Deputy Mayor Robert Lewis announced at the Aug. 12 meeting of the Village Board, in his capacity as the liaison from the Board of Trustees to the Environmental Advisory Board, that KeySpan Energy plans to enter into a remediation process at the site of a former manufactured gas plant (MPG). The site is located between Intersection Street and Second Avenue within the villages of Garden City and Hempstead. KeySpan Energy has announced through information provided by their media representatives that they are currently negotiating a voluntary agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to enter into an Order of Consent to conduct the investigation and remediation of the site.

The plant, as Lewis explained, was originally opened and operated in the Village in the 1890s by The Nassau and Suffolk Lighting Company. It produced gas for lighting, cooking and heating for residential and industrial uses and serviced communities around central and south central Nassau County. The MGP changed hands several times throughout its history, having been acquired by Hempstead Gas and Light Company in the 1930s, which then merged with Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) in the 1940s. LILCO demolished the plant in 1955, but the site was still used for the operation of a propane air system until 1977.

Some of the land located in the Village of Hempstead was sold during the 1970s and is now a parking lot for a car dealership. KeySpan now owns the remaining property within Hempstead and Garden City. When LILCO merged with KeySpan in May of 1998, the land holdings of LILCO became known as KeySpan properties. Part of the site in question is being leased to another car dealership and the rest is home to a gas regulator station and trailers.

The planned investigation is expected to determine the levels of contaminants left behind by decades of gas production, according to preliminary studies of the plant site conducted by KeySpan. Contaminants likely to be found at the site are volatile aromatics like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and polycylic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene, fluorene, phenathrene, and pyrene. The volatile aromatics, BTEX, are, to explain it on the most elementary level, gas residuals which have seeped into the soil's pores during years of chemical production. According to KeySpan, the chemicals and earth have become a mass with a composition "like highway asphalt."

"MGP residues are known to interact with and contaminate groundwater, and the investigations done to date of the Hempstead Gas Plant site indicate that there is groundwater contamination on and off-site. The Order on Consent will include a full investigation of the impact of the contamination at and from the Hempstead Gas Plant site, including an assessment of any potential health implications. The investigation and remediation plans will also include the property that was sold in the past" reported KeySpan media representatives.

Also, KeySpan spokespeople have stated, "A significant aspect of KeySpan's investigation of the site will be determining what the impact has been on groundwater in the area. There is no data to indicate that the residue from the site's groundwater has extended to the current drinking and domestic water supply for the surrounding communities." They added, "Drinking water in the surrounding communities is distributed by municipal and licensed water companies and is tested for a wide variety of chemicals, including some of those found in MGP and other similar industrial and commercial residues. To date, no related chemical has been found to exceed the safety standards for drinking water by Federal, State and local laws."

KeySpan will, in accordance with the terms of the Order on Consent, which calls for a Citizen Participation Plan, establish a Document Repository in the Garden City Public Library (60 Seventh Street) and NYSDEC's Region 1 office in Stonybrook. There will be public meetings held when the Remedial Investigation Report is completed and the actual remediation process commences. KeySpan will also be distributing Fact Sheets to the public and remaining in touch with the media.