By Nick Buglione
This week they expressed deep concern for their health, and fury over not being told earlier that harmful chemicals had been discovered in the area's soil and groundwater.
"This problem obviously has been going on for a number of years," said Ron Lupski, who lives on Front Street with his elderly parents. "The unanswered question here is what is our health risk at this point, having been in contact with this for a number of years."
The air quality in Lupski's house, which is just south of Melody Cleaners, has been tested three times by state and county health officials since last October, and there has been a marked increase in the levels of contaminants found in the air, he said.
Although he's been told that the levels pose no immediate health threat to his family, Lupski isn't so sure he agrees. "My concern is, how much do they actually know?" he said. "I look at the fact that 10 to 15 years ago, health agencies were saying second-hand smoke doesn't cause lung cancer, and I equate this to the same problem.
"In their report they have told me it was a low level and that it wasn't harmful," he went on. "But in that same letter they say to limit your exposure to the basement and keep the windows open."
According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, an October 1999 environmental assessment of Melody Cleaners, at 2050 Hempstead Turnpike, revealed that the surrounding soil and groundwater were contaminated with hazardous solvents used in the dry-cleaning process, namely tetrachloroethylene and its breakdown product, trichloroethylene.
It was determined in March 2000 that the chemicals had gotten into the soil through the cleaners' on-site cesspools, before the store was connected to the municipal sewer system.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says there are myriad health problems that can arise from contact with tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene. What's more, once in the ground, the solvents sometimes percolate into the air as a harmful gas.
Still, residents didn't learn of the contamination and subsequent investigation until a letter was sent out in July 2002. As the Herald has reported, most local elected officials didn't even learn about the situation until the East Meadow School District issued an alarming notice to residents late last month.
"It was an ongoing investigation, and we did not find out," said Lupski, who doubts he'll ever be able to sell his house in light of the contamination. "I'm very annoyed at that."
So is Dan Capalbo, 20-year owner of a home on Sixth and Front streets. "We're very concerned about this," said Capalbo, whose house has been tested twice for chemicals. He added that health officials found 300 micrograms per cubic meter of the contaminants in his basement's air. The state Department of Health considers anything over 100 micrograms a health risk.
"This is just recently we've heard this, and we've been exposed to this for years," said Capalbo, who worries more for his wife, who has multiple sclerosis.
The DEC maintains, however, that it followed standard agency procedure in its notification process.
"The adjacent landowners receive notification as soon as the [contaminated] land is placed on the Registry of Inactive Harzardous Waste Disposal Sites," said Mark Lowery, a DEC citizen participation specialist. A site can only be placed on that list, he added, after a battery of tests are first performed and certain criteria met.
"Anytime we believe someone might be directly effected, we contact them," said Lowery, explaining that if the DEC felt the East Meadow residents were in danger back in 1999 when the contamination was discovered, they would have been notified.
Citing agency policy, a state Department of Health spokeswoman declined to discuss the details of tests conducted in private homes, though she confirmed they were taking place.
"We have been working with the Nassau County Department of Health collecting indoor air samples near the site since last fall," said Claire Pospisil, state Department of Health spokeswoman. "We did find two business did have levels above our guidelines."
One of those stores, formerly a TV repair shop, is vacant; the other is the very much active Dunkin Donuts just east of the Melody Cleaners, at 2080 Hempstead Turnpike.
Joe Dazzo, owner of the Dunkin Donuts, could not be reached for comment at press time. Pospisil, however, said that the store has installed a new ventilation system that should remedy the problem.
"With ventilation systems, we do usually notice a considerable decline in the levels," she said. "We will be collecting more samples at the doughnut shop to see how the ventilation is working."
Not all the tests conducted near the contamination site have yielded poor results, though.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation previously reported that the chemical plume leaking from the cleaners was traveling south with the groundwater 30 to 80 feet below the surface, toward McVey Elementary School. News of this struck fear among school officials, who fired off a letter to residents on Jan. 23.
Yet a recent examination of McVey's air quality found that the detected levels were within the normal range and that exposure to these concentrations is not expected to threaten people's health.
"The expectation is that there will be further tests," said Leon Campo, the East Meadow School District's assistant superintendent. "We're developing contingency plans in the event that something materializes that we have to deal with."
The DEC also initially determined that low levels of the chemicals had gotten into two of three Town of Hempstead wells in the area. Subsequent tests have revealed traces of contamination in only one of those wells, said Lowery.
"In the first fact sheet, we referenced two wells being contaminated at some point in the past," he said. "Only one well has shown it in the past year, and that's not all that uncommon. Sometimes the contamination hits the well, then moves on and is diluted out."
Town officials are regularly monitoring the water supply, and still maintain that it is safe for drinking and all other household uses.
In conjunction with the New York State Voluntary Cleanup Program, Lowden Properties has already voluntarily removed 500 tons of tainted soil from three of the cleaners' polluted cesspools, cutting off the source of contamination. No dry-cleaning has taken place at Melody Cleaners since last December. Clothes are instead being laundered off-site.
"There's more sampling [that will be done]," Lowery said. "I can't really produce a time frame on when this will be done because it depends on what we find during the testing."
A community update meeting with elected officials and representatives from the various departments investigating the situation was scheduled for Feb. 26, after press time.
"It's obviously a concern to the agencies," Lowery said. "The purpose of the investigation that's going on is to understand the nature and extent of the contamination so that it can be remediated."
