Earlier this month, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) representatives met with concerned Garden City residents to announce a proposed plan to clean up the Fulton Avenue Superfund site in Garden City Park, which is affecting Garden City Water District Wells 9 and 13 and 14 (which are located at the Garden City Country Club).

"It's been a long road but we're finally here and we're ready to move on to the next step and correct the problem that we have," Kevin Willis, EPA remedial project manager, told residents.

By way of background, a fabric-cutting mill existed at 150 Fulton Avenue between January 1965 and December 1974. It had been discovered that during the mill's operation, solvents, primarily tetrachloroethene (PCE), were disposed of in a drywell located below the facility's parking lot.

In the mid-1980s, Nassau County's Department of Health conducted an investigation in order to identify sources of groundwater contamination; GCPIA was identified as a contaminant source area.

As a result, in May 1993, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) placed the Fulton Avenue property on the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites in New York State and conducted its own investigation in November 1996, which determined that the property was a "primary source of regional groundwater contamination."

Genesco, Inc. owners of the property, then entered into an administrative order of consent to perform the remedial investigation and feasibility study at the site and to recommend and perform interim remedial measures in September 1997. A year later, the site was placed on the National Priorities List (a list of the most contaminated sites in the country) and the NYSDEC was named lead agency. Genesco, Inc. contracted ERM Northeast to conduct the remedial investigation and feasibility study; the remedial investigation began in December 1998.

Initially, 21 vertical profile borings were drilled with 530 discrete samples taken to identify the problem and properly locate monitoring wells. Willis continued, noting that 20 monitoring wells (18 conventional wells and two eight-zone multilevel wells) were then installed in a phased approach to "properly locate the groundwater sampling locations." These wells, along with an existing network of approximately 30 more monitoring wells, were then sampled. Currently, 24 wells are sampled semi-annually.

Four separate field mobilizations conducted between 1998 and 2004 revealed PCE levels in the local aquifer system to be up to 6,100 parts per billion (ppb) and TCE concentrations up to 416 ppb. Willis said more recent data have shown a marked increase in PCE levels in Wells MW21b and MW21c, immediately upgradient of Garden City Water District Wells 13 and 14. Garden City Well 9, which is to the north and west of Wells 13 and 14, will be further investigated beginning this summer.

A PCE-dominant plume emanates from the property and other groundwater contaminant plumes were observed to exist in the area as well. In August 1998, Genesco, Inc., the potentially responsible party, had contaminated soils excavated from the bottom of the drywell and a soil vapor extraction (SVE) system installed. Willis noted that this system was further enhanced with a groundwater sparging system. More than 10,000 pounds of PCE were removed from the area during the operation of this system.

Genesco, Inc. then had a sub-slab depressurization system installed under the building to provide additional protection of the occupants from exposure to the contamination. This system remains in operation to this day.

"Wells 13 and 14 are being well managed by Garden City," Willis assured. "The source is very localized and it hasn't spread all over ... It doesn't migrate sideways."

Joseph DeFranco (Office of Soil and Groundwater Remediation) of the Nassau County Department of Health, agreed, telling residents that their tap water is well monitored before it arrives in their homes. "The Nassau County Department of Health oversees your water district," DeFranco said. "We look very closely at the district's monitoring to ensure you are receiving quality drinking water on a daily basis ... When you put a filter on your system you could build up contaminants in the filter if you don't take proper care of the filter."

Tom Pinou, Western Property Owners' Association (WPOA) treasurer, believes residents have every right to be concerned. "To me, this sounds like an escalated problem," he said. Although Angela Carpenter, chief of the Emergency & Remedial Response Division of the EPA, admitted that no one has any way of knowing how things are going to act 300-400 feet down, she assured the EPA's agreed upon approach to the problem is a very aggressive one.

The plan, which is subject to public comment through March 24, entails the installation of systems to remove contaminants from the ground water, the injection of a chemical (referred to as an oxidant) to treat potential residual contamination in ground water and the extensive monitoring of ground water.

"The plan gives us a roadmap for cleaning up the contamination and reducing any potential risk to surrounding communities," Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg said. "Now we can address the polluted legacy left behind by this mill."

With regard to groundwater extraction and treatment, water will be piped up to the Garden City Bird Sanctuary, where it will be treated and disposed of.

"The Garden City Bird Sanctuary uses a portion of the 12-acre Nassau County Storm Water Storage Basin 232 as a community nature preserve under an innovative 'dual use' program with the NCDPW for community and environmental benefits. I am planning to continue and expand this program to provide similar benefits at many of Nassau's 600 sumps," Rob Alvey, Garden City Bird Sanctuary president, told Garden City Life.

Alvey continued, adding, "The use of the basin for recharging the groundwater is its primary function and we look forward to participating in productive meetings with all interested parties to accommodate everyone's concerns. Certainly, there is much engineering and planning that needs to be done before any physical activities take place at the site. It may be time to consider installing an ecological recharge basin within the site or using the adjacent county parcel for a portion of the facility infrastructure."

Robert Mangan, director of Garden City Village Public Works, further noted that the village has been treating the plumes since 1988 at the Garden City Country Club through use of air stripping towers at Wells 13 and 14, a very expensive process, Mangan admits. The village has commenced litigation against Genesco, Inc., the potentially responsible party, to recover hefty remediation costs, which have reached millions of dollars.