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Partly Cloudy EPA set to begin next phase of Hewlett Plume project
Fieldwork is scheduled to continue the week of April 5 on the $24.7 million portion of a $46.2 million cleanup project at a groundwater plume Superfund site at 1274 Peninsula Blvd. in Hewlett, according to Environmental Protection Agency officials.
The so-called Hewlett plume was discovered in 1991 by the EPA. Perchloroethylene, or PCE, a synthetic chemical often used as a degreaser for metalworking and other industries, had leached into the groundwater be-neath Peninsula Boulevard. PCE is often associated with dry-cleaning businesses, and Grove Cleaners operated nearby from 1987 to 1992.
The federal Superfund program funds the cleanup of properties contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. The Peninsula Boulevard site was added to the EPA’s Superfund list in 2004, and the cleanup project began in 2011, when the EPA pumped the polluted groundwater to the surface to be treated, at a cost of $21.5 million.
The focus of the next phase of the cleanup is to determine the sources of the groundwater contamination by collecting soil and water samples from approximately 24 borings at the site. It will begin next Monday. The EPA will set up temporary operations in a parking lot of the strip mall at the intersection of Broadway and Piermont Avenue, and the work zone will include a drill rig and a support truck that the EPA says are expected to limit access to parts of the area for about a week.
The Town of Hempstead is giving the EPA access to a municipal parking lot on Mill Road, near West Broadway, to stage and store equipment including an office trailer, the drill rig, support vehicles and containers. Temporary fencing was installed to secure the equipment.
“In January 2021, soil samples were collected from two locations in the Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Plume Superfund site,” EPA spokesman Stephen McBay said. “The previous piece of equipment had limited reach to deep soil and groundwater at the two locations, so we are bringing in a stronger rig to reach deeper soils to properly characterize the extent of contamination in this area.”
McBay added that the EPA is anticipating the fieldwork to be completed by May. “This EPA equipment will be used to collect needed soil and groundwater samples within the coming weeks starting on April 5,” he said. “The data collected from this sampling work will be used to design the cleanup of the sources of contamination at the site.”
The EPA does not anticipate that the work will cause traffic delays in the area, according to McBay. “EPA does not expect any significant impact to traffic,” he said. “Fieldwork is expected to temporarily limit access to portions of the front parking lot of the strip mall.”
The state Department of Health investigated the extent of contamination at the site in 2019. State Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said that despite the presence of contaminants at the site, people in the surrounding areas do not face a safety risk.
“There are no immediate public health concerns at the site in Hewlett,” Hammond said. “The state’s initial investigation indicates [the EPA is] currently disposing of PCE as required, and that contaminants found in the site’s soil are below the surface and completely covered by pavement or concrete, creating a barrier to potential onsite exposures.”
State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who represents the Five Towns and chairs the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee, noted how vital it is for the site to be cleaned up. “It is critical for the EPA to expedite its review and cleanup of the toxic contamination in the heart of Hewlett,” Kaminsky said in a statement. “More urgency is needed now to tackle this hazard, which is near a school and aquifer wells. The health of our environment and neighbors must be a top priority, and I will continue to advocate for the rapid remediation of this Superfund site.”
More information on the Hewlett plume can be found at https://bit.ly/3rpbMEM.
