Six large drums of toxic chemicals wrapped in concrete were discovered buried beneath a Long Island park in an area long plagued by cancer concerns among residents, authorities said this week. revealed.
The 55-gallon steel drum was discovered last Wednesday by a contractor testing soil at Bethpage Community Park, a former Northrop Grumman Aerospace dump site for decades. Newsday reported.
The New York State Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday that the discovery “does not pose an immediate threat to public health,” but outraged residents are demanding a full soil excavation.
“We have discovered a graveyard of Grumman contamination,” Oyster Bay Superintendent Joseph Saladino told the newspaper. “These drums were placed in concrete coffins, which proves they knew they contained extremely dangerous contents.”
Bethpage residents have repeatedly argued that cancer is more prevalent than in surrounding areas.
The town had to contend with pollution from Northrop Grumman’s hazardous waste dump, which created a plume of toxic substances six square miles underground.
At least one of the excavated drums, found at a depth of 7 feet, had holes in it and some contained flammable chemicals, Saladino said. A layer of clay was also found under the drum, where chemicals may have oozed out.
The drums were discovered next to an abandoned baseball field at the 18-acre park, which has been closed for 20 years due to soil contamination concerns.
Saladino asked the DEC to order a complete cleanup of the park by removing all soil and transporting it off Long Island. He said taxpayers have spent $20 million cleaning up the site so residents can use the park’s skating rink.
Ten years ago, the supervisor sued Northrop Grumman, Grumman Aerospace’s successor, to recover costs. A new lawsuit was filed in December demanding that Grumman remove all contaminated soil. ABC7 reported.
“No more. No more. I’ve been working on this for over 20 years as a New York state legislator, and now as the supervisor of the fourth largest town in America, I’m not going to sit idle.” ” Saladino told the magazine.
Northrop Grumman said it is working with DEC to address the situation.
“We promptly notified NYSDEC and other interested parties and are working with NYSDEC to assess and address this situation as quickly as possible,” a company spokesperson told the Post.
“We remain committed to continuing our partnership with NYSDEC and other government regulators to protect the health and well-being of our communities and address local environmental conditions.”
DEC, which uses radar to determine the extent of contamination, told The Post in a statement that preliminary testing revealed the drums contained “chlorinated solvents and waste oil/petroleum.” He said these were “consistent with known historical operations” by Grumman and the federal government. US Navy in the area.
The park is located on land that the company used as a chemical dump from the 1940s to the 1960s before being donated to the town in 1962, according to Newsday. Once Long Island’s largest employer, the airline built famous World War II naval aircraft such as the F4F Wildcat on its vast Bethpage campus.
The PCB polychlorinated biphenyls were first discovered in soil in 2002. DEC later learned that there was a plume of carcinogenic chemicals underground. The chemical spread spans a whopping 4 miles long, 2 miles wide, and 900 feet deep.
Numerous personal injury lawsuits and class action lawsuits have been filed over the years alleging that Grumman has caused illnesses, including cancer.
The Cornett family, who live in Bethpage, filed a $300 million lawsuit against Grumman, alleging that three out of four of their children were diagnosed with cancer in just 20 months from 2015 to 2017.
Northrop Grumman denied the allegations.
Officials have repeatedly said Bethpage’s water is safe, but residents say a December 2013 study, completed after a three-year study, found that the 20-block area surrounding the park had no overall cancer risk. He scoffed, saying that no increase in incidence was observed.
