Nassau County Legislators Peter J. Schmitt and Salvatore B. Pontillo recently requested Jane Kenny, the new Region II director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise to a higher standard the cleanup plan the agency has proposed for the Liberty Superfund Site in Farmingdale.

"It is our firm belief that the EPA's proposed cleanup plan for this site, SL-2, is inadequate to protect the integrity of the environment and safeguard the health of area residents," said the legislators' correspondence to Director Kenny. "We therefore request that you instead implement alternative cleanup plan SL-3 , which would remediate the Liberty Site to residential standards. Additionally, we believe that all impacted offsite areas, including all five ponds within the Massapequa Preserve, should be fully remediated."

Legislators Schmitt and Pontillo had previously gone on record with the EPA in Sept. 2001 to request a cleanup of the Liberty Site to residential standards and to fully remediate all offsite contamination, including the Massapequa Preserve ponds. Their most recent communication with the EPA came following the Jan. 9 Public Availability Session held at the Farmingdale Library.

"There was vigorous and unanimous agreement among all participants at the well attended meeting," said that legislators, "that the SL-2 remediation plan was the only one acceptable to the community."

Legislators Schmitt and Pontillo concluded their letter to Kenny by urging her, on behalf of constituents in the communities of Farmingdale and the Massapequas, who continue to live daily with the threat posed by the Liberty Site, to "take all necessary steps to revise the EPA's proposed cleanup plan and instead implement the SL-3 alternative, and to include the remediation of all ponds within the Massapequa Preserve under the Superfund Program."