Before 2003, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) cleaned up contaminated sites under certain set guidelines and to meet certain standards that they had at the time.

In late 2002, early 2003, research regarding vapor intrusion, which is the process by which volatile chemicals move from a subsurface source into the indoor air of overlying or adjacent buildings, began to yield more information.

After learning about the new threats of vapor intrusion, DEC staff went through records of sites that the DEC was involved with, either in an oversight or a managing capacity. The sites that were cleaned up prior to 2003 and where remedial decisions had already been made, which include over 400 in New York State and approximately 80 on Long Island, are now going to be prioritized and then addressed and evaluated for the potential of vapor intrusion. The process of prioritizing the sites is expected to be completed by December, according to the DEC.

"All of the sites are going to be prioritized and we will be doing investigations based on sites that have the highest risk potential and those will be addressed and investigated first," said Maureen Wren, public information officer for the DEC. "Every site will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and if there is a need for DEC or Department of Health staff to conduct indoor air quality tests, the homeowner, businessowner or other property owner would be involved."

Of the 400+ sites, approximately seven are located within Farmingdale, including Cantor Brothers, Inc., Circuitron Corp. (82 Milbar Blvd.), Fairchild Republic Aircraft Main Plant (Broad Hollow Road), Fairchild Republic Aircraft Old Sump, Liberty Industrial Finishing (55 Motor Parkway), Minmilt Realty (Hygrade Metal Moulding) and National Heatset Printing Co. Grumman Aerospace and Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant in Bethpage were also on the list.

According to the DEC, they will ask the party responsible for contaminating the site to pay for and perform the vapor intrusion evaluation, as well as any site investigations and the installation and long-term operation and monitoring of any mitigation system which would be required. If the responsible party refuses to perform these activities, or if no viable entity remains, the state will take responsibility for them, and will pursue cost recovery as in any Superfund site. This is the same with groundwater contamination.

While unaware of the list's existence, South Farmingdale Water District Superintendent William Bier said he would "most certainly" welcome the testing.

"We would work right along side of them," Bier said.

According to Bier the current water quality in South Farmingdale "meets all state and federal standards."

"We do quarterly testing as per the Nassau County and New York State Department of Health," Bier added.

East Farmingdale Water District Superintendent George Veilson said that while they have had problems in the past, the water is also tested quarterly and "everything is fine."

In 2004 a new water treatment system was installed and is working properly to remove volatile organic compounds caused from cleaning agents used on metal.

"Basically it's from all the metal work on all the old airplanes they used to make over there," Veilson said. "There is a DEC decision that the owners of the property would have to pay for the system once any of the public water supply wells were impacted by it and it took a while, but it happened now."

The 2005 water quality reports are expected to be published by May.

Residents are encouraged to call the following numbers for more information or with any questions: DEC general information 631-444-0204 and the Nassau County Department of Health's Drinking Water Department 571-3323.

According to the DEC's website, vapors can enter buildings in two different ways. In rare cases, vapor intrusion is the result of groundwater contamination, which enters basements and releases volatile chemicals into the indoor air. In most cases, vapor intrusion is caused by contaminated vapors migrating through the soil directly into basements or foundation slabs. Although the DEC historically has evaluated soil gas pathways, improvements in analytical techniques and the knowledge gained from remedial sites in New York and other states have increased their understanding of how vapor intrusion occurs.

"Historically, we thought that vapor intrusion was only an issue where the source of the contaminants was very shallow and the magnitude of the contamination was very great. We now know that our previous assumptions about the mechanisms that could lead to exposure to vapor intrusion were not complete. The result is that additional work may be required to investigate or remediate sites that are in the operational or monitoring phase, or that have already been closed. Separate ranking systems have been developed to account for the two different sources of contaminated vapors. Because we now recognize the need to take a different sampling approach, when the Department evaluates a site for vapor intrusion, both sources can now be effectively considered," according to the NYSDECs website.

According to the DEC, the evaluation at a specific site will initially involve a review of existing environmental data to see if sufficient information is already available to assess possible vapor impacts. If a vapor intrusion problem is suspected, the DEC may recommend additional sampling, monitoring or mitigation actions. Additional sampling would be used to determine the extent of soil vapor contamination and to verify their initial findings. Monitoring, or sampling on a recurring basis, is typically conducted if there is a significant potential for vapor intrusion to occur if building conditions change. Mitigation steps are intended to prevent exposures associated with soil vapor intrusion. Mitigation may include sealing cracks in the building's foundation, adjusting the building's heating, ventilation or air-conditioning system to maintain a positive pressure to prevent infiltration of subsurface vapors, or installing a sub-slab depressurization system beneath the building. In most instances, mitigation of residential structures will require a sub-slab depressurization system, according to the DECs website.

The DECs website further explains the testing process. "Subsurface vapor samples consist of both soil vapor samples collected from the ground away from buildings (soil gas samples) and sub-slab soil vapor samples collected from immediately beneath the foundation or slab of a building (sub-slab samples). Indoor air samples are collected from the basement or crawlspace and from the lowest level of living space. We collect these samples primarily during the heating season, because we believe that soil vapor intrusion is most likely to occur when a building's heating system is in operation and air is being drawn into the building. Outdoor air samples are collected outside of the buildings, and are used to characterize site-specific outdoor air background conditions. The length of a soil vapor investigation will depend on the data that is collected during the investigation, and is only considered to be complete when all of the exposures and potential exposures have been addressed."

Liberty Site, consisting of 14.3 acres, borders Allen Park. The EPA's administrative record file on the Liberty Industrial Finishing site lists the following information regarding history, cleanup and remediation.

"The Liberty Industrial Finishing Superfund site includes a 30-acre property located at 55 Motor Ave. in the Village of Farmingdale, Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York. The site was used for airplane parts manufacturing and associated metal finishing activities during World War II and the Korean War. In the late 1950s, the site was converted to an industrial park and was used for a variety of industrial operations including metal plating and finishing and fiberglass product manufacturing. Since the 1980s, the site has been used for light manufacturing and warehousing. A groundwater plume contaminated with organic and inorganic substances underlies the 30-acre former industrial area and extends approximately a mile to the south (designated as Plume A). Portions of the Massapequa Preserve, a nature preserve located about one-half mile to the south, are also contaminated from the past activities and will be addressed as part of the Superfund cleanup. A separate plume of organic contamination, designated as Plume B, originates to the north of the Liberty site and migrates in a southerly direction before commingling with a portion of Plume A.

"This site is being addressed through Federal, State, and potentially responsible party (PRP) actions. In August 2004, a Consent Judgment between the United States and responsible parties became effective. The Consent Judgment requires the responsible parties to implement the $32-million primary remedial action described below. Additional studies are being undertaken by federal and state authorities in connection with the $2-million Plume B remedial action."

"The site is being addressed in two stages: immediate actions and a long-term remedial phase focusing on cleanup of the entire site. Cleanup efforts have been taken by the PRPs for the Liberty site since 1978 and have included removing contaminated soil and sludge, preventing contaminated groundwater from migrating off the property. Soil and groundwater remedies were implemented in 1998 "by PRPs acting pursuant to an EPA administrative order and has, since 2004, been continued by the PRPs."

According to the report, "in late 1999, the owners of the Liberty site removed approximately 1.5 million pounds of PCB-contaminated shredded auto-fluff that had been stored at the Liberty site, as required by an EPA order."

In March of 2002, the EPA issued Liberty Site owners a cleanup order requiring them to address below ground features including sumps, vaults, drains, pipe and leaching chambers.

The EPA directed the PRPs to begin the conversion of an on-site system to a conventional pump and treat system in January 2002 and it was completed in June 2004.

This information can be found at the Farmingdale Public Library on Merritt Road and at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund Records Center, 290 Broadway, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10007-1866, 212-637-4308.