DEC approves Northrop Grumman's plan to probe soil at Bethpage Community Park ballfield area
An aerial photo of Bethpage Community Park taken in June. The park, where 22 chemical drums were uncovered earlier this year, has not been open to the public since 2002. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Contractors from Northrop Grumman will begin investigating soil contamination next week on the restricted ballfield area at Bethpage Community Park after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation conditionally approved the testing plan.
Northrop Grumman will use two drilling rigs at the sampling area, which encompasses the cordoned-off former ballfield grounds.
The company's corporate predecessor, Grumman Aerospace, had for years used the site as a sludge settling pond and dumped solvent-soaked rags in a pit on the grounds, which were part of their expansive operations that spanned 600 acres in Bethpage.
The approvals come as Northrop Grumman and the Town of Oyster Bay are embroiled in a contentious dispute over the plan to remediate contamination at the 18-acre park. The ballfield area at Bethpage Community Park has been closed since May 2002 after toxic chemicals were discovered there. The soil sampling is a required step before PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, can be removed from the property. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to sign off on the PCB cleanup plan.
The approval comes more than a year after a Northrop Grumman contractor unearthed 22 concrete-encased chemical drums in the ballfield area. Those drums didn't leak and contained chemicals similar to the toxins found in the surrounding soil.
Last month, the state DEC approved the first phase of soil sampling in other parts of the park, including where the pool and playground are. That testing, according to DEC spokesman Denis Slattery, concluded with “no significant or unexpected findings.”
The approval for sampling the ballfield area is conditional so Northrop Grumman can secure a drilling contractor “while the details of the work plan are being worked out,” Slattery wrote in an email. Northrop Grumman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement: “The Town‘s explicit and non-negotiable priority remains that Grumman implement strict, modern cleanup standards that ultimately return this park to its residents."
In November, the DEC called on Northrop Grumman to file a more thorough soil sampling plan than the one it had initially submitted.
The DEC asked Northrop Grumman to bolster its plan to test for hexavalent chromium, a carcinogenic metal used in industrial settings. The agency also asked the company to include options in the testing plan for achieving the highest level of cleanup at the site known as "unrestricted use."
In September, Northrop Grumman contractors began a process known as thermal remediation to filter out contamination deep in the park property's soil, Newsday has reported. The process employs electrical currents to heat up volatile organic compounds that are buried below ground. A vacuum then suctions out the pollutants.
The Town of Oyster Bay and Northrop Grumman are still at odds over various elements of the cleanup. Lawyers for Oyster Bay, in a March filing in federal court, said the sides were “at an impasse” over key issues. Town officials sought records of decades-old chemical purchases that they say will help determine what the company may have disposed of decades ago. The town has also demanded that any sampled soil be hauled off Long Island. Northrop Grumman has said it plans to rebury the soil and excavate it at a later date, if at all.
Contractors from Northrop Grumman will begin investigating soil contamination next week on the restricted ballfield area at Bethpage Community Park after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation conditionally approved the testing plan.
Northrop Grumman will use two drilling rigs at the sampling area, which encompasses the cordoned-off former ballfield grounds.
The company's corporate predecessor, Grumman Aerospace, had for years used the site as a sludge settling pond and dumped solvent-soaked rags in a pit on the grounds, which were part of their expansive operations that spanned 600 acres in Bethpage.
The approvals come as Northrop Grumman and the Town of Oyster Bay are embroiled in a contentious dispute over the plan to remediate contamination at the 18-acre park. The ballfield area at Bethpage Community Park has been closed since May 2002 after toxic chemicals were discovered there. The soil sampling is a required step before PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, can be removed from the property. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to sign off on the PCB cleanup plan.
The approval comes more than a year after a Northrop Grumman contractor unearthed 22 concrete-encased chemical drums in the ballfield area. Those drums didn't leak and contained chemicals similar to the toxins found in the surrounding soil.
Last month, the state DEC approved the first phase of soil sampling in other parts of the park, including where the pool and playground are. That testing, according to DEC spokesman Denis Slattery, concluded with “no significant or unexpected findings.”
The approval for sampling the ballfield area is conditional so Northrop Grumman can secure a drilling contractor “while the details of the work plan are being worked out,” Slattery wrote in an email. Northrop Grumman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said in a statement: “The Town‘s explicit and non-negotiable priority remains that Grumman implement strict, modern cleanup standards that ultimately return this park to its residents."
In November, the DEC called on Northrop Grumman to file a more thorough soil sampling plan than the one it had initially submitted.
The DEC asked Northrop Grumman to bolster its plan to test for hexavalent chromium, a carcinogenic metal used in industrial settings. The agency also asked the company to include options in the testing plan for achieving the highest level of cleanup at the site known as "unrestricted use."
In September, Northrop Grumman contractors began a process known as thermal remediation to filter out contamination deep in the park property's soil, Newsday has reported. The process employs electrical currents to heat up volatile organic compounds that are buried below ground. A vacuum then suctions out the pollutants.
The Town of Oyster Bay and Northrop Grumman are still at odds over various elements of the cleanup. Lawyers for Oyster Bay, in a March filing in federal court, said the sides were “at an impasse” over key issues. Town officials sought records of decades-old chemical purchases that they say will help determine what the company may have disposed of decades ago. The town has also demanded that any sampled soil be hauled off Long Island. Northrop Grumman has said it plans to rebury the soil and excavate it at a later date, if at all.
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