EPA to Propose Liberty Groundwater Treatment

Cleanup Action Will Buy Time for Comprehensive Site Study

By Andrea Halpern

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is assembling a plan that outlines various alternatives for a cleanup system that it hopes to have in place for ground water at the Liberty Industrial Finishing Site by the end of 1998, according to Doug Garbarini, a spokesperson for the agency.

The aim of the cleanup, which the agency has called a removal action, is to stop the emanation of contaminants from groundwater at the site to groundwater off-site, Garbarini said. The removal action is an interim one in that its purpose is to prevent the spread of the groundwater contamination while the agency continues studying both the soil and groundwater, he said. The studies will be used to come up with a comprehensive plan for cleanup of the entire site, he added.

"In effect, we're containing the contamination from leaving the site. So, it does give us a little more time to do an integrative approach," said Garbarini.

The agency had previously divided the site into two units, with what it calls Operable Unit 1 representing the contaminated soils on the western portion of the site and Operable Unit 2 representing both the contaminated soils on the eastern portion of the site and the groundwater contamination from the site. This was done in order to devise a separate cleanup plan for each unit. In a shift of strategy, the agency now plans to devise a comprehensive method to integrate cleanup of the two units.

The EPA has chosen to issue the interim action plan, which will be entitled Proposed Response Action (PRA), instead of a Record of Decision (ROD), Garbarini said, because there are many administrative duties associated with the ROD which would prolong cleanup. Issuing the ROD is one of a series of steps the EPA commonly takes toward achieving the cleanup of a national Superfund site, an area the government has labeled an inactive hazardous waste site.

EPA officials announced in October, 1997 that they would not issue an ROD for the Liberty site, which was polluted by past manufacturing activities and declared a Superfund site in 1986. The site is located on Motor Avenue in Farmingdale. The agency's announcement that it would not issue the ROD, which outlines the type of cleanup the agency will conduct, came after the public expressed outrage about the Proposed Plan, the agency's preferred method for cleanup of the contaminated soils on the western portion of the site.

That proposal, which was presented to Farmingdale residents in August, called for a commercial-level cleanup of the soils on the western portion of the site. The proposed cleanup would have involved excavating and treating contaminated soils, and backfilling them. The $4.5 million plan was also to require the installation of ground water monitoring wells and deed restrictions to prevent a use of the site that is other than industrial or commercial.

During the public comment period that followed the presentation, many residents complained that the plan did not account for the effect of the contaminated soils on groundwater at the site. They also urged that the EPA take swifter action to protect groundwater outside the site, and the Massapequa Creek, which the agency had found to be threatened by the groundwater contamination emanating from Liberty.

In response to this outcry, rather than issuing the ROD in October, the agency said it would conduct the interim cleanup action, and that it would study the site further and consider re-evaluating its preferred cleanup method.

The plan for the interim removal action, Garbarini said, will resemble the Proposed Plan in that it will list alternative actions. Garbarini said Monday that agency officials are waiting for internal approval of the plan, which he expected to be rendered this week. The plan will likely consist of two alternatives, he noted. One would call for keeping the groundwater in place and treating it there. The other would call for pumping out the water, treating it, and then either putting it back, or discharging it into the Massapequa Creek, which Garbarini said has been suffering low water levels. However, the discharge method for this alternative has not been finalized, he added.

A public comment period will follow the release of the plan, during which the agency will hold a public hearing on the matter, Garbarini said. The hearing will likely be held during the third week of January, and the public comment period will likely last for 30 days. The agency will give official notice to the public about these dates following the release of the plan for the removal action, Garbarini noted. The agency expects to render a decision about the removal action immediately after the public comment period ends, and hopes to have the groundwater treatment system in place before the end of 1998, he added.

Like the decision to conduct the interim cleanup action, the decision to prepare a comprehensive cleanup plan that integrates both operable units of the site came after the public comment period that followed the EPA's August presentation of the Proposed Plan.

In preparation for the comprehensive cleanup of the site, the EPA has been continuing to study the site. During October and November, EPA staff tested the groundwater at the site to determine where to place permanent ground water monitoring wells. At the expense of five of the 16 parties the EPA has deemed potentially responsible for the pollution of the Liberty Site, at least 30 wells will be installed at the site over the next few months, according to Lorenzo Thantu, remedial project manager for the EPA. The Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) have also agreed to finance the installation of four out of six monitoring wells that the South Farmingdale and Massapequa Water Districts are planning to employ as part of an early warning system for drinking water, Thantu said. The districts will pay for the installation of the other two wells, he added. The purpose of the wells is to detect contamination from the Liberty Site before it gets into the water supply. "We were able to convince the PRPs to install as many as four," Thantu said of the project.

The planned wells are in addition to approximately 26 that now exist on the site, which has been the subject of state and federal environmental investigations since 1986. The purpose of the new wells, according to Thantu, is to determine how deep into the Magothy aquifer the contamination has reached, in order to determine how close it is to the water supply of the South Farmingdale and Massapequa water districts. Lying below the Upper Glacial aquifer, the Magothy aquifer is a body of water which starts at 85 feet underground, and extends down to 700 feet below ground. Most local water districts, Thantu said, retrieve water from 400 to 500 feet below ground.

As part of the EPA's ongoing studies to prepare for the comprehensive cleanup plan, the agency will also test soil samples, according to Thantu, who expects the studies to be complete by the end of 1998. After this, he said, the agency will go through a "cleanup selection process." It will then issue a Proposed Plan for the cleanup of the entire site. A public hearing and public comment period will follow. After considering public comment, the agency will select one "comprehensive remedy" for the site, Thantu said. He expects this remedy, which will be known as the Record of Decision, will be chosen in early 1999.

Thantu noted that the agency's decision to prepare a cleanup method for the entire site, rather than two separate ones for each operable unit, was based on both results of ongoing studies at the site and public input.