershon wrote in an affirmation filed with the court. 
According to court records, Gershon sent Cohen a letter in February warning him that the state would seek a contempt order against him and his company unless Cohen cleaned up the property himself, or allowed contractors with the state Department of Environmental Conservation onto the property to do the work. 
Cohen never responded, wrote Gershon, calling that inaction by him and his company "egregious." 
"They have no excuse for standing in the way of DEC coming on-site with a contractor to get it done," Gershon wrote. 
The state argued that if Cohen does not clean up the property or allow DEC to do it within several days of the court finding him in contempt, he should be jailed until he complies. 
Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. 
Lawrence Aviation, which shut down in 2003, had made titanium parts for the aeronautical industry since it was founded in 1959. Solvents, acids, oils and other wastes were dumped into the ground for decades at the property, which was declared a federal Superfund site in 2000. 
The DEC's Nicholas Acampora said in an affidavit that the agency had "held back" to a degree on enforcing the consent judgment against Cohen, who was supposed to have cleaned up the petroleum by June 2007, because of a federal criminal environmental case against him and his company. 
Cohen served time in federal prison after pleading guilty in that case, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spent millions cleaning up the 126-acre property and a resulting underground plume of chemicals that contaminated surrounding groundwater. 
The state began pursuing contempt charges against Cohen after the EPA made clear last year it would not clean up the petroleum spills, according to court documents. 
Meanwhile, Acampora wrote that Cohen had hired a metal scavenger to take machinery from the site without notifying the EPA or DEC. The removals released asbestos and mercury into the environment, which had to be addressed in emergency actions by the EPA, according to Acampora. 
"The state can't wait any longer to act," he wrote.

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State to ask court to jail owner of Superfund site

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A new commission tasked with making recommendations to protect Long Island groundwater held its first meeting Thursday, marking a new regional attempt to address the future of the water supply.
The Long Island Commission on Aquifer Protection, created last year by the Nassau and Suffolk legislatures, includes officials from both counties and representatives of the Long Island Water Conference, Nassau-Suffolk Water Commissioners' Association and Suffolk County Water Authority.
The Island's aquifer system is the sole source of drinking water for the counties, but it has been threatened by contaminants.
"For the first time we have these water providers in both counties at the table," said Jeffrey Szabo, chief executive of the Suffolk water authority and chairman of the nine-member commission. "That has never been done before."
The group is tasked with producing a State of the Aquifer report within a year. A groundwater resources management plan, with recommendations on needed protections and data on aquifer water quality and quantity, is due within three years of the initial report.
Subcommittees will also be created to examine the effects of climate change on groundwater and water suppliers.
"This group can hopefully start speaking with one voice, making recommendations for the state," Carrie Meek Gallagher, chief sustainability officer for the Suffolk authority, said at the hourlong meeting held in Oakdale.
"We've been able to get both counties to work together," said Suffolk Legis. William Spencer (D-Centerport). "That's why I think this is so much more powerful."
Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, praised the new commission.
"The number of influential people expressing concern over the decline in water quality is very encouraging," he said. "People for whom water should matter are caring about the decline in water quality, and that's very good."
Szabo said the next meeting will be held in Nassau County in June or July.

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LI aquifer protection panel holds first meeting

Water Facet

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone Thursday announced a campaign to clean up nitrogen-polluted waters that could include building sewer systems and advanced wastewater-treatment plants. 
Bellone said nitrogen flowing into aquifers and local waterways from septic systems and cesspools, as well as fertilizer runoff, hurts water quality and damages coastal areas that serve as storm buffers. 
"We have been polluting this precious resource in a way that has had devastating impacts on our surface waters, shows negative declines in the quality of our drinking water and puts us at enhanced risks for future storms," he said. "For the health of our region today and for the sake of future generations, we must reverse these trends." 
Bellone made the announcement in Hauppauge as he released the executive summary of the county's long-awaited Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan, a draft of which was published in 2010 and had not been updated since 1987. The full report, delayed to include impacts recognized as a result of superstorm Sandy, could be out this spring. 
Joined by local elected officials, scientists, environmentalists and representatives from the water supply and construction industries, Bellone said 70 percent of the county, or 350,000 homes, isn't hooked up to sewers. No one solution will fix the nitrogen problem, he said, but sewering some areas and upgrading septic systems are possibilities. 
"Today will be known as the turning point . . . when collaboration became the mantra instead of fighting about what to do," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment in Farmingdale. 
Suffolk has identified 209,000 homes that could be connected to sewers or upgraded treatment systems. Each town is represented and wide swaths of the South Shore are included. The list will be cut to 100,000 homes based on housing density, water table levels and proximity to impaired waterways, said Justin Meyers, assistant deputy county executive for communications. 
Nitrogen overloads in waterways can trigger harmful algal blooms and deplete oxygen levels, harming fish, shellfish, marshlands and sea grass. 
Environmentalists have long pointed to evidence of nitrogen damage. In the Upper Glacial aquifer, for example, nitrogen levels in 2005 were 3.38 parts per million, up from 2.45 ppm in 1985. In the 1930s, area bays and harbors had about 200,000 acres of sea grass. Today, about 22,000 acres exist. 
The nitrogen problem could become a costly crisis, said Suffolk County Water Authority chairman James F. Gaughran, who applauded the county's new commitment. 
"Right now your water bill is relatively inexpensive," he said. "There is plenty of water in the aquifer. The issue is the cost to find clean safe drinking water, and also to treat the water will be astronomical if we do not turn this trend around." 
Recovery is possible, said Kevin McDonald of The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, who pointed to a project in Tampa Bay, Fla., where nitrogen reduction efforts helped sea grass rebound. "If you can identify the offending pollutant [and] abate the threat, natural systems recover," he said. 
Bellone said superstorm Sandy highlighted the harm nitrogen was doing to tidal wetlands and sea grass. After barrier islands, these systems provide another buffer to tides and winds. 
"If we are going to protect ourselves from future storms we have to rebuild our coastal wetland defenses," he said. "The only way we can do that is if we start to take on this water quality crisis right now." 
The final report will include specific solutions, possible funding sources and target areas for sewers and upgraded treatment -- a first step in charting a long-term course, Bellone said. 
"This isn't going to be resolved in a year," said Long Island Farm Bureau executive director Joe Gergela. "It's going to take a long time to see the results of these efforts."

Bellone eyes added sewers to fight pollution

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With the privilege of Long Islanders to live on the water comes the responsibility to protect it. 
 In Thursday night's town hall discussion, “What's in the Water,“ a panel of experts discussed topics ranging from Superfund sites to nitrogen pollution — and what's being done and by whom to ensure the quality of the Island's drinking and coastal waters. 
 Part of a Newsday/News 12 Long Island special report, the forum also opened the floor to audience members. 
 The panel includes: 
 - Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment 
 - Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society 
 - Kevin McAllister, Peconic Baykeeper president 
 - Dennis Kelleher, president of H2M water resource engineers and a consultant to 30 water suppliers on Long Island 
 - James Gaughran, Suffolk County Water Authority chairman 
 - New York State Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation 
 - New York State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) 
 - Walter Dawydiak, acting director of environmental quality for Suffolk County's Department of Health Services 
 - Dr. Amy Juchatz, Suffolk County health department environmental toxicologist 
 -Legis. William Spencer (D-Centerport) 
 -Emily C. Dooley, Newsday environmental reporter 
 The hourlong discussion was hosted by News 12 Long Island's Stone Grissom. <a href="http://longisland.news12.com/features/water/what-s-in-the-water-town-hall-meeting-1.6144140">Click here to watch the video</a>, or go to longisland.news12.com. 
 Check below for live updates from the discussion. &nbsp; 
<script src="http://embed.scribblelive.com/js/LiveArticleEmbed.aspx?Id=184463&amp;ThreadId=224927" type="text/javascript"></script>

Experts discuss water quality on LI and near you

What's in the water? Updates from our panel discussion

The Bethpage Water District Monday plans to sue Northrop Grumman Corp., claiming the company's actions contaminated groundwater and cost the district millions of dollars. 
 The lawsuit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, seeks unspecified damages to cover treatment programs, water monitoring and steps to remove contaminants from groundwater before delivering it to customers. 
 District officials decided to sue "to forestall a water quality emergency and the attendant irreparable harm created by contamination of soil and groundwater in Bethpage," according to the lawsuit. 
 The district serves more than 33,000 people in Bethpage, Old Bethpage, Farmingdale, Levittown and Plainview. It has for decades battled groundwater plumes of toxic chemicals migrating from property where the Navy and Grumman created, tested and manufactured military and space equipment including the Apollo Lunar Module. 
 "Time and time again, Northrop Grumman has refused to do the right thing in assisting the residents of Bethpage in cleaning up a mess they created," Bethpage Water District chairman William J. Ellinger said. "We must hold them accountable for what they did." 
 Northrop Grumman representatives did not respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment. 
 Relations with Northrop Grumman have soured through the years over the cost of treatment, whether it is necessary and where the financial responsibility lies. The company had been cooperative, but talks in the past three years have failed, Bethpage Water superintendent Mike Boufis said. "They've left us no choice at this junction," he said. 
 While Bethpage wells were the first to be affected, the plumes could impact wells serving 250,000 people in southern Nassau County, elected officials and water suppliers say. 
 The Nassau County Department of Health discovered a shallow plume in 1986 and traced it to the Navy and Grumman sites, as well as a nearby Hooker Chemical/Ruco Polymer plant. In 2009, a second, deeper and more contaminated plume was found moving from Bethpage Community Park, which had been used by Grumman as a legal dumping area for solvents, paints, cadmium, arsenic and chromium-tainted sludge. Both plumes are part of state Superfund cleanups. 
 New contamination concerns surfaced in May when the district announced it had found elevated levels of radium, a radioactive element, at its Sophia Street plant and closed one well. A month later, the district began digging a new well outside the known plume boundaries. 
 "It's really been three-plus decades that they've been dealing with this," said Rich Humann, president and CEO of H2M, a Melville engineering firm that consults for Bethpage and other districts. 
 The lawsuit had the support of County Executive Edward Mangano, a Bethpage resident who has pushed for a more stringent cleanup than what the state Department of Environmental Conservation ordered. 
 "I fully support the water district's efforts to recapture mitigation costs and reimbursements for necessary capital improvements to protect the public drinking water," Mangano said in a statement Sunday. 
 Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday, "Hopefully this lawsuit will force them [Northrop Grumman] to come to their senses and engage in a constructive way with the water district." 
 Since the late 1980s, the district has spent more than $14 million on remediation. Each of the eight wells it operates require some form of treatment. The new well is expected to cost $3.5 million. 
 Bethpage reached a $2.3 million agreement with the Navy for upgrades at one of its plants. 
 Most volatile organic chemicals are limited by state and federal water standards to 5 parts per billion. Bethpage treats to zero. 
 That level of treatment could present challenges to the lawsuit, said environmental attorney Larry Schnapf, an adjunct professor at New York Law School. "All their costs can be deemed to be non-necessary," he said. 
 Weitz &amp; Luxemberg, the Manhattan firm representing Bethpage, has a history of settling toxic tort cases. In 2008, the firm brokered a $423 million settlement with oil companies over contamination from the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether -- MTBE -- that affected more than 150 public water systems in 17 states.

Health

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Bethpage Water District to sue Northrop Grumman over contamination

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Public health officials have identified a potential new threat to Long Island's groundwater from an unlikely source: rotting grass cuttings, leaves and other natural debris.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently reported that facilities that process "vegetative waste," such as commercial composting operations, appear to be causing elevated levels of manganese in groundwater.
"It definitely is a new universe of stuff to evaluate and manage," said Walter Dawydiak, acting director of environmental quality for Suffolk County's Department of Health Services. "These are not numbers typically seen in groundwater samples."
Manganese levels reached 49,000 parts per billion in one well in Yaphank tested by the county. The drinking water standard is 300 parts per billion.
Next year, Suffolk plans to expand the investigation to groundwater near other composting sites. 
Aquifers are the sole source of water for Long Island's nearly 3 million residents.
Water districts treat public supplies to meet or exceed state and federal standards for safety. But environmental activists and public health officials say the supply already faces a variety of threats from toxic waste, nitrogen in sewage, fertilizer and farms, and saltwater incursion.
State and county investigations into water quality near Long Island Compost in Yaphank in 2009 found the first evidence of elevated manganese levels in groundwater. Researchers thought it was specific to operations at the largest composting operation in the county.
Sites, wells testedBut Suffolk's Department of Health Services has found similar water quality problems near other composting facilities.
Suffolk began testing groundwater at 12 sites in 2010 and is awaiting results from some of its monitoring wells, which stretch from Farmingdale to Speonk.
The county also identified, from DEC lists, another 78 locations where composting may be occurring. In 2014, the county plans to study about 10 of those sites where private wells are nearby.
"There's a need to monitor and manage this better," Dawydiak said of the possible impact of composting operations on groundwater.
Manganese is a naturally occurring element and a key component of a healthy diet, but can lead to health problems if ingested at high levels.
"We need some of it to be healthy, but we don't want to get too much of it," said Amy . . . Juchatz, an environmental toxicologist in Suffolk's health department.
Linked to health problemsOverexposure over long periods has been associated with neurological problems, such as trouble walking or muscle weakness.
How much manganese represents overexposure varies. "It would really all depend on how much you're exposed to, how long you're exposed to it and how much you get as part of your diet," Juchatz said.
The DEC is in discussions with Stony Brook University about developing a research project to study how the breakdown of trees, leaves and grass clippings impact groundwater, agency spokeswoman Lori Severino said in statement.
The state also may revise the permits that are issued to compost facilities, she said.
Long Island Compost plans to invest $50 million in its Horseblock Road property as part of a settlement agreement signed in June with the DEC over odor, dust and noise complaints, company president and chief executive Charles Vigliotti said. 
"We were taken somewhat aback by the findings of the groundwater investigation," Vigliotti said. "Heavy metals have never been detected in any meaningful way in the material and that includes manganese."
Much of the 62-acre facility will be enclosed and a process known as an anaerobic digester will turn clippings into compost in an air-locked environment. The methane gas created will be converted into compressed natural gas to fuel equipment and the company's fleet of 10 trucks. A groundwater monitoring plan will also be created.
'The tipping point'"I guess the groundwater issue was the tipping point because we probably moved from debatable nuisance to something that needs to be seriously addressed," Vigliotti said.
With much of the operations modernized and indoors, the chances of groundwater contamination are reduced, said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. After being at odds with Vigliotti over the operation, she said she supports the improvements he plans to make and hopes for them to become a permit requirement for all compost operations.
"This means, unequivocally, DEC needs to change the storage regulations and these materials need to be on an impervious surface and covered," she said.

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Potential groundwater threat seen from composting

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Long Islanders use more water than people in much of the rest of the country, putting most of it toward maintaining their lush lawns.
Residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties use an average of about 130 gallons per person per day, but that jumps to as much as 500 gallons during the summer, said Dennis Kelleher, president of Melville-based H2M water resource engineers and a consultant to 30 water suppliers on Long Island.
On a hot summer day, about 90 percent of the water used on Long Island goes for lawns, Kelleher said.
As a regional comparison, the average per-person per-day use in the Rochester area, served by the Monroe County Water Authority, is 82 gallons a day. Residents of the Latham Water District near Albany use an average of 120 gallons per day, Kelleher said.
Nationally, the average per-person daily water use is about 100 gallons, said Sarah Meyland, director of the Center for Water Resources Management at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury. And between 50 and 70 percent of that national average is used for watering lawns and gardens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Careless water use
"Long Island uses its water carelessly," said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. "We don't think about it in terms of quality or quantity."
Environmental advocates and researchers said signs of Long Island's overuse include salt water intrusion into the aquifers in some areas of Nassau's north and south shores, and around Montauk in Suffolk. Salt water can seep into Long Island's sole source of drinking water when the amount of fresh water being removed exceeds the amount being recharged by precipitation.
Meyland cited the imbalance in Nassau where, in the summer of 2010, more than 404 million gallons were taken out and 341 million gallons were put back in.
"We're depleting the aquifer," she said. "We're certainly depleting the best water that is in the system."
James Gaughran, chairman of the Suffolk County Water Authority, said there was no imbalance in his county.
"We are blessed in that we do not have an issue in Suffolk County," he said. "We have plenty. . . . The aquifer is always recharging."
Runoff a problem too
Excess irrigation of residential lawns, parks, business centers, golf courses and other green spaces also affects surface water quality. Runoff from watering lawns or irrigating farm fields washes fertilizers, pesticides and waste into streams, lakes and bays, contributing to nitrogen loading that can ultimately kill off fish and other aquatic life.
Long Islanders use so much water partly because it's plentiful. Aquifers under the Island act like sponges, absorbing the precipitation that filters through the surface into the groundwater.
The Island's water also is cheap -- typically less than the $2-per-1,000 gallons national average. The costs can rise to as much as $10 per gallon in more arid parts of the country such as Las Vegas.
Peak watering hours on Long Island often start at 2 a.m., when automatic sprinkler systems kick into action.
The spread of automatic in-ground systems -- confined to a handful of affluent communities a few decades ago -- accounts for the dramatic increase in use, Kelleher said. A homeowner with a half-acre property can outfit it with an irrigation system for about $1,500.
But much of the water used in sprinkler systems doesn't fulfill the intended purpose of reaching the grass roots, Meyland said. A lot of it evaporates as mist when the water comes out of the sprinkler head or it evaporates after hitting the grass, she said. Little finds its way into the ground to recharge the aquifers.
"It's a total loss of water from the system," she said. "There's a tremendous amount of waste."
EPA's WaterSense program estimates that outdoor water use can make up as much as 60 percent of a household's total use and that about half of it is wasted.
Also troubling is that many sprinkler systems automatically start even when it is raining, Meyland said. And owners often set theirs to turn on every day even though every other day is sufficient, Kelleher said.
"After sprinklers, Long Islanders' highest household water use is in the bathroom, mostly from flushing toilets and taking showers. Other high-water residential uses include washing dishes and clothes. Swimming pools also account for significant usage in summer.
Drinking water amounts to less than 2 percent of total water use, Kelleher said.
Residential systems make up the majority of water use, but commercial businesses also represent a sizable amount, especially golf courses, Gaughran said.
Jeff Seeman, superintendent of Calverton Links, said the 18-hole golf course has over the past four years cut its water use from as much as 28 million gallons a year to about 18 million.
The course achieved that reduction by planting native grasses that don't require water beyond natural rainfall, watering dry areas with hand-held hoses instead of turning on the entire irrigation system, using a "light spray" rather than dumping huge amounts of water on the grass and other changes, Seeman said.
"We are feeling that environmental need to be responsible," he said, adding that he thinks the national move toward more judicious water use on golf courses will eventually trickle down to landscaping businesses and homeowners.

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Most LI home water use goes toward lawns

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Problems such as pesticide contamination, algae blooms and declining lobster populations imperil Long Island Sound, elected officials and environmentalists from New York and Connecticut said Wednesday. 
 Officials, meeting in Port Jefferson at the second annual Bi-State Long Island Sound Roundtable, discussed strategies for protecting the estuary -- a source of jobs and recreation for residents of both states. 
 "There is a sense of urgency that we need to gather together," said Assemb. Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) during a news conference before the meeting at Port Jefferson's Village Center. "The legacy of the Long Island Sound is something that our generation will probably determine the fate of." 
 The meeting was an informal forum facilitated by the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, which backs efforts to improve water quality. 
 About a half-dozen Connecticut officials arrived yesterday by ferry, joining Long Island officials such as state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), Brookhaven Supervisor Edward P. Romaine, Suffolk County Legis. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) and leaders from Westchester County. 
 Hahn, chairwoman of the legislature's environment committee, said Sound protection would be good for tourism. "Every day that a beach is closed is one more day we don't get to enjoy being in the water," she said. 
 Officials planned to discuss the impact of overdevelopment and the effects of natural disasters such as superstorm Sandy on coastal areas along the sound. 
 Fisherman-turned Connecticut state Rep. Terry Backer (D-Stratford), leader of the East Norwich-based environmental organization Long Island Soundkeeper, said pollutants such as nitrogen from septic systems and fertilizers threaten wildlife in the sound. 
 "We have used the Long Island Sound for 150 years as a chemistry experiment," he said.

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Lawmakers air concerns about Long Island Sound

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Aging sewage treatment plants, antiquated septic systems, storm runoff and fertilizer use are loading Long Island's waters with nitrogen, a pollutant that can threaten public health and the environment. 
 Nitrogen levels have been rising in Long Island's aquifers for three decades, said Stony Brook University marine scientist Christopher Gobler, citing a Suffolk County study. Nitrogen in the aquifer that supplies most of Long Island's drinking water increased by as much as 200 percent between 1987 and 2005, the study of the most recent data available found. 
 The amounts remain well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit for safety. But environmentalists and elected officials worry about the continued increase and its effect on the Island's groundwater and surface water. 
 Millions of pounds of nitrogen are generated on Long Island each year "and unfortunately most of that, as we all know, is not going to sewage treatment plants, but is going to septic tanks" and eventually seeping into groundwater and surface water, Gobler said. "We do expect these numbers to rise." 
 Nitrogen forms when microorganisms break down in sewage, manures, decaying plants or fertilizers. 
 The element occurs naturally and is necessary for human health and plant growth. But when ingested in high levels, it can deprive bodies of oxygen in blood. In infants, excess nitrogen in water used for formula preparation can lead to "blue baby syndrome," where the lack of oxygen turns the skin blue. In adults, high nitrogen levels, in severe cases, can lead to brain damage. 
 Nitrogen pollution is one of the most widespread and challenging environmental problems in the country, according to the EPA. It affects 15,000 waterways, including 2.5 million acres of lakes and reservoirs, and 80,000 miles of rivers and streams, agency officials said. 
 "Addressing nutrient pollution is a top priority for EPA," said the agency's acting Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner in Washington, D.C. The contamination "threatens waters used for drinking, fishing, swimming and other recreational purposes," she said. 
 Septic systems can leak 
 In Suffolk, 70 percent of the homes and businesses use septic systems, and in Nassau 30 percent are on such systems. The remainder in both counties are attached to public sewers. Both systems, if not maintained or updated, can leak pollutants, experts and environmental advocates said. 
 "When you flush it down your toilet or put it in your sink, it goes into the groundwater and then into our bays," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. 
 But Walter Dawydiak, acting director of environmental quality for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, said nitrogen levels in Long Island's aquifers are still at 3 to 4.5 parts per million. That's well below the maximum 10 parts per million allowed under public health standards. 
 Nitrogen levels in the Upper Glacial Aquifer, which supplies much of Long Island's water, grew to 3.38 parts per million in 2005 from 2.45 parts per million in 1985, according to the Suffolk study. The deeper Magothy Aquifer showed an increase in the same period to 1.6 parts per million from 0.96 parts per million. 
 Fertilizer- or pesticide-laden runoff from lawns and farms also contribute to nitrogen pollution. 
 To combat the threats, environmentalists and governments have started efforts to increase public awareness about Long Island's water, pass legislation to curb nitrogen levels and boost campaigns to build new sewage treatment plants. 
 The newly formed Long Island Clean Water Partnership, which includes the Citizens Campaign, Group for the East End, Long Island Pine Barrens Society and The Nature Conservancy, this month launched a $3 million, three-year advertising and education campaign about protecting Long Island's waters. 
 Lawmaker seeks cleanup 
 Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation, has sponsored several pieces of legislation intended to clean up Long Island's waters, including one to establish state groundwater standards limiting nitrogen levels to 2 parts per million. 
 "We have one source of drinking water and it's beneath our feet," Sweeney said. "And there is no Plan B if something goes wrong with that." 
 Suffolk Legis. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) said expanding the sewer system would considerably help combat the increasing nitrogen. But at a cost of $2.1 billion to hook up a mere 40,000 homes, that approach is too expensive, despite the urgency, she said. 
 A variety of small sewage treatment plants have recently been proposed or undertaken in Suffolk. 
 County officials this month broke ground on a $75 million sewer expansion in Hauppauge Industrial Park that consists of $41 million to upgrade the treatment plant and $34 million for sewer installation and pump stations. Northport Village was selected to receive a $3.1 million state grant and as much as $3.03 million in loans to upgrade its sewer plant. 
 In Nassau, the Bay Park Sewage Treatment plant processes wastewater for about 40 percent of the county's population and has long been blamed for nitrogen loading in the Western Bays. The county samples nitrogen levels monthly. 
 The plant in July started a pilot program using bacteria to remove nutrients such as nitrogen. Early indications show that 80 percent of the nitrogen is being removed from treated water, which is discharged into Reynolds Channel, officials said. 
 "With those kinds of numbers, it illustrates how far we can go with this type of technology at Bay Park," County Executive Edward Mangano said Tuesday. "The results are very encouraging." 
 If expanded to the entire facility, the amount of nitrogen removed would likely decrease but still have a dramatic impact, officials said. 
 The test will run for five months and the data will be used to help design and build a full-scale facility at Bay Park, Mangano said. He is seeking $722 million in borrowing for critical sewer system repairs, particularly for the electrical system at Bay Park. 
 Superstorm Sandy flooded that plant and Long Beach's sewage treatment plant, and sent&nbsp;more than 2 billion gallons of raw or partly treated sewage into channels and bays. 
 The EPA and state Department of Environmental Conservation have declared swaths of water on the South Shore and Long Island Sound "impaired," citing elevated levels of infectious microorganisms, reduced oxygen and increased nitrogen loading. 
 Algae can be a problem 
 Excess nitrogen in surface water allows algae that feed on the element to grow unchecked, depleting the waters of oxygen and killing off marine life. 
 That worries environmentalists and elected officials because polluted waters mean less fishing and recreational boating, closed beaches and fewer tourism-generated dollars in a region with an economy dependent on those industries. 
 "Our tourism, our quality of life, our economy is so reliant on the quality of those waterways and I think that while we face an extraordinarily difficult fiscal reality, the people of Suffolk County do not want us to continue to allow the degradation at the pace it has occurred," Hahn said. 
 Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, an Independence Party member, is leading an effort to tap state funds to create a collaboration among area research institutions to find the best water quality control approaches for Long Island. 
 Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter, a Republican, supports the collaborative approach. "It's time for us to really put thinking caps on in looking to improve these systems," he said. 
 Throne-Holst in July submitted a proposal to the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council seeking a $2.7-million state grant to establish an incubator facility for Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Suffolk health department to find the best system to reduce nitrogen content in septic systems. 
 The project, she said, has the backing of all of Suffolk's town supervisors and represents the start of what she said she hopes becomes a sustained effort to save the waters. 
 "It puts the money behind funding the research and development and the actual manufacturing of technology," she said. "We realize we have to come at it from many different directions." 
 With Emily C. Dooley 
 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of raw or partially treated sewage released by the Bay Park treatment plant after superstorm Sandy.

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Nitrogen growing threat to LI waters

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Long Island's sole source of drinking water lies beneath many of the most contaminated places in New York State. 
 Landfills, aerospace manufacturing, industrial operations and dry cleaners have dumped or leaked heavy metals, volatile organic chemicals and inorganic materials onto soil and into groundwater, threatening water supplies for the Island's nearly 3 million residents. 
 Nassau County tops the list of New York counties for the number of Superfund sites -- hazardous waste locations overseen by the state as well as others managed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency -- with 145. Suffolk County, with a total of 109 Superfund locations, has the third-highest number of state sites and is second to Nassau in the number of federal designations. 
 "Because we have so many people who live here [and] we have so many industries that popped up after World War II, contamination is bound to happen," said Dennis Kelleher, president of H2M Water, a Melville-based water resource engineering firm. 
 Contaminated groundwater doesn't necessarily mean contaminated drinking water, which is treated and closely monitored. Public and private water suppliers must adhere to state and federal drinking water standards, which are set to protect public health. Private well owners are responsible for ensuring their water is free of contaminants. 
 A Newsday analysis of active and closed state Superfund sites shows Nassau County with a total of 122 and Suffolk with 89 as of Sept. 1. Federal Superfund locations on Long Island total 43 with 23 in Nassau and 20 in Suffolk. 
 Long Island's sites represent 17 percent of all Superfund designations in New York. 
 Of those, 109 are considered to pose a significant threat to health or environment, more than any other region overseen by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. 
 And the pollution is on the move. Researchers have documented contaminated groundwater plumes migrating from more than a third of state and federal sites. As the contamination moves through the aquifers, public and private water well supplies can become tainted. 
 "We just assume most sites have potential for off-site contamination until proven otherwise," said Robert Schick, director of the DEC's Environmental Remediation Division, which oversees the state Superfund program. 
 Most communities in New York get water from surface resources such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs, but Long Island's water comes solely from a network of underground aquifers that hold an estimated 70 to 80 trillion gallons. 
 They are recharged by precipitation, which filters through the soil and sands. Some parts of the aquifers are quite porous, others are not, so water and contaminants move differently throughout the Island. 
 Newsday's review of data from each of the state Superfund sites on Long Island found: 
 Water contamination was detected at nearly 90 percent of the sites. 
 Soil contamination was present at 79 percent of the sites. 
 Dry cleaning operations represent almost 30 percent of Nassau sites and 9 percent of Suffolk's. 
 Industrial and manufacturing operations accounted for 42.3 percent. 
 The volatile organic chemical and possible carcinogen Tetrachloroethylene, commonly known as PERC or PCE, was documented at nearly 49 percent of all Superfund sites on Long Island. 
 Funding running low 
 Established in 1980, the federal Superfund program is designed to identify and clean up the nation's most polluted toxic waste sites. New York's program preceded the federal program by a year. States have increasingly taken over the cleanup burden, leaving the most toxic sites for the EPA. 
 In 75 percent to 80 percent of New York Superfund cases, the entity responsible for the pollution pays for cleaning up a site. When a polluter refuses or is unable to pay, or cannot be found, the state carries the cost and may later sue to recover the funds. 
 But money to identify, monitor and clean up those sites is running out after a decade of consistent funding. 
 In 2003, Gov. George Pataki pushed through a $1.2-billion bond to fund the state Superfund program, allocating $120 million per year for 10 years. This year's state budget includes no funding for Superfund projects. 
 With the DEC spending an average of $90 million from the fund each year, about $200 million to $300 million is left, said Eugene Leff, DEC's deputy commissioner for remediation and materials management. 
 "We feel we can run the program this year and into next year, and at that point, we may need additional funding," Schick said. 
 The lack of long-term financing means the DEC may have a hard time getting contracts signed or securing multiyear cleanup commitments, said Andrew Postiglione, a fiscal policy associate for Environmental Advocates of New York, an Albany-based watchdog group. 
 "We want to get the money secured ahead of time rather than waiting for the last minute," Postiglione said. "It's a good program . . . It has a proven record of remediation and protection." 
 Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office did not respond to requests for comment. 
 The lack of future funding worries Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, whose group spent years pushing for cleanup of contamination at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, a manufactured gas plant in Bay Shore and other sites. 
 "What that means to Long Islanders is more contaminated water and more health effects," she said. "The toxics here are so pervasive and abundant. Remediation is not an option, it's a necessity." 
 Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) said the state has time to restore funding before the program is compromised. "I think we're OK," said Sweeney, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation. "There's not any imminent problem. A few years down the road, sure." 
 Sites cleaned, monitored 
 Long Island's Superfund sites stretch from Inwood to East Hampton. Some are in rural areas served by private wells, others in densely populated places with public water treatment and delivery systems. 
 New development has occurred at many sites, including the Glen Cove Ferry Terminal and Boat Basin, which had been a municipal dumping site that contaminated groundwater with heavy metals and other chemicals, Superfund records show. Site cleanup took two decades, cost $100 million and should be finished by mid-2014, said K. Kelly Morris, Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency executive director. 
 Work at more than 80 state sites already has been completed or requires some site management and monitoring. 
 "Most of the contaminants are based on land use," said Karen Randazzo, director of water quality and laboratory services at Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves about 1.2 million customers. 
 The authority is the largest municipal groundwater supplier in the nation. It collects 53,000 samples annually to test for a variety of water qualities such as color and acidity, and screening for contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and volatile organic chemicals -- pollutants known as VOCs. 
 About 20 percent of the authority's 600 wells are treated for VOCs, pesticides and other contaminants, Randazzo said. 
 "Some of the water needs to be treated to remove contaminants -- it varies greatly," she said, but "the water we serve our customers meets or exceeds standards." 
 Contamination from Superfund sites is "a huge problem across Long Island," said Bethpage Water District Superintendent Mike Boufis, whose agency has spent more than $14 million dollars to treat pollution from a handful of plumes under former Northrop Grumman and Navy manufacturing sites. "There's other districts going through what we're going through." 
 While state standards limit the presence of volatile organic chemicals to 5 parts per billion, Bethpage district tests to the parts-per-trillion level, which is 1,000 times more sensitive. "The water is absolutely safe to drink," Boufis said. "It actually exceeds all of the New York State drinking water standards." 
 In 1978, EPA designated the water beneath Nassau and Suffolk a sole-source aquifer, meaning if the water becomes contaminated it would pose a significant public health hazard. It was the first in the nation to receive such designation in recognition that what happens above ground will affect waters below ground. The sole-source designation has led to more focus on the water quality, officials said. 
 "The aquifer on Long Island is a sole-source aquifer so people have been paying quite a bit of attention," said Doug Garbarini, chief of EPA's New York remediation branch. "The (Superfund) sites have maybe been uncovered more here than elsewhere." 
 Of the federal sites on Long Island, 10 have been cleaned up and taken off the national priority list. Most of the others have systems in place to remove the contaminants, which could take decades, he said. 
 A huge Superfund cleanup at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been underway since 1992 after authorities identified 30 areas of concern, including a plume of radioactive tritium. Seventeen different groundwater treatment systems were installed. Three have closed and four are waiting for approval to shut down because contaminants have been removed, said William Dorsch, the lab's leader for the groundwater protection group. 
 "We're kind of in the long-term maintenance phase now," he said. 
 While state and federal programs try to remove contaminants before they get to pumps, water suppliers must deal with the contamination that's already flowing through aquifers. 
 "The water supply industry has been tracking plumes probably for the past 30 years," H2M's Kelleher said. 
 Suppliers on Long Island have spent an estimated $300 million to $400 million to treat for contaminants, move wells or find other ways to keep pollutants out of drinking water, he said. 
 "Probably 20 to 25 percent of all wells in Nassau and Suffolk have been impacted by VOCs and have some sort of treatment on them," said Kelleher, who is also member of Long Island Water Conference, a coalition of water supply agencies and professionals. 
 History of industry 
 Long Island's number of Superfund sites is not too surprising, given its industrial history, large population and sole-source aquifer designation, said John Martin, an EPA spokesman based in Manhattan. 
 "One of the problems on Long Island is there are multiple sites in a relatively small area where we sometimes have overlapping plumes," Leff of the DEC said. 
 They can also be deep, making it hard to map pollution or predict where contamination may flow, officials said. 
 "If you discover a plume, just trying to discern the outlines . . . can be costly, difficult," said Sweeney. "It's tough to understand each one thoroughly. There isn't any window that you can open up and look down below." 
 And no site can be cleaned 100 percent. 
 The state deems a Superfund site closed when treatment, easements, remediation or other actions limit public exposure. For water contamination, closing wells and connecting private wells to public supplies are often part of the solution, Garbarini said. 
 "Groundwater removal is a tough business," said James Saiers, a hydrology professor at Yale's School of Forestry &amp; Environmental Studies. "And in some cases the best that one can hope to do is to stop the spread, to isolate it."

LISUPE24

LI's 254 Superfund sites threaten its drinking water

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A coalition of environmental groups Tuesday announced a $3 million, three-year public education campaign to rally Long Islanders and pressure politicians to save the region's threatened water system. 
 Leaders of the newly formed Long Island Clean Water Partnership said at a news conference in Farmingdale that their groups will spend $400,000 a year for three years on TV ads alone. The message: Nitrogen pollution from septic systems and other sources is endangering the water supply and prompting large numbers of beach and lake closings. 
 "We just had the worst summer ever with pollution," said Adrienne Esposito of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a member of the coalition. "We're losing the battle of the bays. Our bays are dying." 
 Environmentalists and scientists said one of the principal culprits is nitrogen from sewage that seeps into the groundwater and then into bays and harbors. They also called on the public to do more to prevent polluted runoff and politicians to strengthen environmental protections for the region. 
 The TV ads have already started airing; radio ads and door-to-door visits in some neighborhoods are also planned, officials said. Funding for the effort came from participating groups and several Long Island foundations. 
 "Long Island's elected officials need to take action now to protect our most valuable resource -- our water -- before it's too late," said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. The coalition also includes The Nature Conservancy and the Group for the East End. 
 This summer saw a dramatic increase in pollution-related beach and lake closings, often because of outbreaks of harmful algae linked to excessive nitrogen. Northport Harbor was closed in May and Lake Ronkonkoma Beach was closed in July and August. 
 Amper said the campaign will help educate people about many of their actions that damage the water supply, such as using too much fertilizer or flushing unused medicine down their toilets. 
 Many people pour damaging chemicals, such as oven cleaners and degreasers, down the kitchen sink -- not thinking that they will end up in the water supply, said Bob Deluca of the Group for the East End. 
 "We have to think about where all these products are going," he said.

LIWATE11

New plan focuses on lowering Long Island's nitrogen pollution

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Inside one of the three buildings at the Suffolk County Water Authority’s pump station in East Northport, production control supervisor John Flynn opened up a spigot at the base of a filtration tank. As the water spilled out, Flynn noted its clarity. 
 “It looks clear,” said Flynn, 46, of the water, which had been pumped from a nearby well and was just beginning the treatment process. “You can’t see the contaminants.” 
 There are three wells at this station that tap into the aquifer system at depths ranging from 453 to 608 feet. Depending on which one the water is extracted from, it could contain nitrates, perchlorate, and various organic compounds including fertilizers and pesticides, Flynn said. Since these contaminants are not visible to the naked eye, Flynn said SCWA’s lab tests the water regularly, weekly at this station, to make sure the filters are working properly. 
 Each year, SCWA pumps approximately 70 billion gallons of water to about 1.2 million people from its 234 pump stations, which contain a total of 581 wells, according to spokesman Tim Motz. 
 The East Northport station is unique, because it’s one of two stations in SCWA’s system equipped with a nitrate removal filter, but the only one currently in use. The other, located in Southold, is not needed at this time, he said. 
 “Depending on what part of the Island, you’re going to have different water quality,” Flynn said. 
 This station, located at the end of Meadow Lark Drive, pumps 1 to 2 million gallons per day in the summertime and 100,000 to 500,000 in the winter. The process begins when water is pumped from one of the wells. If it contains perchlorate or organic compounds it will be directed via underground pipes to a nearby building that houses two pairs of large tanks. Each one contains either a perchlorate or granular activated carbon filter. 
 “The GAC filter acts like a big Brita filter,” Flynn said. 
 If the water contains nitrates, as is the case for Well No. 1, it will go to another building located a few paces away. Here, a rotating turntable of filters constantly removes the nitrates. 
 “We never have to shut it down for rinsing or backwashing,” Flynn said. “It continually rotates.” 
 From there, it will go to the chemical treatment building, where it will treated with lime if the pH needs to be corrected. 
 Lastly, all the water, regardless of what well it came from, will be treated with chlorine to address bacteria issues before it’s sent out to the distribution system and into customers’ homes, he explained. 
 The whole process can take about 40 minutes, less if the water contains fewer contaminants. 
 All the while, monitors keep tabs of the water quality. If, for instance, the nitrate level hits a 9, the system will automatically shut down and trigger an alarm. The station also has a backup generator, which was used during superstorm Sandy, to keep the system running during power outages. 
 Like all water authorities, SCWA has to meet New York State drinking water standards, but Flynn said they also want to deliver the best possible product. 
 He said customers might be surprised by how much filtration actually takes place, but added, “I think they would be happy to see we’re going the extra steps to ensure their water is safe to drink.”

Water Treatment

From well to tap, tour shows how drinking water is treated

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About 200 gallons of diesel oil spilled early Wednesday at the Bay Park Sewage Plant as a result of a malfunction while delivering fuel to supply temporary generators at the plant, leaving some residents fuming mad over the odor. 
 “The smell is unbearable,” Trisha Kearney, a member of the Bay Park Civic Association’s board of directors, said. 
 The spill was reported to the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Spill Response unit about 3:30 a.m., and DEC personnel supervised the cleanup. 
 “The spill apparently occurred when a truck that was delivering diesel to supply fuel for generators at the plant apparently had the pressurized delivery hose blow off during the delivery process,” DEC spokesman Bill Fonda said. 
 “The spill was cleaned and there was zero impact to the local waterways,” said Nassau County Department of Public Works spokesman Michael Martino, adding measures have been put in place including using a berm system to contain the area. “This is just another reason the county Democrats must stop playing games with County Executive Mangano’s plan to fully repair the plant.” 
 County Executive Edward Mangano has requested $722 million in borrowing to repair the plant, but the legislature’s Democratic caucus has opposed borrowing the full amount all at once, arguing additional oversight is needed. 
 Mangano’s office has said it expects 90 percent of that sum to be reimbursed by the federal government. 
 But County Legis. Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick), a ranking member of the Public Works Committee, said he has been calling for hearings on status of capital projects, including Bay Park.

Residents outraged over diesel oil spill

Residents outraged over Bay Park Sewage Plant diesel oil spill

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With greater pollution and an increasing number of sewage spills and beach closures on Long Island, a group of environmental organizations says it’s time to address the issue of the region’s declining water quality. To get the discussion started, they are planning a forum on the topic next month. 
 The forum, Toxic Tides, and Pesticides and Sewage, Oh My!, is being organized by the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, the Group for the East End, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society and The Nature Conservancy. It is is planned for Oct. 7 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Farmingdale State College. 
 “The quality of our water has degraded over the past decade,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We need now to reverse the trend. We need to be using less pesticides. We need to be upgrading sewage technology and safely disposing of hazardous waste and pharmaceutical drugs.” 
 These are topics that will come up at the event. The goals are twofold, Esposito said. First, organizers want to raise public awareness of the issue. And they want elected officials to devise a collective solution to ensure healthier drinking water. 
 “It is going to be a call to action,” Esposito said. “It is about a campaign that refuses to accept the new levels of pollution to the norm.” 
 One panelist, Chris Gobler, of the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, will discuss the role of sewage in tainting Long Island water. Pesticides and toxic chemicals will be another topic. 
 Esposito said the event will have four speakers, followed by a panel discussion. The scheduled speakers include Esposito and Gobler; Bob DeLuca, of The Group for the East End; and Kevin McDonald, of the Nature Conservancy. Panelists will include scientists from various organizations and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 
 For further information on the forum, visit <a href="http://www.citizenscampaign.org/ " target="new">http://www.citizenscampaign.org/&nbsp;</a>

Forum is 'call to action' on water quality

Organizers hope water-quality forum will be a 'call to action'

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Suffolk County expects to complete a nearly $42 million expansion of a sewage treatment plant in the Hauppauge Industrial Park by the end of next month, officials say.
The expansion will supplement the $34 million installation of 72,800 feet of sewer line, upon which Suffolk County broke ground in July, said Gilbert Anderson, county commissioner of public works.
"We are in the process of expanding the treatment plant to be able to facilitate all of the lots within the industrial district," he said, adding the new capacity and infrastructure will increase the number of parcels served to nearly 400, up from 149.
"This is the largest expansion of county sewers and county treatment facilities since the 1970s," Anderson said.
Officials broke ground on the plant expansion in April 2011. The plant -- between Commerce Drive and Motor Parkway -- will have the capacity to treat 1.65 million gallons of wastewater per day, up from 450,000 gallons, officials said.
Funding for the combined $75.7 million plant and sewer expansion has been bonded in the past five years, Anderson said. The sewer district is expected to pay back the bond through an annual tax.
"Everybody in the district agrees to pay the operation and maintenance portion of the tax," he said. "But in the areas that are expanding, people will have to pay for the construction costs for the expansion through the annual tax."
Hauppauge Industrial Association Long Island president Terri Alessi-Miceli said the projects were "vital," since the previous sewer system "was insufficient."
"This is the second largest industrial park in the Northeast. There are 1,300 companies and 55,000 employees," she said. "You can't do anything else without sewers, so it's one of the things that will afford business owners in this park to expand."
The plant expansion means a second plant at Oser Avenue will be decommissioned and a major main will be installed to force flow between the two plants. The accompanying sewer line installation calls for construction of two pump stations and is estimated to be completed by 2016, Anderson said.
To build each pump station, the county is purchasing two parcels from the Town of Smithtown for recharge basins, and the town is expected to provide an easement to access the stations, Anderson said. The price of the land buy has not been determined, he said.
Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio said the expansion work is "something we've anticipated for . . . years." Vecchio said last year that he favored lifting height restrictions from 35 feet to 50 feet in the park, but Councilman Robert Creighton, a fellow Republican who is trying to unseat Vecchio, has said he wants to raise building heights up to 62 feet along Motor Parkway.
"We would never be talking about allowing taller buildings in the industrial park if it were not tied to sewer expansion," Vecchio said.
Suffolk County Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset) said that to keep "Suffolk County's economic base growing and robust, it is absolutely critical to invest in this type of infrastructure."
Anderson said the changes allow not only for economic growth, but "for further protection of our groundwater, which is our most important natural resource."

<h2>The project<h>
 
 -- The expanded capacity and newer sewer infrastructure is expected to increase the number of parcels served by the sewer district from 149 to nearly 400.
 -- The expanded plant could treat 1.65 million gallons per day, up from 450,000 gallons per day.
 -- There will be 72,800 linear feet of sewers installed, estimated to be completed by 2016.
 -- Posillico Civil Inc. won the $41.7 million bid for the construction of the expanded sewage treatment plant.
 -- Suffolk County's bond is via the Assessment Stabilization Relief Fund. The county is purchasing two parcels owned by the Town of Smithtown for recharge basins to build two pump stations for the sewer installation project. A price has not yet been determined.
 Source: Suffolk County Commissioner of Public Works Gilbert Anderson
 </h></h2>

TOHAUP11

Hauppauge sewage treatment plant expansion nearly complete

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A toxic rust tide caused by human waste, farm fertilizer and other pollutants, has returned for the 10th straight year to the environmentally fragile wildlife estuaries and salt water bays on Long Island's east end, officials said.
The collection of algae, which gets its name from the brown and orange hue that upon its arrival, replaces the clear blue tint on the water's surface, has been detected in the west end of the Peconic Estuary and Shinnecock and Flanders bays, said Christopher Gobler, a professor at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.
The algae can kill fish in hours, and shellfish in days, he said.
At the Peconic Estuary, the algae was detected at densities exceeding 10,000 cells per milliliter. At Shinnecock and Flanders, densities exceeded 1,000 cells per milliliter in the bays as well as their tributaries like Meetinghouse Creek, Gobler said, adding that 500 cells per milliliter can be deadly to marine life.
It's been the same every summer since 2004, Gobler said. Before then, the rust tide was never reported in Long Island waters.
The estuary forms at the end of the 15-mile long Peconic River, which stretches through farmland, wooded areas and the town of Riverhead. 
Gobler said it's possible the organism was newly introduced to the area in 2004 or always existed but nitrogen levels, which intensify the algae blooms, happened to grow to ideal levels. Nitrogen can be found in urine and fertilizer, and can pollute waterways when waste water is not treated properly, Gobler said.
"It's here and it's not going away," he said of the rust tide.
The lethalness of the latest bloom will depend on its duration, Gobler said. It is expected to spread in coming weeks, typically extending into fall or until water temperatures drop below 60 degrees.
The organism makes cysts, or seeds, which sit at the bottom of the bay and emerge each summer to start a bloom. At the end of the bloom, they turn back into cysts and once again settle to the bay bottom, allowing them to return year after year.
In May, Peconic Baykeeper, a Quogue-based nonprofit, sued the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for failing to protect surface waters from sewage pollution. The group also filed a notice of intent to sue against Stony Brook Southampton and the state office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in July for the same reason, said Kevin McAllister, the group's president.
He said the rust tide doesn't just do damage to marine life.
Dirty water with fewer fish could mean fewer tourists, he said. Instead, tourists could take their business to the New Jersey shore or Cape Cod.
"A dead bay is not OK," McAllister said. "The public at large has to start to rally and demand attention from government officials."

LITIDE20

Officials: Toxic rust tide returns to East End

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Faced with salt water seeping into private drinking wells near the shore, the Shelter Island Town Board a decade ago banned the installation of new underground sprinklers anywhere on the island and gave homeowners 10 years to use existing systems before they had to be turned off for good. 
 But with the Sept. 1 deadline approaching, the town board voted Friday to let people use their sprinklers until May 1, 2014, while it tries to determine if timers and other technology have made lawn sprinkling less of a threat to dozens of families town officials say have saltwater problems with their wells. 
 The sprinkler issue came to a head Friday as people packed the small Shelter Island Town Hall for a public hearing on a moratorium that would put off the ban for eight months. Judging by the applause, most people favored the extension, arguing there is no proof that sprinklers cause a serious problem. 
 "The issue is delaying implementation while you look at the science," said town resident Herb Stern. "If there's a real emergency, you can always shut them down. If there's a real danger to the community, I want them off." But, he quickly added, no hydrologist has yet determined how much of a problem is actually caused by sprinklers. 
 Shelter Island has its own relatively shallow source of drinking water, which the town already takes steps to protect. Swimming pools, for example, can only be filled with water trucked in from off the island. 
 About 120 sprinkler systems are in use on Shelter Island, and -- even under the impending ban -- they could still only irrigate newly seeded lawns for 90 days and only between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. Vegetables and flower gardens could only be watered for 20 minutes between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. Some people with vacation homes have complained that without using sprinklers, they had no way to water their lawn during the week. 
 There have even been suggestions of doing what was previously dismissed -- bringing in public water and burying an expensive system of water lines throughout the area where about 90 percent of the families have private wells. 
 It's a change the Suffolk County Water Authority has patiently awaited for decades. The SCWA installed a 16-inch water main reaching to North Haven in the mid-1990s and has a major well field near Southampton Village. 
 The Shelter Island Town Board discussed the issue yesterday at its work session, including creating a committee to look at the problem and to hire an outside hydrologist. 
 Supervisor James Dougherty said bringing in public water, which could cost millions of dollars, would meet the same kind of opposition and raise the same fears the proposal faced in the past. "They [the water authority] have been knocking on our door since I arrived here," he said.

TOSHEL14

Sprinklers get reprieve on Shelter Island

A pipe that discharged sewage into wetlands adjacent to Crescent Beach in Glen Cove has been sealed with concrete, but the owner could still face legal action, Nassau County Department of Health officials said.
Last month, the health department and the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued violations to Marvin Schein, whose Gold Coast mansion was the source of the sewage.
Schein, 72, said this week that the problem was resolved.
But DEC officials said in a statement that there are "ongoing settlement negotiations. . . . These violations issued to Mr. Schein have not been modified, revoked or withdrawn."
Health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said in an email that inspectors last week confirmed the pipe was sealed. Last month, the health department issued violations to Schein, saying the flows were "a public health hazard."
Then the DEC fined Schein $15,000 and ordered him to remove the pipe.
Schein, who hired an engineer to confirm that the pipe was sealed, said the issue had been overblown. "It turns out that the water leaving the pipe is actually beneficial to the wetlands because it wasn't black water, it was water coming off of the leaching system," he said. "It was like filtered water and that kind of carries nutrients -- the engineer said -- and that's a good thing and that's really what the wetlands should have."
DEC spokesman Bill Fonda disagreed in an email. "Waste water from a residential cesspool, directly discharged to a wetland or to the side of a road, would be a threat to the receiving water body and a public health threat as well," he said.
Engineers hired by Glen Cove found the pipe was leaking last month when they were looking for sources of contamination that have kept Crescent Beach closed to the public since 2009.
Schein said his property was not the source of contamination and that he swims at the beach. "There's no fecal matter going through my pipe into the wetland," he said.
But Laurain of the health department said the pipe was a culprit. "The discharge is a contributing factor to the water quality at Crescent Beach," she said. "We tested it for fecal coliform and enterococci, and the results were indicative for sewage."
Schein has known about the problem since at least 2011, health department officials said.
The pipe runs under a dirt road; and Schein said bulldozers caused the recent leak. He said he had the pipe capped whenever he learned it was leaking. 
When Newsday visited the site last month, the pipe was spurting streams of water like a drinking fountain into the wetlands.
"The discharge was illegal," said Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi. He said it was up to the regulatory agencies to determine whether Schein is now in compliance.

TOSEWA09

Nassau Health Dept.: Gold Coast mansion's sewer pipe capped

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Testing of private water supplies near a sampling of Long Island composting facilities found high levels of manganese, a state Department of Environmental Conservation report shows. 
 The investigation initially focused on contamination near Long Island Compost in Yaphank and expanded into an examination of the impact of composting on groundwater. 
 Near Long Island Compost's site on Horseblock Road, tests found manganese levels of up to 31,600 parts per billion, according to the report released late Tuesday. The state drinking water standard is 300 parts per billion. 
 Manganese exists naturally and is a normal part of the human diet. Long-term inhalation of high levels of the element can damage the nervous system, but no definitive impacts on human health from drinking water contamination have been established. 
 The report also compared tests from two off-site farms used by the firm, plus composting facilities run by the towns of Islip and East Hampton. In Islip, manganese levels reached 8,840 parts per billion. 
 "Data . . . suggest that these types of facilities cause elevated concentrations of manganese in groundwater," the report said. 
 The data also suggest that composting facilities are raising levels of radioactive materials, such as radium, in water, but those levels are considered low, according to the report. 
 The DEC said in a release that the public is not at risk because "no pathway exists for humans to become exposed to the contaminants." 
 Based on the report, investigations of groundwater quality at other sites that manage vegetative waste will continue by the DEC, state Department of Health and Suffolk County Department of Health Services. 
 The DEC is also considering revisions to its regulations governing composting facilities. "The study pointed out a number of steps that can be taken to reduce potential groundwater impacts," DEC regional director Peter Scully said. 
 Long Island Compost chief executive Charles Vigliotti said, "We won't have a comment until we've had an opportunity to fully digest the report." 
 Last month, Vigliotti announced a $50 million plan to modernize the 62-acre facility, which includes moving most operations indoors. In 2011, the DEC revoked an operating permit for the facility after receiving odor and noise complaints. 
 Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, urged action. "They need blanket regulations for these facilities," she said.

LIWATE24

DEC finds manganese in LI water samples near compost sites

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Leading what they hope becomes a massive effort to clean up Suffolk County's waterways one septic system at a time, Southampton Town officials are seeking grants to create a system that would reduce nitrogen in the region's groundwater. 
 The goal, according to a proposal written last month: to develop an affordable technology that would replace or retrofit individual on-site septic systems so they would significantly reduce nitrogen levels in domestic wastewater. 
 "The degradation of our water is really a crime, and I would say at this point almost an emergency issue for all of us," said Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst at a Suffolk County Supervisors Association meeting June 28. 
 She was joined at the meeting by Islip, Babylon and Brookhaven supervisors, who publicly supported the effort. 
 "Water quality is at the foundation of our economic well-being, our quality of life, everything that drives life as we know it on Long Island." 
 Throne-Holst cited increased water quality problems such as algal blooms, red and brown tides and high levels of bacteria as urgent issues for the region. Because about 70 percent of Suffolk is on individual septic systems, the effects of high levels of nitrogen flowing into waterways should be solved by tackling the problem at each site, Throne-Holst said. 
 But technology available to update antiquated septic systems is cost-prohibitive, and doesn't do enough to reduce the nitrogen in groundwater, she said. "The systems we have are not dealing with the standards as we know them, and the standards will probably be . . . made harder" in coming years, she said. 
 Last month, the town submitted a preliminary application to the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council for $2.7 million in "transformative" grant funds to build an incubator facility to develop and test a new system to reduce nitrogen emissions from septic systems. 
 "It's a generational issue that needs to be licked," said Stephen Savage, member of the economic development council and corporate senior vice president of CA Technologies, who described the project as an ideal candidate for the funding. "It's going to be a huge problem for generations to come." 
 The next step, Throne-Holst and Savage said, is to do a feasibility study that would generate interest, mobilize support for the initiative, identify possible partners -- such as universities and environmental groups -- and research what kind of similar technology exists nationwide, Savage said. 
 Suffolk Planning Commission chairman David Calone said new measures of water protection are needed especially on the East End, where good water quality is key to both the environment and the economy. 
 "The Southampton proposal will allow us to test a bunch of different products that exist now as well as products being invented right now," Calone said. "To have a facility that could provide real, good scientific data . . . about what works and what doesn't work is very important, because we need to develop decentralized wastewater systems to protect our East End waters." 
 January to September 2014: Promote understanding of problem by hosting discussions and site visits with industry experts; begin work to build/outfit a testing center 
 September 2014 to March 2015: Complete testing center; begin testing of available technology; issue RFPs for new/updated technology submissions (responses to be reviewed and scored by expert panel members); promote opportunities to science/engineering community 
 March 2015 to December 2015: Build and refine prototypes with help of local universities and research centers; continue testing 
 By September 2016: Develop prototypes for alternative treatment systems or retrofits for individual on-site systems; publish findings

TOWATE11

Southampton takes lead in cleaning up wastewater

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Bacteria levels in the water at Nassau County beaches decreased slightly from 2011 to 2012, while levels at Suffolk County beaches stayed the same, according to a report released Wednesday.
The Natural Resources Defense Council study ranks New York 22nd out of 30 states for beach water quality in 2012, an improvement from 24th place in 2011.
Rankings were based on the number of times water samples exceeded state standards for bacteria levels. The NRDC reviewed state and EPA data from more than 3,000 beaches nationwide, officials said.
In New York, the percentage of water samples with bacteria levels exceeding the state limit was 9 percent for 2012, lower than 10 percent in 2011, according to the report. Nationwide, 7 percent of the water sampled exceeded limits.
Monitoring locations and the frequency are determined by local officials and can vary between jurisdictions, Levine said.
New York's slight improvement doesn't indicate any real change in water quality, NRDC officials said.
"The marginal differences of a percent from year to year are hard to interpret as meaning much," said Larry Levine, a senior attorney with the Manhattan-based environmental organization.
The difference may be in Tropical Storm Irene hitting in August 2011, during beach season when water quality measurements are taken. The storm caused a spike in bacteria at the time, Levine said. Superstorm Sandy slammed into Long Island in late October, well after beach season. Any increase in bacteria from Sandy wasn't measured, he said.
"Every year this report comes out and Nassau and Suffolk don't react," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "On Long Island, our beaches are one of the compelling reasons to live here and we would hope that government would be more aggressive stewards to protect those beaches."
Representatives of the Suffolk and Nassau county executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The number of closing and advisory days at beaches in New York dropped to 1,626 days last year from 1,841 days in 2011, according to the report, which also attributed the change to Tropical Storm Irene and a fire that disabled a New York City sewage treatment plant for several days.
Nassau beaches had 350 closing or advisory days in 2012, while Suffolk had 578. In 2011, Nassau issued 307 and Suffolk issued 800.

LIBEAC27

Study: Beach water quality slightly better

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The Bethpage Water District is installing a new well outside the boundaries of a toxic groundwater plume that has forced the supplier to spend millions of dollars removing contaminants from drinking water since the late 1980s.
The well, discussed since 2005, is being drilled on a 4-acre parcel along South Park Drive in Bethpage State Park that the district has leased for 99 years. It will be the district's ninth well and should be operating by next year, officials said.
Three wells used by the 33,000-customer district have been affected by toxic groundwater plumes from former Navy and Northrop Grumman aircraft manufacturing operations in Bethpage.
Distributing water from the new well would be more cost-effective than using and treating water from wells in the plume's path, said Michael Boufis, Bethpage Water District superintendent.
"I think long-term, it's important for the district to be able to develop sources [of water] outside the plume because nothing is certain," said Rich Humann, president and CEO of H2M. His engineering firm works for Bethpage and other water districts. "Based on what we know today we're completely prepared, but does that hold true two years, five years from now?"
The total project cost hasn't been set because the building housing the well is still being designed.
Drilling the new well is not related to the discovery of elevated radium levels, officials said. The district announced last month that one well at its Sophia Street treatment plant had higher levels of radium than others in the district. 
The state and federal standard for radium in treated drinking water is 5 picocuries per liter averaged over a year based on quarterly tests. Over three quarters, untreated water at the well was nearing that level, prompting the district to ask the Navy and Northrop Grumman for access to monitoring wells near the Sophia Street plant to test for radium.
The district is awaiting results of the Navy well sampling, Boufis said. 
Bethpage has not received the results of its sampling at three Northrop Grumman wells, but the company said preliminary results revealed radium levels within the standards and below levels at the Sophia Street station, said Tim Paynter, communications director for Northrop Grumman's military aircraft systems and international programs.
The company declined to release the results, saying the numbers have not been verified.
"Northrop Grumman . . . remains committed to working with those governmental agencies on the Bethpage environmental issues," Paynter said. 
The water district has since asked for access to six other Northrop Grumman operating wells. Paynter said the company would wait for guidance from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health on whether to grant access. 
Marci Natale, deputy director of public affairs for the Department of Health, said in a statement earlier this month that the agency "does not consider there to be any elevated health risks associated with radium in the water delivered by the Bethpage Water District."

LIBETH27

Bethpage Water installs new well outside plume area

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Legislators in Suffolk and Nassau counties want to create a regional council focused on protecting the drinking water supplies for more than 2.8 million Long Islanders.
A resolution to create the Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection was introduced in the Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday, sponsored by Democrats. A similar piece of legislation is expected to be introduced to committee July 1 in Nassau County, sponsored by the Republican majority.
Legislators and advocates want to create a commission because currently no central agency monitors the water supply and recent reports show that the quality of the water in some areas has degraded.
"Our aquifer has a lot of threats," Legis. William Spencer (D-Centerport) said. "It's really to have water accountability. We share this common aquifer."
Long Island's water needs are served by a network of underground aquifers. The region's sandy soils are conducive to replenishing the water supply, but they also allow contaminants, such as nitrogen, to filter through.
Statewide, there are 1,302 Superfund sites, and it is not uncommon for such sites to be associated with groundwater contamination. Nassau County, with 121, has the largest number in the state; Suffolk is third with 89.
The legislation must go through committees, public hearings and an eventual vote of the full legislature in both counties before the commission can be established. It must be reauthorized in five years.
If approved, a nine-member board will be charged with creating an annual report on the state of the aquifer. Within three years of that report, a resources management plan -- looking at threats, regulations and recommendations -- is due.
Each county executive and legislative presiding officer will appoint one member each and each county board of health will have a representative. The Suffolk County Water Authority, Nassau-Suffolk Water Commissioners Assocation and Long Island Water Conference, a coalition of public and private water suppliers, will also have one seat apiece. 
Nassau Presiding Officer Norma L. Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said the commission would be aimed at protecting residents and groundwater. "Our aquifers are one of the most vital environmental resources we have on Long Island," she said in a statement.
Spencer said there will be no cost to taxpayers. The nine board members will be volunteers and work will be done with existing staff from the member organizations.
"We think most of the work can be utilized using existing resources," Suffolk County Water Authority chief executive Jeff Szabo said. "It's sort of a shared expenditure."
Many issues related to protecting the aquifer can be more cost-effectively handled on a regional basis, Mike Boufis, chairman of the Long Island Water Conference, said in a statement. "This commission will create a means for all Long Island water suppliers to work together with regulatory agencies and other water professionals to address regional issues that up to now had to be addressed by individual water suppliers," he said.
Critics say the legislation does not go far enough.
"I think it's a good first step, but there are no action items in there to solve problems," Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito said. "What we don't want to happen is we study the problem to death."

LIAQUI21

Nassau, Suffolk seek to create aquifer council

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Suffolk County Health Services in 2011 had strong enough concerns about small traces of new toxins found at a major plume remediation site in Bay Shore that it requested $413,000 to research and monitor them. But New York State nixed the effort. 
In letters and emails among state, county and federal officials provided to Newsday, officials at the state Department of Environmental Conservation disagreed with the concerns, and declined a county request to have site owner National Grid pay for the studies. 
The newly discovered contaminants, called oxy-PAHs -- for oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- were an issue because studies suggested that they might be created by the very oxygen-injection process being used to clean up the plumes. There was also a concern that because oxy-PAHs were difficult to detect, they could simply be a converted, though no less harmful, form of the original toxins.
Concern over future impact
There is no evidence to suggest that was the case in Bay Shore and other manufactured gas plant sites, but Suffolk and federal water-quality officials said more work was needed to be sure. They requested groundwater tests at the Bay Shore site and other former MGP sites, including at Sag Harbor, Patchogue and Halesite, all owned and remediated by National Grid. 
DEC disagreed. "As we have noted in previous conversations, the Department does not believe that the available evidence supports the existence of significant oxy-PAH contamination at Bay Shore or at any of the other MGP sites in Suffolk County," DEC remediation director Michael Ryan wrote to Suffolk Health Services in the July 21, 2011, letter. 
Suffolk's concerns centered on the relatively limited amount of data about oxy-PAHs to date and potential future impacts on water quality. They noted the only available evidence of the new contaminants was based on a "snapshot" taken in August 2010, as new systems for pumping oxygen into the mile-long plume began to operate. Suffolk initially questioned the safety of the oxygen-injection systems, which are intended to encourage microbes to eat toxins.
"The data obtained are an important, but limited, data set, and additional investigations would be necessary to fully characterize the potential long-term effects of oxy-PAHs on both groundwater and aquatic ecosystems at the Bay Shore and other MGP sites that have yet to be remediated," Dr. James Tomarken, commissioner of Suffolk's Department of Health Services, wrote in the July 13, 2011, request.
Suffolk continues to emphasize the need for further study. This month, Grace Kelly-McGovern, a health services spokeswoman, said the agency "continues to explore the feasibility of additional monitoring" of oxy-PAHs and is "working with the USGS [U.S. Geological Survey] to determine possible study requirements."
She said, "There's no data to suggest that the oxy-PAHs pose any health risk at the Bay Shore site," but the agency is "always supportive of any research efforts to further our understanding of the occurrence and fate of environmental contaminants."
The 2011 study would have paved the way for continued monitoring and sampling of groundwater at Bay Shore and the other sites and assessed the impacts to surface water and sediments. Residents at a meeting this month with state Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) expressed concerns about oxy-PAHs, Boyle said. "I want to make sure residents get all the information they want and deserve," he said. 
Residents agreed. "We don't know, good or bad, what the effects are. We don't know how to measure it," said Bill Sullivan, who lives next to an oxygen-injection system. "Don't we deserve to know what's under our properties if it's something that could be caused by the remediation itself?" 
With funding from Suffolk County, the USGS discovered a way to detect and monitor oxy-PAHs and conducted the first series of tests at Bay Shore. 
In his note rejecting the 2011 proposal, Ryan noted the technique was "rapidly reducing contaminant levels to drinking water standards" and said multiple layers of equipment offer "a level of redundancy in treatment that will only serve to further reduce the already low levels of oxy-PAH compounds reported in the preliminary USGS study." 
Affected homeowners unite
Residents have been organizing in recent weeks after the home of one neighbor on Lanier Lane was affected with plume-related contaminants when the family installed a new sump pump and groundwater levels rose with superstorm Sandy. National Grid contractors have been at work in the yard of the house for months. 
Joseph Simone, a physician and former lab researcher who lives a few doors down from that house, said a scientific paper raised concerns that the oxygenation technique could mask toxins. Simone is one of more than 50 homeowners who have sued National Grid, saying the plumes and remediation approach have reduced the value of their homes.
"The paper said if you supersaturate contaminants with oxygen, there's a possibility the tests will indicate there are lower levels of toxins, but it could still be toxic, if not more toxic," he said.
Shawn Fisher, a USGS hydrologist on the initial oxy-PAH study, said the preference before making conclusions about contaminants was to have "long-term data sets." But, he said, "the folks we were talking with [at DEC] didn't see any benefit in continuing. The county does, but it doesn't seem they have the money."

POMGP30

State rejected Suffolk water study request

The $10-million rehabilitation of a former Grumman Corp. factory in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> has been backed by <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County with tax breaks, as part of a larger effort to find new uses for the defense complex. 
 Developer Steel Equities has modernized other former Grumman plants in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>, some with county aid. 
 Steel Equities executives Joseph Lostritto Jr. and brother Glenn said they have similar plans for 1 and 15 Grumman Road West, which include a 372,000-square-foot building and land suitable for another building. 
 The renovations, expected to cost $3 million, include a new roof, facade and heating and cooling systems. 
 "We don't have any tenants yet . . . but we certainly hope the changes we are planning will make the building attractive," Joseph Lostritto Jr. told the county's industrial development agency last week. 
 Steel Equities, based in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>, will use its own money to buy the property, which is selling for $7 million. 
 The <a href="/topics//Ida_(musician)">IDA</a> agreed to freeze property taxes for five years in return for Steel Equities' promise to find tenants that together would employ 340 people. The developer also received a $259,000 sales tax exemption on materials needed to renovate the building. 
 If the goals are met, Steel Equities would be eligible for more property tax breaks over 15 years. 
 <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County Executive Edward Mangano said the aid "paves the way for redevelopment of one of the largest available industrial parcels remaining" in the county. It has languished for years under a string of owners. 
 The <a href="/topics//Ida_(musician)">IDA</a> last week also supported a proposed 72,500-square-foot office and warehouse in <a href="/topics//Port_Washington,_NY">Port Washington</a> for Ivy Enterprises, a subsidiary of beauty-care supplier Kiss Products Inc., also of <a href="/topics//Port_Washington,_NY">Port Washington</a>. 
 The $13.5-million project at 3 Seaview Blvd., is located near Kiss' other buildings, which also received <a href="/topics//Ida_(musician)">IDA</a> assistance. Kiss sells do-it-yourself nail kits, eyelashes and cosmetics. 
 Ivy expects to add 30 to its workforce of 80 in the next three years. 
 Jin Kim, product management director, said the company considered moving to the Midwest or South but is staying. <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> has offered Ivy a 12-year break on property taxes, $105,000 off the mortgage recording tax and a $583,000 sales tax exemption on equipment for the new facility.

Business

BZNIDA28

Tax breaks for ex-Grumman site renovation

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U.S. Sen. <a href="/topics//Chuck_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> is asking the head of <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> to allow groundwater testing under its property in the Bethpage area where an elevated level of radium has been found in some drinking water samples.
"I am asking you to simply grant immediate and unfettered access to the water district so that mystery can be cleared up," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter yesterday to company chairman and CEO Wesley Bush.
A spokesman for Northrop Grumman, Mark Root, said the company doesn't comment "on correspondence from public officials."
Untreated water drawn from a Bethpage Water District well in August 2012 had a radium level of 4.72 picocuries per liter, a measure of radiation. The level was 5.87 in January and 4.82 in April, officials said.
District officials have told Newsday that the amount of radium does not exceed federal or state drinking water standards, but the levels are rising and they want to run tests to try to determine where the radioactive element is coming from.
The district has shut down that well, but has assured residents that overall water quality is not affected and a half-dozen other wells are operating.

LIRADI25

Schumer urges help in monitoring Bethpage radium

The Bethpage Water District has shut down one of its drinking-supply wells after elevated levels of radium were detected, and officials want to run tests in hopes of finding the source. 
 The amounts of radium detected so far do not violate federal or state drinking water standards, but the levels have increased since the district first tested for radium in 2006, officials said. 
 "We don't have a choice to be anything but conservative," said district superintendent Mike Boufis. "We need to better understand it, because we definitely don't want to take a chance." 
 To track the spread of the radioactive element, the 33,000-customer district has sought permission to test monitoring wells operated by the Navy and <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> that are part of Superfund cleanups. 
 The district is also seeking <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County approval for a pilot program that would use a resin to remove the element, a known carcinogen, from the water supply. 
 In August 2012, untreated water drawn from a well at the district's Sophia Street plant had a radium level of 4.72 picocuries per liter, a measure of radiation. The level was 5.87 in January and 4.82 in April, Boufis said. 
 Radium levels in treated water at that well were slightly lower, officials said. 
 The state and federal standard for radium in treated drinking water is 5 picocuries per liter averaged over a year based on quarterly tests. 
 Boufis said the well in question, which tested low for radium in 2006 and 2010, was closed in January. It now "has elevated levels where we find it hard to believe it's naturally occurring," he said. 
 A second, occasionally used well at Sophia Street, where an August test found a radium level of 3.35 picocuries, is no longer being used for drinking water, but is being tapped for other uses, such as fighting fires. The district's six other wells have had radium levels below 1 picocurie, officials said. 
 The district is sending out its annual water quality report Friday to residents. 
 While the radium results are disclosed, the district notes that it conducts more than 10,000 water-quality tests a year and meets all drinking water standards. 
 &nbsp; 
 Action urged 
 The discovery of the elevated radium levels is the latest setback for the district, which has spent millions since the late 1980s to treat groundwater contamination stemming from manufacturing activities at the Navy and <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> sites in Bethpage. 
 "If there is a meaningful threat, we need to understand this as soon as possible," said Rich Humann, president and chief operating officer of H2M, an engineering company that works for Bethpage and other water districts. 
 County Executive Edward Mangano, who lives in Bethpage, urged action. "The low-level early detect warrants an immediate, comprehensive investigation and commensurate remediation should the tests be confirmed," he said Wednesday in a statement. 
 Jeanne O'Connor, who formed the Bethpage <a href="/topics//Cancer">Cancer</a> Project with a friend to track local cancer rates with an eye on the plumes, was surprised by the radium concerns. "This is another reason why an investigation needs to be done," she said. "I'm wondering where it's coming from. Is there new pollution in the area?" 
 The district has notified the <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County <a href="/topics//United_States_Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services">Department of Health</a> and consulted with experts from Calgon Carbon Corp., a Pittsburgh firm specializing in removing contaminants from water. 
 The monitoring wells are set up as part of state <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Conservation">Department of Environmental Conservation</a> treatment programs related to two groundwater plumes. The first was discovered in 1986; the second in 2009. 
 The Navy has granted access to 10 monitoring wells for the Bethpage district to sample, said Lora Fly, a remedial project manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, which is overseeing the Navy's cleanup responsibilities. 
 <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> has not responded to the district's request for access to its wells. Company officials did not comment Thursday. 
 "Though the levels of radium found have been low, the more information we have now, the better we can prepare for the future," Sen. <a href="/topics//Chuck_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Thursday. "The water district should obviously be permitted to test for radium on the <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> property." 
 &nbsp; 
 Drafting pilot program 
 Starting in 1942, the Navy and Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. (now Northrop Grumman) operated research, testing, design, fabrication and assembly plants in Bethpage. The more than 600-acre facility led to the development of the Apollo Lunar Module and Hellcat fighter plane. 
 Manufacturing stopped in 1998 and most of the Navy land has been deeded to <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County while Northrop Grumman has gradually wound down operations and greatly reduced staff. 
 Chromium contamination was discovered south of the Grumman site in 1949 and by 1986, a shallow plume had been discovered. In 2009, another plume was identified emanating from beneath Bethpage Community Park, which had been where Grumman legally dumped cadmium, arsenic, chromium-tainted sludge, solvents, paints and polychlorinated biphenyls. Volatile organic chemicals, including trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene, have been found in both plumes. 
 Boufis said the district has asked the state DEC for years to order tests for radioactive elements but has been denied. The DEC did not respond to requests for comment. 
 At a meeting on May 15, Fly said the Navy was looking over old site records to see if radionuclides -- such as radium and uranium -- were used at the Bethpage site. 
 They have also asked Northrop Grumman to do the same, she said. 
 Federal rules require the district test quarterly for radium, but Bethpage now plans to sample its water on a monthly basis, Boufis said. 
 No public supply wells or water systems in <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> and <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> counties have violated the standards for radium, officials said. 
 Statewide, 11 water systems have exceeded standards -- one each in Orange and Westchester counties, and nine in Dutchess, said Peter Constantakes, a state health department spokesman. 
 No water systems in the state treat to remove radium, he said. 
 In conjunction with Calgon, the district wants to pilot a program that would use a resin to remove the radioactive element from the water. 
 Calgon is crafting a testing protocol that will be submitted to the county health department for approval, said Charles Drewry, Calgon national sales manager. 
 The company has the technology to remove uranium but so far has not attempted to eliminate radium from water, he said. 
 "We'll continue to sample to see when we get a breakthrough," Drewry said.

LIRADI24

High radium levels shut Bethpage Water District well

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A network of more than 200 wells and stations that monitors water quality, flows and levels in <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> City's five boroughs and western Nassau County stopped collecting data this week. 
 The roughly $1 million program dates back at least 30 years and is a joint operation of <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> City's <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Protection">Department of Environmental Protection</a> and the U.S. Geological Survey. 
 Monitoring ended yesterday because the city cut funding to the program, which looks for contaminants, records water table levels and tracks flow from creeks, rivers and other surface bodies, said Stephen Terracciano, chief of USGS New York Water Science Center in <a href="/topics//Coram,_NY">Coram</a>. "I don't think there is anyone else doing this kind of monitoring," he said. 
 &nbsp; 
 City DEP: 'Not necessary' 
 The city's <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Protection">Department of Environmental Protection</a> declined to provide specific information about the cuts but spokesman Ted Timbers said in an email "the data collection funded by DEP supported projects that are now complete and . . . ratepayers will not continue to fund studies that are not necessary." 
 USGS conducts work only with a funding partner and the agency typically contributes to costs, be it by staffing, analysis or money. "We'll continue to look for other partners to fund the network," Terracciano said. 
 The cuts affected 196 groundwater stations, 10 surface-water stations, one meteorological station and 133 water-quality stations. Some stations are co-located and monitored groundwater and water quality. 
 That includes 45 stations in western Nassau, from <a href="/topics//Long_Beach,_NY">Long Beach</a> to <a href="/topics//Great_Neck,_NY">Great Neck</a>. 
 A lot of people are using the data, said USGS supervisory hydrologist Ronald Busciolano. "When you have breaks . . . it really reduces the quality of the data." 
 The city water supply system provides more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to 8 million residents. 
 Reservoirs and lakes northwest of Manhattan, as well as an aquifer in Queens, have been used. But in 2012, all of the drinking water came from the Catskills/<a href="/topics//Delaware">Delaware</a> watershed area. None was from Queens, according to a 2012 DEP report. 
 New York City does not use the aquifers, but <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>ers rely on them for water. The discontinued wells are drilled into the three main <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> aquifers -- the Upper Glacial, Magothy and Lloyd. 
 Last year, USGS data revealed intrusion of salt water into the Lloyd was growing in parts of the North Shore and beginning along the South Shore. Nassau's Department of Public Works stopped funding monitoring in 2010 because of budget issues. But in September, a group of Nassau public and private water suppliers agreed to cover costs for one year. 
 &nbsp; 
 District: 'A vital tool' 
 The city funding cuts, which affect separate Nassau wells, are disappointing, said Mike Boufis, superintendent of <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> Water District and chairman of Long Island Water Conference. "We feel it's definitely a vital tool we can use," he said. "Any monitoring we can get done only gives us more info that we can make educated decisions about." 
 Districts routinely test their drinking water. 
 Many groups have used the data over the years, including <a href="/topics//City_University_of_New_York">City University of New York</a>, <a href="/topics//National_Park_Service">National Park Service</a>, U.S. <a href="/topics//Environmental_Protection_Agency">Environmental Protection Agency</a>, city agencies and construction engineers, Busciolano said. 
 &nbsp; 
 Weather service affected 
 One shuttered monitor transmits real-time water levels in the <a href="/topics//Bronx_River">Bronx River</a> and is one tool that helps <a href="/topics//National_Weather_Service">National Weather Service</a> in Upton issue flash flood warnings for the <a href="/topics//Bronx_River">Bronx River</a> Parkway, said I. Ross Dickman, meteorologist in charge at the Suffolk facility. "I think any time you take data . . . away, it's not good." 
 The service often issues flood alerts and does not have access to real-time water level monitors in all the vulnerable areas, but Dickman said the information is key to modeling and confirming predictions. 
 "You have to have verification in many cases to make sure you are not doing the public a disservice by putting out false alarms," Dickman said. 
 Another closed monitoring site is in Brooklyn's <a href="/topics//Gowanus,_NY">Gowanus</a> Canal, a federal Superfund site. <a href="/topics//Gowanus,_NY">Gowanus</a> Canal Conservancy wants data to be collected from the two closed existing wells and thinks more wells should be installed and monitored before, during and after cleanup, said Rich Kampf, an environmental consultant who serves on the board of the conservancy. "We need to understand how this system works now and then track it as these changes take place," he said.

LIWATE02

Funding cuts eliminate water monitoring program in city, Nassau

Southampton Town will consider Tuesday a pilot project to help residents replace antiquated septic tanks with new systems -- a move being called the next step in the clean water fight. 
 Environmental watchdogs say the proposed project is one of the first that would deal with a looming problem <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County public officials have been loath to touch. 
 About 70 percent of homes in the county are on septic systems, which leach nitrogen into the water table -- primarily from urine, said Kevin McAllister, head of the environmental group Peconic Baykeeper. 
 While current nitrogen levels are safe for drinking water, the amount that seeps into bays and tributaries produces readings well above what they should be for surface waters, McAllister said. That causes algal blooms, such as red and brown tides. 
 The Southampton plan, sponsored by Councilwoman Christine Scalera, is small. It would set aside $50,000 in an incentive program for replacing septic tanks installed before 1981. The program would offer a 50 percent to 60 percent replacement-cost incentive for replacing old septic systems with ones up to the current standard, which can cost $5,000 or more. 
 Christopher Gobler, a professor at <a href="/topics//Stony_Brook_University">Stony Brook University</a> who studies algal blooms, applauded the effort as at least symbolic. 
 "It's a recognition by public officials that the septic problem is a concern," he said. "Even if it's a small program, it's a pioneering program for <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County. It's pointing in the right direction." 
 Scalera acknowledged the program is only a start: "We should not let perfect get in the way of good. It's something we can do now." 
 McAllister said the attention brought to the issue is good. But he said the state and Suffolk County need to increase regulation and adopt stricter codes for septic systems. 
 Other areas, such as <a href="/topics//Chesapeake_Bay">Chesapeake Bay</a> and Cape Cod, have adopted more stringent wastewater codes and have approved denitrification septic systems. 
 "We're barely talking about it right now," McAllister said. "We still have our head in the sand." 
 Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst called the proposal "part of a toolbox to address issues of degradation of our waters." 
 Ultimately, she said, it will take federal, state and local governments working with private industries to bring down the price of high-tech denitrification systems. 
 "There's a need for new technology to serve an area like ours," she said. "The idea to start to sewer this area is unrealistic."

TOSEPT23

Southampton mulls septic tank replacement

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Water quality problems including increasing algal blooms that closed shellfishing areas, record-setting levels of bacteria, and the death of a <a href="/topics//Jack_Russell">Jack Russell</a> terrier last summer have pushed <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> environmental groups to fight for improvements. 
 The groups Thursday are launching a campaign to protect water supplies in the aquifers, bays, creeks and embayments that they say are being damaged by high levels of nitrogen, pharmaceuticals and toxic compounds. 
 They will present their recommendations at the second "Water we Going to Do" summit in <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a> to create a <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Clean Water Partnership. 
 "We need to fund and mandate that some government entity be responsible for water quality," said Dick Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. 
 Among the recommendations: 
 Establish a regulatory authority to manage Long Island's water resources; 
 Require upgrades to sewage treatment plants and septic systems; 
 Require a yearly report on the state of aquifers. 
 Amper's group, with <a href="/topics//Citizens_Campaign_for_the_Environment">Citizens Campaign for the Environment</a>, Group for the East End and <a href="/topics//Nature_Conservancy">The Nature Conservancy</a> of Long Island have committed millions of dollars to the effort, Amper said. 
 "We're going to clean up our water or we're going to perish environmentally and economically as a region," he said. 
 Last year, the groups' summit defined water problems in the region. This year's focuses on actions to treat the water system as a whole, said Bob DeLuca, president of Group for the East End. "We really need to put all of this stuff under one hood and that will probably make it easier going forward," he said. 
 Long Island is served by a network of aquifers, which provide drinking water and supply fresh water to bays, creeks and lakes. The Upper Glacial aquifer is closest to the surface, followed by the Magothy and the Lloyd. 
 Between 1987 and 2005, nitrogen concentrations in the Glacial aquifer increased by 40 percent and by 200 percent in the Magothy, according to a <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan in 2010. 
 The nitrogen can be traced to wastewater, said Chris Gobler, a professor at <a href="/topics//Stony_Brook_University">Stony Brook University</a>'s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. About 70 percent of <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County relies on septic systems. 
 Nitrogen levels in groundwater meet current drinking water standards, Gobler said. But the concentration in surface water can trigger algal blooms that can be toxic to fish, shellfish and humans, he said. 
 Tighter limits on the amount of nitrogen allowed in groundwater could protect surface water, said <a href="/topics//Citizens_Campaign_for_the_Environment">Citizens Campaign for the Environment</a> executive director Adrienne Esposito. 
 Often referred to as red, blue or brown tides, the blooms' intensity has increased locally. 
 In 2003, blue-green algae developed in some areas and in 2004, a red tide. In 2006, blooms appeared in <a href="/topics//Northport,_NY">Northport</a> and have developed every year since, except for 2007. 
 In 2011, the concentration of bacterial cells found in Meetinghouse Creek in Aquabogue set a world record, Gobler said. 
 The state <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Conservation">Department of Environmental Conservation</a> last year closed shellfishing areas earlier than usual -- in April -- and in new locations. In September, a Jack <a href="/topics//Jack_Russell">Russell</a> terrier died in <a href="/topics//East_Hampton,_NY">East Hampton</a> Town and a necropsy revealed traces of blue-green algae, or Cyanobacteria, which causes liver failure. 
 "It's an indication for sure that these things are coming at us fast and furious," DeLuca said. 
 &nbsp; 
 &nbsp; 
<h3> RECOMMENDATIONS</h3> 
 &nbsp; 
 Proposals to protect Long Island's ground water and surface water supplies: 
 Develop septic system upgrade program to use advanced, safer technologies 
 Create clean-water plan, with goals, enforceable regulations and consequences 
 Develop public education strategy 
 Pass laws requiring proper pharmaceutical disposal 
 Reduce fertilizer use

LIWATE18

LI environmental groups push for water quality improvements

Farmers are praising the state's latest strategy to regulate pesticides, but environmental groups ripped the plan, claiming it doesn't do enough to keep chemicals out of <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s groundwater. 
 About 100 people attended a public hearing at the Riverhead campus of <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Community College, sponsored by the <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Conservation">Department of Environmental Conservation</a>, to comment on the draft of the <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Pesticide Pollution Prevention Strategy, which was released in January. The plan calls for the state to continue monitoring groundwater for pesticides and to create technical working groups. It also would allow for future implementation of new regulations on pesticides. 
 The latest proposal is a sharp departure from a 2011 DEC draft plan, according to farmers, environmentalists and DEC officials. That plan was praised by environmental groups but derided by farmers, who believed that its aggressive stance toward pesticides would hurt their ability to maintain agriculture on <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>. 
 At Wednesday's hearing, Deputy DEC Commissioner Eugene L. Leff said the current plan is much less likely to draw a legal challenge than its predecessor. 
 "This program will achieve more, more quickly," Leff said. But environmentalists said the new plan still falls short, saying it lacks defined goals or triggers to improve drinking water. 
 "It's woefully lethargic," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the environmental group <a href="/topics//Citizens_Campaign_for_the_Environment">Citizens Campaign for the Environment</a>. "There's more protection for the status quo than for drinking water." 
 She complained the state couldn't even say whether pesticide levels in groundwater were going up or down. 
 Leff said data for trends on pesticides and groundwater wouldn't be available until next year. But farming advocates noted that almost all of the studies showed only trace amounts of pesticide, well below levels the federal government deemed safe for humans to drink. 
 Pesticides are necessary to continue farming successfully in eastern Long Island, growers said. 
 "Pesticide is to plant as medicine is to human," said Deborah Schmitt, who grows vegetables in Riverhead. "Zero tolerance will put us out of business. Zero tolerance means zero farms." 
 The former draft released by the DEC included zero tolerance on some pesticide uses, a level Joe Gergela, executive director of the Long Island <a href="/topics//Farm_Bureau">Farm Bureau</a>, said was unacceptable.

TOPEST05

Revamped state policy on pesticides splits farmers, environmentalists

A settlement with the U.S. Navy over costs associated with the toxic plumes endangering Bethpage water is imminent, with ratepayers to be spared from a "plume tax," elected officials said Thursday. 
 The Navy is to reimburse the $14 million the Bethpage Water District bonded for a wellhead treatment facility to ensure its water is safe to drink, officials said. It also will cover 30 years' worth of operating costs, or about $5 million, officials said. 
 The deal needs approval from the <a href="/topics//U.S._Department_of_Justice">U.S. Department of Justice</a>, which should come within a month, Sen. Charles <a href="/topics//Chuck_Schumer">Schumer</a> (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference with water district officials. 
 Bethpage residents Sal and Noel Greco, who hosted the conference at their home and celebrated the settlement with a toast of tap water in champagne glasses, said the deal will save them $300 a year. 
 "That's a big hit for the next 20 to 30 years," said Sal Greco, 74, a water district consultant. "It's not going to affect just us; it's going to affect our children and the next generations." 
 The Grecos are among 9,000 district customers who are to see relief from water-purification costs associated with two toxic plumes emanating from a former Bethpage military manufacturing facility used in the 1930s and '40s by the Navy and what was known as Grumman Corp. The plumes have chemicals classified as carcinogens. 
 Thursday marked the third anniversary of negotiations with the Navy, water district attorney Anthony J. Sabino said. 
 Navy spokesman Thomas Kreidel Thursday said the agency is "in discussion with Bethpage officials," but said he could not comment on details until they are finalized. 
 "Without this settlement, ratepayers would have been paying for a mess they didn't create," Schumer said. "So now the district can pay back the bond holders, protect the ratepayers and continue to provide safe, clean, lovely drinking water." 
 He said he also is working to obtain financial relief for cleanup in <a href="/topics//Massapequa,_NY">Massapequa</a>, which is in the path of the plumes. 
 "The Navy and the contractors made this mess, they should clean it up," he said. 
 The Navy is responsible for cleanup outside the base and Grumman for cleanup within it, according to an agreement between the two parties, Schumer said. 
 But Bethpage Water District board of commissioners chairman William Ellinger Thursday said the district plans on taking Grumman to court for $20 million in cleanup costs. 
 Bethpage water is treated and very carefully monitored, he said. 
 It is safe to drink, he said."Hopefully, it's almost over but we don't know that for sure," he said of dealing with pollutants. "Our engineers and scientists keep checking the water to make sure it's in good shape before we send it to the people."

LISCHU29

Officials: Navy to help with Bethpage plume costs

liPLUME29 - crop

<a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman Corp.</a> is unlikely to receive any of the $3 million in grant money and tax breaks awarded it by <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> State in late 2011, officials said Thursday.
The aid was promised in return for pledges from the <a href="/topics//Virginia">Virginia</a>-based aerospace giant to make $11.6 million in improvements to its <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> campus and continue to employ 1,500 people there. However, the workforce shrank by 100 jobs recently, and on Monday executives announced plans to move 850 jobs to Florida and California.
That decision will leave Northrop Grumman with 550 employees locally at a new "Electronic Attack Center of Excellence" -- far short of what is required to get state assistance over the next 10 years, said three officials of Empire State Development Corp., the main business aid agency in New York. 
The officials also confirmed that Northrop Grumman did not tell New York State in advance about the planned move of jobs off <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>, so the state couldn't attempt to dissuade the company. Most of the jobs are going to Florida, which offered incentives.
The New York State officials said they were surprised by Northrop Grumman's actions, given the state's long record of providing assistance. 
In 2007, the company was in line to receive about $40 million to construct another building in Bethpage and add about 350 people to a local workforce that then totaled 1,770. However, Pentagon cutbacks forced the shelving of the expansion, and the company didn't receive those benefits.
<a href="/topics//Kenneth_Adams">Kenneth Adams</a>, Gov. <a href="/topics//Andrew_Cuomo">Andrew M. Cuomo</a>'s economic development czar, said Thursday night, "While deeply disappointed by Northrop Grumman's corporate consolidation decision, I remain optimistic about the company's commitment to developing their electronic warfare capabilities in Bethpage."
The state Power Authority has been cutting the electric bills of Northrop Grumman factories since at least the 1980s. "We will review all agreements with Northrop Grumman, and if and when they fail to meet their commitments, the state will rescind the corresponding assistance," authority spokesman Paul A. DeMichele said Thursday.
A spokesman for Northrop Grumman declined to comment.

Classifieds

Jobs

BZGRUM08

Northrop Grumman seen unlikely to get state aid

bznor05  cropped 3.5.13

Monday's devastating announcement from Northrop Grumman that it would transfer most of its remaining <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> jobs to California and Florida exemplifies an unfortunate fact of economic life here: the steady loss of good jobs, being replaced by others that pay less. 
 Economists say that creates a vicious cycle. A growing percentage of the population has less disposable income to spend at other businesses, spending that would, in turn, produce a multiplier effect of economic growth and job creation. 
 "We have a situation in which we have job growth that is slow, but whatever jobs we are getting tend to be relatively low-paying, and yet we are in a high-cost area," said economist Pearl Kamer of the <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Association, the region's largest business group. 
 The Island's challenge, she said, is to develop higher wage jobs and at the same time try to reduce the costs of living and doing business here. 
 In the 12 months ended Dec. 31, for example, the Island had a net gain of 2,700 nonagricultural jobs, according to the state labor department. It said 900 jobs were created in retailing, 3,100 in health care and social assistance, and 2,800 in administration and support, waste management and remediation. All combined to overcome losses in government jobs and manufacturing. The latter includes most defense and aerospace jobs. 
 The Island's defense industry has been losing jobs since the peak of the 1980s <a href="/topics//Ronald_Reagan">Reagan</a> administration defense buildup, when it employed as many as 80,000. That number had fallen to 31,000 in 2006. Total employment, public and private, on Long Island now is about 1.3 million. 
 Northrop Grumman has 1,400 workers left on Long Island, in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>, and its announcement Monday said two programs there now, employing 850, would be transferred to <a href="/topics//San_Diego,_CA">San Diego</a> and <a href="/topics//Melbourne">Melbourne</a>, Fla. 
 The 550 remaining in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>, mostly engineers but also program management and business development personnel, are to form a "center of excellence" for electronic warfare -- a longtime specialty at Grumman before and after the 1994 Northrop takeover. It includes the jamming of enemy ground radars and communications to help safeguard friendly aircraft. 
 A relatively bright spot in the local jobs picture has been the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, vitamins and other consumable health products. In the past year, eight companies in that industry have announced plans to hire 834 people on Long Island. As a group, the companies employ 5,135 locally. At the largest, <a href="/topics//NBTY,_Inc.">NBTY</a>, the new jobs are in production, online sales and marketing. 
 "There are growing industries," said Kamer, "but not enough high-paying jobs." 
 The labor department says aerospace engineers on Long Island earned a median annual salary of about $112,000 a year in the first quarter of 2012, the most recent date for which data is available. 
 In a study last year for the Long Island Forum for Technology, Long Island economist Martin Cantor wrote, "A major factor keeping Long Island in the economic doldrums is that the region is becoming more of a service-sector economy. More jobs are being created in the lower-paying retail, health care and tourism sectors, while the higher-paying manufacturing and construction industries continue to shed jobs." 
 With James T. Madore

BZGRUM06

Economists: Northrop Grumman job loss exemplifies a sad fact of life on LI

<a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a>'s senior senator Tuesday blasted <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman Corp.</a> for "betraying" <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> with a plan to move 850 of its 1,400 local jobs to Florida and California. 
 Sen. <a href="/topics//Chuck_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> said the <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> congressional delegation, at Northrop Grumman's behest, won millions of dollars in continued funding for the E-2D Hawkeye Navy surveillance plane in 2009. In return, company executives promised to maintain and increase its <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> operation, where the plane's design work has been done -- but now will go to <a href="/topics//Melbourne">Melbourne</a>, Fla. 
 "Northrop Grumman pledged to protect these jobs, and they have broken their word to their workers and turned their back on the people of <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>," Schumer said. 
 A company spokesman declined to comment on Schumer's criticism, which came after the senator spoke with company chief executive Wes Bush in the wake of Monday's jobs announcement. 
 Schumer's anger and that of others was partially a reaction to years of tax breaks and utility bill reductions for Northrop Grumman's factories from state and local governments. 
 In December 2011, Empire State Development Corp. granted $1.1 million in state tax credits in exchange for the company's commitment to maintain 1,500 jobs and spend $11.6 million on building upgrades. Its electric bills have been reduced for years by the state Power Authority in return for hiring promises. 
 Spokesmen for both state agencies weren't able to respond last night to questions, such as whether New York tried to persuade Northrop Grumman not to move jobs or whether the company would continue to enjoy lucrative tax breaks. 
 The <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County Industrial Development Agency wasn't given the opportunity to dissuade Northrop Grumman, according to IDA executive director Joseph J. Kearney. 
 Separately on Tuesday, Florida confirmed it gave incentives to Northrop Grumman in support of plants in <a href="/topics//Melbourne">Melbourne</a> and St. Augustine being designated "centers of excellence" for various company operations. <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> was named a center for electronic attacks prevention. 
 Florida's Commerce Secretary Gray Swoope said Gov. <a href="/topics//Rick_Scott">Rick Scott</a> and local officials cooperated "to move quickly and to put together a competitive case for Northrop Grumman to grow its presence in Florida." The company has shed jobs there recently. 
 A spokesman for California's economic development agency said it had not provided any new incentives to Northrop Grumman in the past year.

BZSCHU06

Schumer: Northrop Grumman 'betraying' LI by moving jobs

chuck schumer cropped

More than half of Suffolk's hospitals, long-term care facilities and nursing homes are flushing expired and unused medications, leading to trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s water supply, according to a new report.
<a href="/topics//Citizens_Campaign_for_the_Environment">Citizens Campaign for the Environment</a>, a statewide group based in <a href="/topics//Farmingdale,_NY">Farmingdale</a>, reviewed the pharmaceutical disposal plans of 59 facilities and found that 51 percent reported relying on flushing medications down the toilet. A quarter of the facilities use a reverse distributor service to collect the unused drugs and 12 percent participate in a take-back program sponsored by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the report, released at a news conference in <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>.
"Our morning coffee should have coffee, milk and sugar, not <a href="/topics//Valium">Valium</a>, morphine and <a href="/topics//Ambien">Ambien</a>," said Adrienne Esposito, the group's executive director.
A 2005 study released by the U.S. Geological Survey reported trace levels of drugs in 28 of 70 water samples collected from Suffolk groundwater wells.
The environmental group is pushing for new state legislation and guidelines that would ban the practice of flushing and instead mandate that pharmaceutical companies handle the incineration and proper disposal of the drugs.
<a href="/topics//Matthew_Bennett">Matthew Bennett</a>, senior vice president of <a href="/topics//Pharmaceutical_Research_and_Manufacturers_of_America">Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America</a> -- a <a href="/topics//Washington,_D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a>-based industry group -- wrote in an email that "the creation of additional take back programs . . . is unnecessary when the easiest, most acceptable way to rid the home of unused medicines is to dispose of them in household trash," as suggested by the Federal Drug Administration.
Legis. Kara Hahn (D-<a href="/topics//Setauket,_NY">Setauket</a>) and Legis. William Spencer (D-<a href="/topics//Centerport,_NY">Centerport</a>) joined Esposito in calling for a uniform state policy to end the flushing practice.
"We don't want drugs in our drinking water even at these small levels to reach our bays and our waterways," said Hahn who chairs the legislature's environmental committee.
Spencer, a physician who serves as chairman of the legislature's health committee, said several of the medical providers he spoke to rely on flushing to prevent controlled substances like morphine and <a href="/topics//Percocet">Percocet</a> from getting into the hands of others.
"There has to be one message and that message is very simple -- we must keep these narcotics, these controlled substances and other medication out of water supply," Spencer said.
The study resulted from 2011 county legislation requiring health care facilities operating in Suffolk to report their medication disposal practices to the <a href="/topics//United_States_Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services">Department of Health</a>. Citizens Campaign used those reports in the analysis released Monday.
Esposito said her group has reached out to <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> officials about implementing a similar reporting policy but so far no legislation has been proposed.

POMEDI05

Drugs ending up in water supply in Suffolk

Overdose Deaths

<a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman Corp.</a> said Monday that it will move 850 jobs off Long Island by next year, leaving just 550 workers out of a workforce that exceeded 25,000 in the 1980s. 
 The jobs are going to Florida and California in the latest cost-saving consolidation of functions by the aerospace company. It's acting in the face of steadily declining <a href="/topics//The_Pentagon">Pentagon</a> budgets, including those in the current automatic spending cuts known as the sequestration. 
 An unknown number of the 850 workers will be offered transfers, company spokesman Randy Belote said. The consolidation is expected to be completed sometime next year. 
 The Island's military industry, once a linchpin of the region's economy, has steadily lost jobs since the 1980s, when it employed as many as 80,000 people during a buildup by the <a href="/topics//Ronald_Reagan">Reagan</a> administration. That number was down to 31,000 in 2006. 
 Kevin Law, president of the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, said the almost complete loss of Grumman hurts one of the Island's iconic industries. 
 "Its terrible to lose any more jobs in a heritage industry, just as it would be for commercial fisheries or the agricultural field," he said. 
 The Long Island economy, which has struggled to hit its stride following the <a href="/topics//Economic_Recession">recession</a>, suffered another blow when superstorm Sandy devastated numerous shore communities, and knocked out power to about 90 percent of the <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Power_Authority">Long Island Power Authority</a>'s 1.1 million customers. 
 The loss of 850 jobs, the largest single hit in recent memory, provides another shock. 
 The manned aircraft design work now being done by Northrop Grumman in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> will be consolidated at what the company called a "center of excellence" in <a href="/topics//Melbourne">Melbourne</a>, Fla. That includes design of the new E-2D Hawkeye Navy surveillance aircraft, as well as the designs of upgrades to earlier E-2 versions, Belote said. Grumman no longer builds any airplanes on Long Island. 
 An Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence will be located in <a href="/topics//San_Diego,_CA">San Diego</a> and include work on the MQ-4C Triton, a Navy high altitude surveillance aircraft program now based in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>, Belote said. 
 The company said an Electronic Attack Center of Excellence, to focus on technologies such as radar jamming and cybersecurity, will be located in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a>. It will initially have the 550 workers but could potentially grow if more work comes its way. "The technology in this area has really increased," Belote said. 
 <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County Executive Edward Mangano said, "Since Grumman eliminated 20,000 jobs in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> in the 1990s, I've worked to return over 15,000 jobs to the former defense property, including those in homeland security, motion picture, communications and high tech industries. While I am disappointed in their plans to reduce their Long Island workforce, I remain optimistic that Northrop's plans to create an Electronic Attack Center of Excellence in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> will compliment our growth in homeland security. <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a>'s economy was clearly strengthened by the dozens of companies that now call <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> home rather than relying on a single employer." 
 Wes Bush, chairman, chief executive and president of Falls Church, Va.-based Northrop Grumman, said in a statement, "Given the current budget environment, it is imperative that we act to enhance future performance, innovation and affordability for our customers." 
 The company, which has shrunk by 17 percent in three years to 70,000 employees worldwide, also said it would close facilities in Norwalk, Conn., and Dominguez Hills, Calif. 
 Law said, "The fact that there's going to continue to be a center of excellence in <a href="/topics//Bethpage_State_Park,_NY">Bethpage</a> is good news and something we need to capitalize on in terms of new industries." 
 Pearl Kamer, the association's economist, notes that, while jobs in the industry tend to be high-paying, the aerospace and defense sector is a small percentage of Long Island's total 1.3 million public and private employment. 
 <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> Sen. <a href="/topics//Kirsten_Gillibrand">Kirsten Gillibrand</a>, a <a href="/topics//U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrat</a>, said through a spokeswoman, "I am very frustrated that the company has made a decision to move jobs out of <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a>. I believe that Long Island has the workforce, academic and research assets, and local support that would have allowed Northrop Grumman to grow centers of excellence right here in Bethpage." 
 Founded by LeRoy Grumman in 1929 as an independent company, Grumman was the Island's leading aerospace and defense company for decades, and for many years Long Island's largest private employer. At Bethpage and in <a href="/topics//Calverton,_NY">Calverton</a>, it produced generations of fighters, bombers, surveillance and electronic warfare aircraft for the Navy. 
 Years before it was acquired by Northrop in 1994, it also produced the Lunar Module on Long Island that landed astronauts on the moon during <a href="/topics//NASA">NASA</a>'s Apollo program in 1960s and 1970s. 
 With Ellen Yan 
<hr> 
<h2> NORTHROP-GRUMMAN TIMELINE</h2> 
 1936: Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Corp. sets up headquarters in Bethpage for engineering, manufacturing, assembly, research and development. Started with 21 workers. 
 1940s: Grumman builds the Wildcat and Hellcat fighter planes and the Avenger attack plane, helping turn the tide of World War II. Entered the 1940s with 2,000 employees, grew to 22,100, and in 1945 was cut to 3,400. 
 1960s: Under a contract with <a href="/topics//NASA">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a>, Grumman develops the lunar module at Bethpage. The project involved 9,000 employees. 
 1970s: Grumman manufactures wing structures for the Space Shuttle and F-14A Naval fighter planes. 
 1980s: Production of F-14 Super Tomcat planes began. The workforce ranged from 23,000 to 25,000. 
 1994: Northrop Corp. buys Grumman, which becomes part of Northrop Grumman's aerospace systems and information systems divisions. It had 9,000 employees at the time.

BZNOR05

Northrop Grumman to move 850 jobs off Long Island

<a href="/topics//Hurricane_Sandy">Superstorm Sandy</a> significantly changed wildlife habitat across <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>, in <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> City and along the <a href="/topics//New_Jersey">New Jersey</a> and <a href="/topics//Connecticut">Connecticut</a> coasts. 
 The storm flooded marshes, downed trees and changed shorelines in ways that could push birds to nest in other locations, give fish access to new areas and change the composition of forests. 
 "It's tremendously complex because all of the impacts work together," said Tim Dillingham, executive director of American Littoral Society, an environmental advocacy group in <a href="/topics//New_Jersey">New Jersey</a>. "Some of these we're not going to see the impacts of for a very long time." 
 Dillingham's group surveyed Sandy's impact on coastal habitats for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which will use the information to help prioritize federal aid funding. 
 Protecting nesting grounds 
 One focus is Great Gull Island at the eastern end of <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Sound">Long Island Sound</a>. The storm shattered a dock, created breaches in two places and eroded beaches on the northern, southern and eastern sides. About 9,500 <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">common</a> terns and 3,000 roseate terns nest on the island each spring. The colony of roseates, which are listed federally as endangered, is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. 
 The storm dropped rocks and sand in some places while other parts of the island's shore were washed away or flattened, said Helen Hays, director of the Great Gull Island project, a tern-monitoring program of the <a href="/topics//American_Museum_of_Natural_History">American Museum of Natural History</a> in Manhattan. "This is the most damage we've had in the period since I've been here," said Hays, director since 1969. 
 <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">Common</a> terns, which are listed as threatened in <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a>, prefer open, flat areas to build nests along low grasses and rocks. The roseate terns nest in spaces under rocks -- areas that may have filled with sand during the storm. 
 Hays said <a href="/topics//Common_(musician)">common</a> terns should be able to find enough space to nest. The lack of a dock hampers rebuilding blinds and shelters for the roseate terns, a project that was to take place this year. 
 If the birds can't find places to nest, "they may go to <a href="/topics//Massachusetts">Massachusetts</a> or places on <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>," Hays said. 
 Scientists caution that habitat changes from Sandy aren't all potentially negative. 
 "Our coastlines are dynamic systems," said Nicole Maher, a senior coastal scientist at <a href="/topics//Nature_Conservancy">The Nature Conservancy</a> of <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>. "Sand is going to move around." 
 &nbsp; 
 Focus on Sunken Meadow 
 Environmentalists point to positive impacts at <a href="/topics//Sunken_Meadow_State_Park,_NY">Sunken Meadow State Park</a> in <a href="/topics//Kings_Park,_NY">Kings Park</a>. 
 Sandy ruptured a berm and trail built across Sunken Meadow Creek in the 1950s. The structure had limited tidal flows to a salt marsh. Without the saltwater influx, invasive fresh water species pushed out native marsh plants. The berm also blocked saltwater fish such as alewife from using the creek to reach freshwater for spawning, said Ariana Newell, a natural resource biologist with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 
 Alewife are "the living link that connects freshwater and coastal food webs," Maher said. 
 The parks department and <a href="/topics//Nature_Conservancy">Nature Conservancy</a> had been working to remove the berm and install a bridge for people to use the area without restricting tidal flow. Sandy did part of the job for them. 
 Since then, tidal activity has increased in the marsh and some native species have returned, Maher said. 
 Sandy may also have made a positive impact in the <a href="/topics//Fire_Island,_NY">Fire Island</a> wilderness area, where a breach created by the storm remains open. 
 <a href="/topics//Jordan">Jordan</a> Rafael, a biologist with the <a href="/topics//Fire_Island,_NY">Fire Island</a> National Seashore, said it's too soon to tell what the long-term impacts from the breach and overwashes will be, but it could mean increased habitat for piping plovers and terns. Seals have appeared in the breach area. 
 "We're eager to see how wildlife will be utilizing the breach," Raphael said. 
 &nbsp; 
 Wary of non-native trees 
 But on the <a href="/topics//North_Fork,_NY">North Fork</a>, concerns have been raised by property owners planting small trees such as Bradford pear or kwanzan cherry to replace native oaks, sycamores and elms felled by Sandy, according to the Littoral Society report. 
 The tall native trees provide food and nesting places for owls, hawks and bald eagles that have been recolonizing around the <a href="/topics//North_Fork,_NY">North Fork</a>. The non-native ornamentals will reduce the number of insects that feed on the trees and could reduce the number of birds, which feed on the insects. 
 "The replacement of natural forests and plants like invasives and exotic bushes, shrubs and trees is probably causing a silent ecological collapse of several of the ecosystems," Dillingham said. "Mother Nature has things in its place. Ornamentals really don't belong in the forest."

LIHABI17

Sandy may have lasting impact on LI ecosystems

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<a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> County Executive Edward Mangano said Wednesday night that the state needs to expand the study area in an analysis of cancer rates and environmental exposure in a Bethpage neighborhood. 
 Mangano's call for additional work on the analysis of an area that borders former Navy and <a href="/topics//Northrop_Grumman_Corp">Northrop Grumman</a> manufacturing facilities came as about 120 residents met with State <a href="/topics//United_States_Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services">Department of Health</a> officials at Bethpage Senior High School. 
 "Clearly the study needs to dig deeper," he said. "In my mind there are serious questions that remain unanswered." 
 Mangano, who had a staff environmental attorney review the study, said he would send a formal letter requesting additional investigation. 
 State health officials have said that no further cancer studies are planned, and that Wednesday night's meeting was to present the finding, hear comments and take questions. 
 Regarding Mangano's request, Bill Schwarz, director of public affairs for the department of health, said, "We're going to evaluate all the questions, including that one, and we'll respond." 
 "We will try to get a better study, a more advanced study," state Sen. <a href="/topics//Carl_Marcellino">Carl Marcellino</a> (R-<a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a>) said Wednesday night. But he cautioned that all questions could not be answered given the complexity of the topic, risk factors and duration between exposure and diagnosis. 
 The report, released Jan. 17, looked at cancer rates in a 19-block area and a separate one-block area. Cases from 1976 to 2009 were evaluated. 
 Roger Scanlon, 61, was among the residents at Wednesday night's meeting. He said that he lives in the one-block study area and had soil vapors removed from his house after the Navy found contaminants. He had kidney cancer, his wife has <a href="/topics//Breast_Cancer">breast cancer</a>, two neighbors died of brain cancer and another one suffered from several forms of the disease. He doesn't believe the study was valid. "You can't ignore this little block that got wiped out," he said. 
 In the larger study area, the number of cases and the most frequent types of cancers diagnosed -- lung, breast and prostate -- are what would normally be expected in adults. In the one-block area, researchers said, the total number of people diagnosed with cancer was what would be expected, except that the average age of diagnosis was younger than what is typical. Given the small population, however, "these results do not provide a clear indication of an unusual pattern of cancers," the report said. 
 Mangano, a county legislator at the time, and Marcellino requested the study in early 2009 after the Navy reported it had found possible cancer-causing chemicals in air inside and beneath homes near a former Navy drum storage site. 
 The assessment looked at the area bordered by Stewart Avenue on the east, 11th Street on the west, and north to south from Sycamore to Maple avenues. The two blocks between Ninth and 11th streets from Thomas to Maple also were included. 
 The one-block area studied separately, from 10th to 11th streets between Maple and Sycamore avenues was where Navy testing in 2009 discovered trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE), as well as 1,1,1-trichloroethane (<a href="/topics//Television_Critics_Association">TCA</a>). It's close to a former Navy drum storage site.

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Mangano: State should expand Bethpage cancer study

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The state <a href="/topics//Department_of_Environmental_Conservation">Department of Environmental Conservation</a> has released its proposed plan to protect <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s water supply from pesticide pollution -- more than a decade after the state legislature ordered such a program. 
 State officials say the plan will safeguard groundwater while meeting the needs of farmers, residents and businesses. 
 Critics say the measure offers little action and that too much time has passed to keep studying options. Supporters, including farmers, favor continuing a cautious approach. 
 The plan, made public this week, calls for evaluating the pesticides found in groundwater, their concentration and the reasons for their use and implementing pollution prevention measures, including enhanced groundwater monitoring. 
 Other measures could include modifying pesticide use or requiring less-toxic products, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a news release. 
 "I was just astounded that after a decade pretty much all they are doing is kicking the can down the road," said state Assemb. Robert Sweeney, (D-<a href="/topics//Lindenhurst,_NY">Lindenhurst</a>), who chairs the Environmental Conservation committee. "There's not much substance to it." 
 DEC spokeswoman Lisa King said in an email the proposal "presents a blueprint for action that gets the strategy off the ground in a meaningful way." 
 Plan supporters said the use of pesticides is key to protecting <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a>'s $300 million per year agriculture industry. 
 "We can't farm in a place like Long Island without crop protectants," said Joseph M. Gergela, executive director of Long Island <a href="/topics//Farm_Bureau">Farm Bureau</a>. "Let's do it smart. Let's not be hasty." He said state officials need to use science to determine if a substance is dangerous and if economically viable substitutes are available. 
 Underground aquifers provide Long Island's nearly 2.8 million residents with water for drinking, irrigation, industrial, agricultural and other uses. The sandy soils do little to filter out contaminants. 
 Since 1997, 117 pesticide-related chemicals have been detected in the aquifers, according to the draft plan. Thirty percent of all dry pesticides and 14 percent of all wet pesticides used in the state are applied on Long Island, according to the plan. 
 The DEC's proposal does nothing to protect the public, said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of <a href="/topics//Citizens_Campaign_for_the_Environment">Citizens Campaign for the Environment</a>. "It's a plan designed to continue pesticide use in full force," she said. 
 Public comment will be accepted for 90 days, after which the DEC will decide whether the plan should be modified. The plan can be found at www.dec.ny.gov.Public comments are accepted until April 30 by fax at 518-402-9024, email at LongIslandStrategy@gw.dec.state.ny.us or mail to Scott Menrathcq, NYS DEC, Division of Materials Management, 625 Broadway, Albany, N.Y. 12233-7254.