Demolition of buildings at Port Jefferson Station Superfund site to pave way for development, officials say

The long-awaited demolition of more than a dozen dilapidated structures at a Port Jefferson Station Superfund site should happen soon after a federal agency agreed to fund the project, officials said.

Razing 14 vacant buildings at the site of the shuttered Lawrence Aviation Industries on Sheep Pasture Road should help clear the way for eventual development of the property, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Newsday on Monday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is completing a $48.1 million cleanup of contaminated soil at the 124-acre site.

“This is the last piece of the puzzle that is needed to demolish these 14 dangerous buildings and open up this area to new things that can really help this area,” he said. “This has been a Superfund site since 2000, but not much has happened. … It’s got some great opportunities.”

Schumer said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to release $450,000 to help fund demolition. The funds were authorized in the federal omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last month, he said.

Demolition, expected to cost about $1.5 million, will be funded by the HUD grant and by funds from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Brookhaven Town and the nonprofit Suffolk County Landbank Corp., Suffolk economic development and planning commissioner Sarah Lansdale told Newsday. The DEC is supervising demolition plans, county spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle said.

Lawrence Aviation, which had manufactured parts for the aeronautics industry, has been a thorn in the side of Suffolk and Brookhaven Town officials since the company closed in 2003. Company owner Gerald Cohen had served a year and one day in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges that the firm illegally dumped toxic cleaning materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos at the site.

Illegal dumping caused a mile-long toxic plume that flows beneath the Village of Port Jefferson. The EPA has removed more than 16,000 tons of contaminated soil from the Lawrence site, officials have said.

A federal judge in 2019 ordered Cohen to pay $48.1 million to cover federal cleanup costs. 

Cohen had not made any payments to comply with the court order before he died in 2020, said John Marzulli, a spokesman for the federal Department of Justice in Brooklyn.

Suffolk officials hope to take title to the property, which still is owned by Cohen's estate. Proceeds from selling parts of the property are expected to help pay Cohen's many creditors, including the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, Long Island Power Authority and the county, which is owed about $17.9 million in back taxes dating to 1993, county officials have said. 

Officials have proposed developing a 41-acre solar farm and a 42-acre Metropolitan Transportation Authority railroad depot. The remaining 41 acres would be preserved as open space.

It was unclear Tuesday when demolition would occur.

“They don’t have a date yet, but it will be soon,” Schumer told Newsday. “Until they get torn down, you can’t get the work done.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.