Superfund Plume Slips Downstream, Encroaches on Port Jefferson Harbor

More than 1,600 barrels of toxic waste have been removed from the Lawrence Aviation Industries site.

By April J. Warren

David Johnson slid out of the front seat of his cobalt blue pick-up truck and onto the gravel parking lot of Port Jefferson’s Centennial Park. He walked to the back of his pickup truck to unload more than 10 bags of garbage.

“We were able to get about one ton off the beach today,” said Johnson, looking out across the harbor. Since 2005, Johnson, the executive director of Coastal Steward, a local non profit group that organizes and sponsors beach cleanups, has been combing the beaches of Port Jefferson, cleaning up everything from bottles and cans to lawn furniture and corroded barrels.

But after a three-hour beach cleanup on a Saturday morning in early spring, Johnson stood on the shore and squinted out into the placid harbor. He knows there are some pollutants that can’t be removed in a plastic garbage bag.

“What worries me are the heavy metals,” Johnson said. “Heavy metals are bad.”

According to a study released in January, the underground toxic waste plume emanating from the Lawrence Aviation Industries Superfund site is now threatening the harbor that Coastal Steward is fighting to protect. The abandoned factory is located 1.5 miles south of the harbor at a higher elevation, which is causing the plume to run down gradient.



The Mill Creek Watershed Management Plan, conducted by Cashin, an environmental consulting firm, with Long Island planning expert Lee Koppelman and released in January by the village, confirms that levels of nitrogen and phosphorus along with other heavy metals are rising near the mouth of the creek that empties out into the harbor.

The study, which used monitoring wells along the creek to test water quality, is the most concrete evidence so far that the plume has almost reached the harbor.

“My suspicion is it’s already in the harbor,” said Koppelman, director of The Center For Regional Policy Studies at Stony Brook University.

“We always suspected that the plume already got to the harbor,” said Maria Jon, the United State Environmental Protection Agency’s project coordinator for the Superfund site. “We just didn’t have a monitoring well, but we always predicted that it would get to the harbor.”

But there’s disagreement about the extent of the threat. Some experts are concerned about fish kills and algae blooms when the plume does reach the harbor. But others say since the chemicals will be diluted in the body of water, a threat is not imminent.

In addition, while plume chemicals like trichloroethene can be directly linked to the Superfund site, others such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which studies show are rising near the harbor, could be runoff from the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

According to Jon, a study released in the summer of 2009 by the Environmental Protection Agency confirms the plume is .2 miles away from the harbor. “Trichloroethene was detected in the groundwater at 46 feet to 81 feet below the ground surface, exceeding the drinking water standard,” Jon said.

Trichloroethene, a chemical linked to the Superfund site, is a volatile organic chemical that can be used to remove grease from metal according to the New York State Department of Health website. It can also be used as a paint stripper.

Drinking large amounts of trichloroethene could lead to liver problems or an increased risk of cancer, according to the Department of Health’s website. Over the years 16 homes in the area surrounding the Superfund have been connected to a public water supply to avoid this concern.

“Trichloroethene would get diluted very quickly into the harbor and it has a half life of only two days,” Bob Cerrato, an associate professor at Stony Brook University in the department of marine and atmospheric sciences.

Jon did not return phone calls or emails regarding the health risks of trichloroethene by deadline.

But Koppelman is concerned with the long term. The plume could be a threat, especially to the Long Island Sound. According to the planning expert, once the plume is in the harbor it will travel to the Long Island Sound. For the past 40 years both Nassau and Suffolk County have been working to clean up the polluted sound by enforcing stricter rules on commercial and recreational dumping. “To allow new contamination to go in is just idiocy,” Koppelman said.

Koppelman is also concerned that although the threat of trichloroethene is reduced because of the two-day half-life, there is still a percentage of the chemical remaining. “The question is what about the remainder?” Koppelman said. “Wherever the plume travels it endangers land uses above the plume.”

But the heavy metals are not the only contaminant concerning local environmentalists.

According to Johnson, who holds a degree in marine biology, the nitrogen and phosphorus could prove disastrous for the more than 3,000 shellfish clinging to underwater beds in the harbor and for the fluke, striped bass and blue fish among other species that inhabit the waterway.

If nitrogen levels increase too drastically, the harbor could experience an uptick in plankton blooms, according to Johnson. When the plankton blooms die and settle to the bottom, they will soak up the oxygen and the harbor could experience fish kills.

But some experts remain skeptical as to the source of the metals.

Nitrogen, a common chemical in fertilizer could be running into the creek from the surrounding residential neighborhoods. “No one’s ever put fertilizer on [the Lawrence Aviation] site,” said John Conover, enforcement coordinator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation. Conover has worked at the state level on the site for decades.

“Nitrogen and phosphorus isn’t something I would connect with the site,” said Cerrato. Back in 2004, Cerrato studied the bottom of the harbor and organisms that live there, but he has not studied the Superfund plume.

“That’s true because nitrogen and phosphorus are agricultural chemicals,” Koppelman said. According to the planning expert, the bulk of those chemicals are most likely coming from fertilizer or rain with a smaller portion coming from the Superfund site. “Neither are toxic but in a marine environment [no chemicals] are good. You don’t want contaminants in the marine environment ever.”

Either way, village officials are concerned about the increase in chemical levels. “The harbor is an estuary of national importance,” said Mayor Margot Garant looking out her office window at the sun-soaked harbor. For the mayor, the notion of fish kills and the impact contaminated shellfish beds could have on local restaurants that serve Port Jefferson oysters to patrons and the implications of heavy metals on swimmers at Centennial Park are the latest concerns for a decades-old problem.

“The next step should have been the first step,” Koppelman said. “The Superfund site should have been cleaned up.”

Lawrence Aviation first began operations in 1959 producing titanium sheet metal, golf clubs and other aeronautic products. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services and Department of Environmental Conservation visited the site numerous times to investigate waste disposal concerns. Testing on soil samples from the site concluded that there were elevated concentrations of heavy metals from toxic dumping.

Groundwater in the area also tested positive for contamination and 16 homes in the area were reconnected to a public water supply.

In 1980, Lawrence Aviation CEO Gerald Cohen removed 1,600 barrels of chemicals from the property, but while crushing the barrels, many of the chemicals leached into the ground water. In April 2003, the Department for Environmental Conservation forced Lawrence Aviation to cease production until the area was free from contamination.

In June 2009, Cohen was convicted in a criminal trial of illegally storing hazardous waste and ordered to pay $105,816 in restitution and to serve a prison sentence of one year and one day.

According to Michael Cahill, an environmental attorney on Long Island and adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, Cohen will be forced to pay for most of the cleanup under the Superfund legislation that allows the EPA to collect funds from anyone who is deemed responsible for the toxic conditions. “If a site makes the list, then the EPA uses Superfund money to clean up the site,” Cahill said, adding that after the cleanup “is the lawsuit that comes to recover the money.”

The Superfund site, which joined the Federal list of National Priorities in 2000, is receiving $4.7 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding is being used, in part, to build two water treatment stations – one on-site to be completed by September and another at Caroline Avenue Park off Barnum Avenue that is in the planning stages. These stations will pump out the contaminated water, purify it and pump it back into the ground and creek.

“The one on the facility will stop further migration but we wont be able to capture the rest of the plume so that’s why we’re building the second one to capture whatever went off site,” said Jon of the EPA.

Officials are hoping the pumping stations will clean the water from heavy metals as well as any other contamination in the water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

“The pumping doesn’t take out 100 percent, but it’s certainly an improvement over doing nothing,” Koppelman said. Determining whether or not specific chemicals are being treated by the pumping stations won’t be determined until after the system is in use. “Whatever is in [the plume] isn’t isolated one chemical from another, some are pumping out and others are bypassing your pumping.”

The EPA has been concentrating its efforts at the site -- removing contaminated soil, disposing of over 1,300 contaminated drums, containers and cylinders. To clean up the soil, the agency is using a process called chemical oxidation. This involves digging wells in the area that will pump oxidants into the soil that break down pollution that has leached into the soil and groundwater. According to Jon, the estimated cost of cleanup is $25 million.

Since 2006, the EPA has been testing homes in Port Jefferson to ensure the plume is not affecting residents homes. But the pumping station at Caroline Avenue Park will be the first step towards ensuring the safety of more than just individual residents.

According to Mayor Garant, since the 2006 release of the Superfund Proposal Plan, the EPA has concentrated all its efforts far upstream of the harbor and failed to keep the village informed regarding any progress that has been made. “Dealing with an entity like the EPA is just mind-boggling to me,” Garant said citing communication issues between the federal agency and the village.

While the village has no legal responsibility in the cleanup, it is being asked to help. According to Trustee Carmine Dell Aquila, the EPA has told the village that it is responsible for funding any health risk assessment, survey costs and costs to set aside new land in exchange for the parcels that will hold two new pumping stations to help purify the water.

According to environmental attorney Cahill, this could be because the EPA is also dealing with limited resources. “[The EPA] has to make a choice, some of which are more expensive then others, some of which are more effective than others. You want to get it cleaned up first, but there’s a limited amount of money the Superfund has.”

Residents are hoping the contamination is cleaned up soon. Johnson moved into the area in the early 1980s and lives a quarter mile from the site. “Didn’t know it was there when I bought the house, probably wouldn’t have bought it if I did know,” Johnson said.

For now, the EPA hopes installing the two pumping stations is enough to stymie the down gradient contamination while it continues efforts to clean up the Lawrence Aviation property.