State updates website with info on 11 local contaminated sites

Property owners across the North Fork and beyond now have easy access to information concerning contaminated areas they may – or may not – have known existed in their neighborhoods.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has released information about 1,950 different locations across the state that have been investigated for possible environmental contamination, according to DEC officials.

Prior to the release, only two locations in Southold Town and the Riverhead area had been made public on the DEC’s website, the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant in Calverton (more commonly known as EPCAL) and the Mattituck Airbase, said DEC spokesman Aphrodite Montalvo.

Though nine other locations have been added to the website, none of those locations have been newly discovered as contaminated sites, she said.

The information can be accessed on the DEC’s website along with about 2,500 sites that had already been made public and listed online, good for 4,450 total sites.

The newly added sites were mostly unknown to the public until now, local environmentalists said.

Jenn Hartnagel, a senior environmental advocate for the nonprofit Group for the East End, said she had been calling on the state agency “for some time” to release information about sites it has been investigating, in the interest of “transparency.”

“The earlier we know that their might be a problem, the more capable we are with dealing with them and making informed decisions,” she said.

Making the information readily accessible to the public gives people and local governments the opportunity to better understand these locations, and the extent of potentially hazardous conditions associated with groundwater and soil contamination, she said.

Prior to the release, information about these sites was only available by request, largely because the information is considered to be preliminary, incomplete, or not verified, Ms. Montalvo cautioned.

“Information about these sites can easily be misunderstood,” she said. “Their mere existence may unnecessarily raise concern about human exposures or environmental impacts before the sites are better characterized. Due to the nature of this information, significant conclusions or decisions should not be based solely upon the released summaries.”

The DEC released information about the sites in response to an increasing number of requests for property information, often associated with buying and selling property, according to an agency release announcing the measure. Below is information on sites, as provided online. The number matches the map above.

1) Calverton NWIRP 02 (EPCAL)

Grumman Boulevard, Calverton

As many as 230 gallons of fuel are recorded to have been spilled in the area. Groundwater contaminants found included fuel-type and chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), believed to be from unreported spills of solvents used to clean the aircraft engines and fuel systems. Potable water that is contaminated above drinking water standards is currently being treated.

2) Riverhead Landfill

Youngs Avenue, Riverhead

This facility accepted municipal and industrial wastes, and construction and demolition debris. In 1980, spent industrial solvents of unknown composition were disposed at an on-site brush dump. The results of the most recent sampling, done in June of 1992, indicate that no substance of concern was found to be migrating from the landfill.

3) Riverhead Hortonsphere Site

West Main Street, Riverhead

Manufactured gas and stored natural gas. Began operations sometime prior to 1944 and was dismantled and removed in 1998. The site has been undeveloped since.

4) L.I. Horticultural Research Lab

3059 Sound Avenue, Riverhead

Application tanks containing pesticides were periodically washed and cleaned with rinse waters discharged into two leaching structures located on-site, which led to the contamination of subsurface soil.

A well survey was conducted in the area and no site-related contamination has been detected in the private wells. Contaminated surface soils were excavated and the remaining deep soils will be covered with an impervious liner to minimize further groundwater contamination.

5) Altaire Pharmaceuticals Inc.

311 West Lane, Aquebogue

This facility is being tracked because it once managed a type of hazardous waste.

It has not been determined whether any environmental releases have caused concern at this facility. As information for this site becomes available, it will be reviewed by the NYSDOH to determine if site contamination presents public health exposure concerns.

6) Graphics of Peconic Inc.

300 Pleasure Drive, Flanders

This facility is being tracked because it once managed a type of hazardous waste.

It has not been determined whether any environmental releases of concern have occurred at this facility. As information for this site becomes available, it will be reviewed by the NYSDOH to determine if site contamination presents public health exposure concerns.

7) Mattituck Airbase

Airway Drive (off New Suffolk Ave), Mattituck

Solvent rinses and wastewater from the facility were discharged to leaching pools until the pools were closed in 1979. Analyses of samples from the pools indicated elevated levels of copper, iron, nickel, zinc, lead, and cadmium. Contaminated soils were excavated and disposed of in 1997.

8) Southold Landfill

Cox Lane, north of Route 48, Cutchogue

This facility accepted municipal and domestic wastes, demolition, and landscaping debris, and cesspool and septic tank wastes from 1951 to Oct. 1993.

Based on the information contained in the reports, the wastes disposed at this site are not hazardous.

9) Cutchogue Freone Plume

Harbor Land and Oak Street, Cutchogue

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has discovered VOCs in private homeowner wells in the area. A later investigation found no sources of VOCs breaching groundwater standards and it was further determined that there is no longer a threat in this area.

10) Southold Acetylene Gas Production

370 Hobart Road, Southold

The acetylene manufacturing facility, which was operated by the Southold Lighting Company from 1906 to 1921, produced acetylene gas for the surrounding community. A number of organic and inorganic compounds are present at the site in surface soil.

11) Mitchell Property

115 Front Street, Greenport

Fourteen underground storage tanks containing gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil or waste oils had leaked, impacting soils in the vicinity of the tanks. Soils were later excavated and disposed of off-site. The site has since been remediated.