Waters in West Islip Superfund site cleaned, state says 

Carcinogenic waste from a former West Islip fastener factory that was a Superfund site has been cleaned up from a nearby creek and lake, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced on Wednesday.

Waste from the former Dzus Fastener Co. site on Union Boulevard, where fasteners and springs were produced from 1937 to 2015, contaminated the soil and sediments of Lake Capri and Willetts Creek, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said during a tour of the site Wednesday.

The $20 million cleanup project was initially conducted from April 2019 to May 2020 when more than 80,000 tons of soil and sediment were removed from the area, he said. The property is being redeveloped and will soon feature a pizzeria and gas station.

Seggos said the cleanup was a successful example of using the state’s Superfund money, which is budgeted at $120 million per year, to remediate a polluted property.

“We were able to turn a bad story into a good story and really bring the state's resources to bear locally,” he said. “And that's government at its finest.”

It can be difficult for the state to seek financial restitution from polluters who are no longer in business, Seggos said, adding that the state is considering litigation to recoup cleanup costs. Dzus later became DFCI Solutions, Inc. before it was acquired by another company in 2015, according to the DFCI website. 

The company made products used by the military and commercial aerospace industries. The waste consisted of oils, heavy metals and salts, and was disposed of in leaching pools on the property, according to the DEC.

The site had been part of a decadeslong cleanup plan to remove soil and groundwater contamination, but the DEC has said flooding from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 likely stirred up additional compounds. The area was found to have elevated levels of carcinogenic compounds chromium and cadmium during routine monitoring in 2016.

Cadmium can harm the lungs and bones and result in kidney disease, and trivalent chromium can harm the respiratory system, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

A record of decision recommending no further action for cleanup was issued on Friday, essentially meaning the work had been completed.

The lake and creek that were cleaned up are not used for drinking water and there is a health advisory against eating fish caught in the lake. Seggos said the state Department of Health could potentially lift the ban from consuming fish from the lake, which for him would signal the project’s true end.

Islip Councilman John Cochrane said the contamination had been a blight on West Islip and added that it was part of a larger Long Island problem of legacy pollution from sites like the former Grumman plant in Bethpage.

“It's just part of living in a defense industry [area] that has now stopped,” Cochrane said. “This was a big concern and the state took the bull by the horns ” to fix the problem, he said.

Other improvements include a new footbridge with a wider culvert installed at the Beach Street Middle School, the dredging of Lake Capri and native plantings surrounding the creek’s wetlands.

The project also offers educational opportunities for students in the West Islip school district, said Superintendent Bernadette Burns. “The recovered site affords West Islip students the opportunity to engage directly with representatives from a New York State agency and extends their learning in the field of environmental science,” Burns said in a news release.

Paul Brodmerkel, who lives on Willetts Creek, said the project was not without its problems for him and his neighbors. Brodmerkel, a retired physical education teacher, said vibration from the work caused $2,150 worth of damage to his ceiling, for which he was reimbursed, and mature vegetation was removed from behind his home. He said new plantings put in by the workers died. They were replaced with additional plantings, which are now also dying, he said.

“Am I happy they cleaned it up? Absolutely,” said Brodmerkel who has lived in his home for 40 years. “But am I happy with the restoration? No.”

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.