Source: http://www.27east.com, June 7, 2017
By: Erin McKinley
Unlike the tainted groundwater that continues to slowly make is way south to Moriches Bay, new information regarding the swath of contamination—often referred to as the Speonk Solvent Plume—has come to a standstill.
A recently released 118-page monitoring report completed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation offers scant new facts about the pollution, the source of which has yet to be pinpointed even though the estimated two-mile-long plume was discovered back in 2001.
Officials have previously stated that they think the contamination dates back more than half a century, though they have not yet made any commitments to cleanup the pollution, a mix of chemicals, that primarily runs below the North Phillips Avenue corridor—the same area that has been targeted by several different developers.
According to the monitoring report released on May 26 and which tested water from 123 locations within the North Phillips Avenue corridor between January 11, 2017, and February 6, 2017, roughly 18 volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are still present in the groundwater. Eight of the chemicals—carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethene, trichloroethylene, chloroform, dichloroethene, trichloroethane, dichloroethane and freon—were still found to be at higher than normal concentrations. Those chemicals are found in numerous industrial products and all are hazardous.
“In the past, we already hooked up residents that are in proximity of the plume, or are at a potential threat of being in line with the plume, to public water,” State Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. said this week. “But there are still question marks, and my question for the DEC is are there any additional steps that we are going to need to take with regards to extending public water or even mitigation efforts?”
Aphrodite Montalvo, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said the agency will continue to monitor the pollution but has no plans to clean it up. “The current site management monitoring program will continue and the results will be evaluated to address any environmental and/or public health problems which may be identified,” she wrote in a prepared statement.
The contamination was discovered 16 years ago when a resident reported well water that tasted odd. The pollution was studied in depth over the next decade and the subject of a massive 16,000-page characterization study commissioned by the DEC and completed by the Massachusetts-based environmental consulting firm Camp Dresser and McKee.
According to the study, the main chemicals appear to be metal degreasers with the exception of chloroform, which is often used to make other chemicals.
In 2013, the state opted to classify the plume as a Class “C” site, meaning it would require constant monitoring for the next several years as it moves closer to local waterways. The study in January was a part of that effort.
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said this week that there is not much the town can do in terms of remediation, pointing to the sheer size of the contamination area. He did note, however, that all of those in the area with private wells have been connected to public water supplies and that all new developments are required to install vapor barriers—vinyl sheets that are buried in the ground and designed to prevent potentially toxic fumes from entering buildings.
“We have been looking for a source of the plume for a long time and nobody has been able to find it,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “But even if we do it is unlikely we could remediate it all at this point. Maybe if there are still contaminants … [they] could be removed, but most of the solvents have long moved into the groundwater.”