State Outlines Study of Levittown Site

Officials: Chemical Not Direct Threat To Area Residents

By Dave Mock

State environmental officials are forming a cleanup plan for the site of a Levittown dry-cleaning shop, which has been named an inactive hazardous waste site.

American Drive-In Cleaners on Hempstead Turnpike, in the Island Trees section, has been named a Class 2 hazardous waste site, which according to the DEC "poses a significant threat, though not one of a direct, immediate or crisis nature, to the public or the environment."

Robert Filkins, project manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said that a soil gas survey has found 1500 parts per million of tetrachloroethene (PCE), a common dry-cleaning solvent. But Filkins said American Drive-In Cleaners has not done its cleaning on premises for several years. The site also contains a bicycle shop and Blimpie's sandwich shop.

The DEC held a meeting Dec. 4 at Island Trees Middle School on a work plan for the remedial investigation and feasibility study on the site. Residents were concerned that it had taken seven years for the start of a cleanup study.

Paul Kareth, an official of the TAMS consulting firm that is doing the survey, said that his firm has not found any chemicals in the four drinking water wells in the area that have more than the maximum allowable concentration of PCE in ground water.

The contamination was found in 1990, after the county Department of Public Works installed five test wells on a vacant site across from the dry cleaner, which it wanted to buy. Ground water samples from two of the wells on the vacant site contained PCE concentrations up to 274 parts per billion. The maximum allowable concentration of PCE in ground water is five parts per billion.

DEC officials said that three years ago, when neighboring Frank's Nursery did an environmental assessment of its site and American Drive-In Cleaners, it found PCE contamination of up to 35,000 parts per million in the soil near the east end of the cleaners, where Blimpie's is located.

Filkins said the process took so long because it had been negotiating unsuccessfully to convince the property owner to undertake a remedial investigation and feasibility study. "They were always stringing you along and never coming to the point where they were going to do something about it."

Robert Bolton, the attorney for the owner of the site, said that his client, who lives out of state, had been trying to negotiate to perform its own voluntary cleanup, but that the DEC wanted them to sign a consent order in advance ceding oversight to the investigation.

Bolton, who said the site is controlled by a family trust (but would not disclose their name), added that his client petitioned the DEC to also investigate chemicals coming from former Grumman, U.S. Navy and Occidental Petroleum operation north of the site.

As a result of the impasse, the state is using Superfund money for the investigation.

Paul Kareth of TAMS, the consulting firm doing the research, said that the investigating process will include interviewing the former tenants and owners of the building, evaluating the private wells, investigating the substance soil, and investigating existing wells, sampling ground water and installing monitor wells.

Filkins, who said it may never be known how the chemical was dumped, added that the study process usually takes two years.

Wendy Kuehner, an assistant sanitary engineer for the state Department of Health, said that the PCE found at the dry cleaners site wasn't at a high enough concentration that it would pose a danger to residents. "You'd have to be sitting over a vat of this every day," Kuehner said.

Kuehner said PCE has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and in extremely high concentrations could cause kidney and liver damage to humans.

Several people who attended the Island Trees meeting complained that it took seven years for the process to reach this point. "I'm an attorney on Long Island," said Lindsey Levy. "If I had to negotiate for five years, I would be fired by my client."

"We appreciate the fact that you've created this forum," said Vincent Militano of Windsor Drive. "But it's taken so long to get to this point."

Other audience members said that the DEC should have notified more people about the American Drive-In Cleaners site than those in the immediate area.

Two governmental officials attending the meeting, County Legislator Dennis Dunne and an aide to Hempstead Town Board member Tony Santino, said they had no prior knowledge of the problems at the site. Dunne said that the state and the county had to get together to work on solving the contamination problem.

Kathleen Safrey, a member of the Island Trees Board of Education, said the school board should also be involved with the talks.

One resident said that the next invitation should include residents of the Levittown, Bethpage, Plainedge and Seaford communities, in addition to Island Trees.

Joshua Epstein, citizen participation specialist for the DEC, said that the most opportune time for a second public meeting would most likely be in August, after phase one of the remedial investigation and feasibility study.

Documents pertaining to the site are available for public review in the reference section of the Island Trees Public Library on Farmedge Road, and will be available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 9:30 to 5 on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. They can also be reviewed at the state DEC regional office in Building 40 of the State University at Stony Brook weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.