The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on Tuesday night presented a plan to the public for the proposed cleanup of a contaminated East Massapequa dry cleaning establishment, drawing questions from neighboring residents about the possible health effects of the toxins.

Soil and groundwater at the site, Minuteman Cleaners, was contaminated over an estimated period of 30 years, when its operators dumped toxic laundry waste water into on-site aching pools. According to the DEC, the Minuteman Cleaners property has operated as a dry cleaner since the late 1960s - with the current owner acquiring the property in 1965 - and the laundry waste water lines were not connected to the public sewer system until 1996.

The property, which is located at 5640 Merrick Road, at the east end of a small strip mall on the corner of Carman Blvd., has been listed by the DEC as a Class 2 site. This type of site is one in which hazardous waste is present, is considered to constitute a significant threat to the public health and the environment, and therefore requires action.

A late 1990s environmental investigation conducted by the owner of the property under the oversite of the DEC revealed the presence of several Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - particularly the common dry cleaning solvent Tetrachloroethene (PCE) - in the soils and groundwater beneath the site, as well as off-site groundwater in the surrounding residential neighborhood. Soil borings in each of the five leaching pools on-site revealed contamination levels well above those which require cleanup. For example, 3 million parts per billion of VOCs were found in the soil eight feet underground in leaching pool #1, and 64,000 parts per billion of VOCs were found in leaching pool #2 - significantly high concentrations considering the groundwater standard is 5 parts per billion.

Findings of groundwater contamination on site included 30,000 parts per billions of VOCs at 50,000 feet underground. Off site, for example, on River Street, the highest concentration - 10,000 parts per billion - was found at 15 feet underground And, according to DEC Engineering Geologist Robert H. Filkins, contamination is traveling in the groundwater in a southwesterly direction toward the Carmans River.

The DEC currently knows of no one who has been exposed to the contaminants, and there are no public water wells in the area. However, Wendy S. Kuehner, a sanitary engineer with the state Department of Health cautioned that residents who use private water wells in the area are at risk of exposure. Also, if there were an excavation at the site for access to underground utilities or building activities, workers would risk contact with skin, breathing vapors or ingesting exposed contaminated soil.

In addition, vapors that have migrated from the soil were found in a neighboring house that was tested, according to Kuehner.

At Tuesday's public meeting, which took place at Massapequa High School, DEC officials recommended a $97,000 plan to clean up the site. It entails the excavation of one to two feet of soil from the bottom of the most contaminated leaching pool, followed by the installation of an air sparging/soil vapor extraction system to remediate the onsite groundwater contamination to a depth of 18 feet. (Air sparging is a process in which air is used to push contaminants from the groundwater into an above-ground carbon treatment system.)

The public input period on the DEC's proposed cleanup will last until Feb. 12. After that time, the agency will issue a formal decision on the option for cleanup. The cleanup is expected to begin in about a year, although the time frame depends on whether the owner cooperates with covering cleanup costs. The DEC expects the cleanup to last for about nine months.

About 30 residents, including several local civic leaders, were present at Tuesday's meeting. Many of them expressed concern about the high levels of contamination described by the DEC.

Rich Genovese, whose home neighbors the site, questioned the health effects of PCE, the main VOC found in the contamination. To this, Kuehner noted that it has been known to cause cancer, as well as kidney and liver damage, in laboratory animals, and nervous disorders in people exposed to it through work or hobbies over a long period. It is not known whether it causes cancer in humans, she said.

Further expressing concern for the health of his family, Genovese commented after the meeting, "No one in this room wants to hear that it's going to take a year to get the [cleanup] program started."

Mary Rice, a local civic leader, asked whether the DEC had tested the Carmans River for contamination, because the plume of contaminants is known to be headed in its direction.

Filkins responded, "We didn't test the river, because we thought that with the volume of the river, we would never be able to detect it, but we did do some calculations based on the data that we have.. and based on those calculations, we didn't think that there would be any impact on the Carmans River."

Later in the meeting, Robert Foster of Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment also questioned the effect on the river, and added, "I would suggest that sometime in the near future, the Carmans be monitored, as well as the groundwater in the area."

Another resident expressed a suspicion that the contamination could be linked to the occurrence of dead fish in a nearby stream.

Others, for example, residents of Sand and Beach Streets, cited high rates of cancer on their streets, which are a few blocks from the site, and wondered why the DEC did not investigate these homes for contamination.

After the meeting, Carol Gordon of the Breezy Point Civic Association, added, "We're disturbed that they stopped [the groundwater investigation] after four streets."