The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will be holding a public meeting regarding remediation of the Astro Electroplating, Inc., an inactive hazardous waste disposal site located at 170 Central Avenue in Farmingdale. The meeting will be held on Thursday, March 8 at the Farmingdale Public Library on Merritts Road at 7 p.m. The meeting was scheduled in an effort to provide local residents with information and accept public comment on the DEC's proposal plan to remediate soil contamination at the site.

Astro Electroplating specializes in plating nickel, chromium and copper to premolded plastic components and has operated at the Merritts Road site for over 20 years. Until 1986, the company discharges approximately 400,000 gallons of wastewater per year into a permitted leaching pool. During this period, the discharged wastewater contained heavy materials in concentrations exceeding levels permitted under Astro's State Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit.

In 1986, four unpermitted leaching pools were discovered on the east side of the site. Under the supervision of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, liquids and sludge from these four pools and the permitted pool were removed. The five pools were then backfilled with clean soil. Since the time these pools were filled all treated wastewater has been discharged into the local sewer system. At the time the pools were backfilled, no actions were taken to address groundwater contamination at the site.

In 1997, Astro signed a consent order with DEC, agreeing to fund remedial investigation of the contamination and an assessment of feasible cleanup alternatives. The remedial investigation found heavy metal contamination in soil, groundwater and leaching pool sediments. Since homes and business near the site are connected to public water, exposure to site-related contaminants in drinking water is not expected. No public water supply wells have been affected by contaminants migrating from the site.

In May and June of last year, Astro began interim measures to remediate the contaminated dry wells. Standing water, sludge and contaminated soil were removed from each dry well. The wells were then backfilled with clean sand.

At the upcoming meeting, DEC and New York State Department of Health staff will describe the proposed remedial action plan for the site. The proposed remedy for the soil contamination consists of capping the former leaching pools with a high-density polyethylene liner and an asphalt cover. The liner and cap will be designed to prevent water from entering the former leaching pools and percolating through contaminated soil. In addition, an existing wastewater treatment system will be upgraded and used to extract and treat contaminated groundwater from under the site. This system will reduce onsite groundwater contamination as well as reducing the flow of contaminating groundwater offsite.

Members of the public will be invited to provide comments at the meeting, or may send written comments to Jeffrey L. Dyber, P.E., NYSDEC, 50 Wolf Road, Albany NY 12233-7010. Comments will be accepted through March 22. The DEC will review comments and prepare a responsiveness summary. The proposed remedial action plan may be modified based on comments received from the public. The final decision on an environmental remedy will be presented in a record of decision that will be placed in the document repositories.

Copies of the proposed remedial action plan are available at the Farmingdale Public Library and at the DEC's regional office in Stony Brook.