By: Laura Lane
The drycleaner, however, will only clean up its property. If there's contamination at nearby homes, representatives of the business say regulatory agencies like the state Department of Environmental Conservation must perform tests and clean up those sites.
Meanwhile, homeowners near the drycleaner say the cleanup is taking too long, and they're worried about chemical contamination on their properties.
Representatives of Busy Bee's environmental firm, Roux Associates, met with the DEC Feb. 13 to review results of tests it performed in December.
The DEC has required Busy Bee to clean up the site since 2001. At the time, the drycleaner volunteered to perform the cleanup.
Craig Werle, principal hydrogeologist for Roux, said, "We reported the results of the testing and discussed the next phase of work. We are working collaboratively with the DEC and will submit a work plan in March and then implement it in the spring."
During testing, Roux looked for signs of PCE (tetrachloroethylene), a cleaning solvent used in drycleaning.
Werle said his work focused on determining:
¥Whether the Busy Bee property is contaminated with PCE.
¥Whether possible chemical vapors from the soil seeped into surrounding businesses.
¥And whether groundwater may have been tainted with PCE.
Soil samples were taken from 13 spots around Busy Bee. In some areas that were known to have been contaminated with PCE, up to three samples were taken at different depths above and below the water table. Werle said all samples were shipped to a laboratory for analysis.
Soil vapor data was also collected and revealed there is still some contamination behind the drycleaner's back door. Roux plans to take further samples.
Twelve groundwater samples were collected along the fence. One reading for PCE was 9,700 parts per billion (ppb), which is high. The DEC recommends cleanup for PCE at 1,400 ppb. The other two readings were low by comparison and under the DEC's recommendation for cleanup.
"The readings indicate a very narrow and thin area of elevated groundwater concentrations," said Werle. "There needs to be further investigation, and the DEC agrees."
Roux plans to collect several water samples from public property on three more sites on the north side of Alice Street, which is behind Busy Bee. They will also install wells at the back of Busy Bee's property line to determine in what direction groundwater flows.
"It [the contamination] may be 30 feet wide," said Werle. "We will be doing testing to see how far it has traveled."
Roux doesn't plan to test for contamination at nearby homes. Pete Travaglione Jr.'s property on Montauk Avenue, when tested in 1992, revealed PCE in his irrigation well. And June MacDonald, who lives on Alice Street, has been concerned for years about possible chemical contamination on her property.
Regardless of results from current testing, Werle does not believe it is Busy Bee's responsibility to clean up neighbors' properties, if they are found to be contaminated.
"Our client's responsibility does not include going onto other people's private property. That is the regulatory agencies' job," Werle said. "The contamination at Busy Bee doesn't necessarily tie to Travaglione's groundwater flow direction that caused the problem. We need to know where the contaminated water goes. PCE is also a commonly used chemical at gas stations." A nearby station, he said, "could have used a chlorinated solvent to clean their auto parts."
Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) disagrees.
"To think there is PCE in an area and it doesn't come from Busy Bee is to put your head in the sand and blame someone else," Denenberg said. "Every test they did showed contamination on their site. Busy Bee keeps ignoring that they did the contamination. This is the first time that they have done any work since 1997."
Problems for Busy Bee date back nearly 13 years when PCE, which the Centers for Disease Control have found to be a likely cause for a variety of cancers, was found in nearby soil and groundwater.
A meeting was recently held at Denenberg's office. Irate neighbors complained to Nassau County Health Department Commissioner David Ackman, saying they believe the Busy Bee cleanup is taking too long.
Ackman said, "We agree that taking six to seven years is too long, but this is fairly typical of an environmental cleanup. It's always a question of resources, a question of liability and always an interplay of what the owner is willing to do and what the state wants them to do. The state Health Department will go down to do an assessment and will use the information from the DEC sampling and see if they need to do additional sampling."
Ackman assured residents that the health department was concerned with people's well-being. He also said his department wants to make sure businesses comply with health codes.
Carol Esposito, an Alice Street resident, wondered if there was a law in place to notify residents of the results of any testing. Ackman didn't think there was. MacDonald said there should be.
Initially, the Nassau County Department of Health, after directed by the DEC, tested the area for contamination. After finding PCE in Travaglione's irrigation well, the department tried for years to get Busy Bee to take groundwater samples and comply with a cleanup. The Department of Health can't force a cleanup, so it handed the case over to the DEC, which can.
"Between 1996 and 2003, they [Busy Bee] didn't do any kind of cleanup. The reason why the readings are so good now is because for six years, they [Busy Bee] let it move off-site. It doesn't mean it's remediated."
