EPA Proposes Liberty Groundwater Treatment

Public Meeting Set for Jan. 21

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host a public meeting in Farmingdale on Jan. 21 to discuss its proposed interim plan to prevent contaminated groundwater underlying the Liberty Industrial Finishing Superfund site from moving beyond the site boundaries and to reduce concentrations of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals in the groundwater, agency officials announced this week.

The public meeting, which will take place at Woodward Parkway Elementary School, 95 Woodward Parkway, will begin at 7 p.m.

The proposed action would involve the installation of hydraulic system and innovative technologies for the below-ground removal of both chemical and heavy metal contaminants. EPA has also developed a contingency plan that calls for a conventional above-ground system that would extract and treat the contaminated groundwater. The back-up plan would be used if studies show the preferred action would not achieve cleanup objectives, agency officials said. The agency estimates the preferred plan and the back-up plan would cost approximately $1.9 million and $4 million, respectively, to carry out.

EPA officials noted that it is the agency's goal to have the selected groundwater cleanup system operational by the end of 1998. However, this, they added, depends on the results of treatability studies, as well as EPA's ability to expedite negotiations with those parties the agency has labeled as Potential Responsible Parties (PRPs), and their subsequent preparation of the treatability studies and the system design and construction.

The PRPs are those whom the agency has deemed responsible for cleaning up the Liberty Site, which was polluted by past manufacturing activities and has been the subject of government and privately sponsored investigations and cleanups since the late 1980s.

The proposed interim groundwater action will be designed to prevent further movement of groundwater contamination underlying the site property, which is located on Motor Avenue in Farmingdale, until future, long-term, comprehensive groundwater action is carried out, agency officials said.

Several PRPs are currently conducting an investigation under EPA supervision to determine the extent and nature of contamination in site soils, groundwater, and the Massapequa Creek, due to pollution at the site, the officials added. These investigations are expected to be completed by late 1998. EPA will then develop cleanup plans for the soils on the site and the groundwater contamination, which will be presented to the public for comment.

The period during which EPA will consider written and oral comments from the public on the interim groundwater cleanup plan for the site is from Jan. 8 to Feb. 7. Detailed information on the site studies and the cleanup plans is available for review at the Farmingdale Public Library, located on Merritts Road in Farmingdale. Written comments on the plan should be sent to Lorenzo Thantu, EPA Remedial Project Manager, USEPA, Region 2, 290 Broadway, 20th Floor, New York, New York 10007-1866.