By Sarah Moskowitz
Crews from Boyle Environmental Services, a district-hired material-removal company from Huntington, set out to remove accumulated debris such as wood and concrete pieces from the two crawl spaces. The athletics area of the school, which includes the gym and locker areas, was expected to be closed through Christmas Day for public safety. Crawl spaces were cleared to allow Insight Environmental, district-hired consultants, access to the area.
The section of crawl space is a 40-by-40-foot area underneath the gym. Oil-stained soil runs 18 inches deep in this area, but no oil was detected in the groundwater by a visual inspection, according to Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Bill Fonda.
"There doesn't appear to be anything of real concern to us," said Fonda.
On Dec. 17, DEC representatives met with John Paciulli, president of Insight Environmental, and James Ristano, assistant director of facilities and operations for the East Rockaway School District, to assess the situation. The school and Paciulli plan to review DEC files relating to a 1984 oil spill in that area to see if it relates to the latest incident and how the original spill was handled, said Fonda.
In the next phase of cleanup, after the debris is removed, soil borings will be done to examine the extent of the spill. Soil boring is a type of mapping to see how far contamination has spread.
The bored soil will be tested by Insight Environmental, and results are expected within a month or two. In that time Insight Environmental will develop a work plan for cleaning the area that will be submitted to the DEC for approval. Paciulli said his company submitted a report last week to the district summarizing its plans for the cleanup. As of Dec. 21, East Rockaway Schools Superintendent Arnie Dodge had not received the plans.
The company is considering bioremediation, a process that uses microbiological organisms to break down oil components in the soil, rather than the removal of the soil. Paciulli said bioremediation is a safer option for school occupants.
"At this point in time, this appears to be the best solution," said Paciulli.
While the gym was closed, the boys' and girls' varsity and junior varsity basketball practices were relocated to surrounding school districts, including Lynbrook, Malverne, Herricks, Oceanside and Lawrence.
"I'm optimistic that we'll be able to mediate the problem and go on from there," said Dodge. "I feel as if we've done everything appropriately, and we're going to be aggressive in making sure the problem gets resolved as soon as possible."
