By: Laura Lane
Busy Bee Cleaners of Merrick could not be better located. The dry-cleaner, at 1818 Merrick Road, enjoys a steady flow of traffic from the ever-bustling thoroughfare.
It has only one problem. For more than a decade, it has been occupied with a cleanup of the hazardous waste tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a cleaning solvent used to remove stains from clothes.
The cleanup, which began in 1992, was detailed in the Dec. 11 issue of the Herald. Records now reveal that environmental problems at the family-owned Busy Bee date back at least 13 years before that.
According to documents used by the Roux Company to prepare a cleanup plan for the dry-cleaner, there were signs of problems as early as the late 1970s. The Roux Company's plan mentions a Nassau County Department of Health memorandum that was sent to Busy Bee on Feb. 23, 1993. The memo stated that as early as 1979, the health department had instructed Busy Bee to stop discharging separator water (used to separate dry-cleaning fluid from clothing) into the ground behind the building.
The practice didn't comply with the October 1976 Resource Conservation Recovery Act, a federal law that regulates the treatment, transportation, storage and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes. Before the law was enacted, dry-cleaners usually disposed of waste containing solvents like PCE by pouring it into a sanitary sewer, throwing spent filters and sludge into the trash, or simply dumping waste on the ground.
"Everyone did it that way," said Busy Bee employee Tony Asselta. "Anyone with a [dry-cleaning] business prior to 1975 will have this problem. They just haven't been caught yet."
Busy Bee's problems began in 1992, when a discovery of PCE was made in an irrigation well supplying a Montauk Avenue home in Merrick.
Bob Weitzman, of the Nassau County Health Department, said that at the time the county responded to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation complaint about the irrigation well.
Although Weitzman did not have the records available when interviewed, he believed the homeowners may have been watering their lawn or using a sprinkler system when they noticed a foreign smell. PCE smells somewhat like chlorine. Samples detected several volatile organic compounds, which included PCE, at the home. A search for the contamination's source led the health department to Busy Bee.
In March 1993, the county took two soil samples from the unpaved parking lot behind the dry-cleaner and found PCE contamination at levels of 510 and 3,300 parts per billion. The DEC-recommended soil cleanup objective for PCE is 1,400 ppb.
In 2001, Busy Bee entered into a voluntary cleanup agreement with the state. A work plan was prepared that April. It was never carried out, however. Roux is now scheduled to begin cleanup work on Dec. 29.
The Centers for Disease Control have found that PCE can cause a variety of cancers, including leukemia (especially in children) and cancer of the brain, bladder, colon-rectal system, lymph nodes, liver, pancreas and stomach. It can also damage the central nervous system and kidneys, depending on how long and to what extent a person is exposed to the chemical.
In its 2003 Report on Carcinogens, the federal government listed PCE as a class B compound; that is, it is "reasonably anticipated" to cause cancer.
Dr. David Ringer, scientific program director with the American Cancer Society's Research Department, said, "The society acknowledges the federal government's finding as an expert opinion. In general, chemicals in the class B category are anticipated to be carcinogenic to humans if absorbed in sufficient quantities over a sufficient duration."
