EPA plans to clean up toxic plume

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will decide by the end of September on a method for cleaning up the Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Contamination Superfund site, a toxic plume at the former Grove Cleaners, at 1274 Peninsula Blvd. in Hewlett.

EPA Remedial Project Manager Gloria Sosa said that the contamination, which extends 400 feet north and 1,000 feet south of Peninsula Boulevard, was caused by tetrachloroethylene, a dry-cleaning fluid also known as PCE. The contamination, which has affected the groundwater, spreads out from the source in the shape of a feather, or plume, which Sosa said is 30 feet below ground and 3,500 feet long. The plume was discovered and investigated between 1991 and 1999, when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation removed sediments in the soil, tested the groundwater and determined that it was contaminated.

Residents who live near the site drink water from Long Island American Water’s Jameco Aquifer, 1,000 feet north of the plume, so they face no current risk, Sosa said. There is an aquifer under the plume that is contaminated, however, and Sosa said she plans to clean it up. “People are not drinking contaminated groundwater,” she said. “We conducted a risk assessment and there is an aquifer under the site, which is considered a source of drinking water by New York state. My goal is to bring it back to drinking water standards.”

Carol Scharff, a Waverly Street resident, said she has been using a water filtration system in her home for a long time and feels uncomfortable drinking the tap water. “Living near a dry-cleaners is not a good idea,” Scharff said. “I want the EPA to clean up the plume to the point that I believe the water is safe.”

The EPA plans to use federal funds for the $21.5 million cleanup, unless it can identify exactly who caused the contamination, in which case the agency would most likely fine the person or people responsible, according to Sosa.

To clean up the plume, the EPA has proposed the installation of a number of wells to extract water and the construction of an onsite treatment plant to decontaminate the area.