Everyone who drinks water and breathes the air in Great Neck is invited to come to Great Neck's Main Library, 139 Bayview Avenue, on June 19 at 7:30 p.m. The U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) project engineers, Lou DiGuardia and Damian Duda will finally present the long awaited Hydrogeological Report. Sub-contractor, Earth-Tech Environment & Infrastructure, Inc., has studied the soil, and aquifers under the Stanton Cleaners Area groundwater contamination federal EPA Superfund site.

To help with technical questions, Stanton Cleaners Area Community Group, Inc., was funded by EPA to hire technical advisors to explain in more simple language the scientific vocabulary of hazardous waste remediation and hydrogeology. Hydrogeologist Colleen Kovarik, president Environmental Management and Compliance Group, Inc. and J.R. Holzmacher, P.E. Hydrogeology, will help explain why a hydrogeology report is important in determining if all the necessary designs in engineering the cleanup have been accomplished to make it a success now and in the future.

The N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation, Nassau County Department of Health, Town of North Hempstead Public Safety, Planning and Administration, Great Neck villages, and the Water Authority of Great Neck North will have representatives to field questions from the audience.

For many years the Water Authority of Great Neck North has been treating groundwater with air strippers to remove PCE as a dry cleaning fluid from the groundwater. We all want to know in which direction the aquifers are flowing and if they are carrying any more hazardous wastes in the direction of our drinking water wells.

Great Neck residents may not know how lucky we are that in 1998 the EPA still had the funding from the U.S. Congress to come to the rescue when fast action was needed to remove dangerous levels of PERC vapor from the Stanton Cleaners site. The N.Y. State Department of Health sent personnel from Albany and the N.Y. State DEC in Albany was able to convince the EPA of the seriousness of the emergency.

In April, 1998 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) with a limited budget had to ask the EPA's Region 2 Removal Action Lou DiGuardia and Damian Duda, Remediation Section to evacuate PERC vapor that had impacted a synagogue, proposed nursery school building under construction, the garage of a condominium and a tennis court next to the Stanton site. The EPA had to take over the cleanup of both air and groundwater contamination. The community would not have known about this emergency had it not been for the eagle eye of Lake Success' Board of Trustees member Dr. Jack Binder who saw a NYSDEC "ad" in a Great Neck Record legal section asking for removal of vapor at the tennis court where he frequently played.

New York State has no money to clean up the most hazardous waste emergencies on Long Island. The N.Y. DEC must call in the federal EPA to help. Great Neck is lucky that the Stanton Cleaners site was placed on the National Priority List by the EPA before September 11, 2001. Remediation had been almost complete for Great Neck's Stanton site when Ground Zero in September 11, 2001 took away EPA's Lou DiGuardia to work at least six months on that disaster.

EPA has done a very good job at the Stanton site. Soil vapor extraction systems (SVE) removed 15,000 pounds of PCE from contaminated soil and is still operating to remove PCE. By October, 2002 the new pump and treat system built by the EPA effectively treated 20 million gallons of contaminated groundwater.

The EPA designed a sub-slab ventilation system to reduce PCE levels in the pre-school building, which are still very low. Structural improvements suggested by the EPA reduced the PCE levels within the synagogue to very low levels. The EPA continues to provide regular updates on PCE concentrations in all affected buildings on site.

It is a miracle that the community informational meeting sponsored by the Stanton Cleaners Area Community Group, Inc. will take place June 19, 2003 considering the fact that the EPA's Removal Action Lou DiGuardia and remediation engineer Damian Duda have so many other projects they are responsible for.

Great Neck residents want to know the latest results of groundwater sampling done at the Terrace Apartments, Fenley-Amoco Spill Site and the Party Giant mall which are in the off-site EPA Stanton Superfund study. There are over 50 monitoring wells that have been drilled by the EPA and the NYSDEC in the aforementioned vicinity. Responsible agencies will volunteer this information.

Government agencies need to know that the residents are interested in protecting the air they breathe and the water they drink. There are over 100 seats at the community room at the Main Library for residents with questions.