The Massapequa Water District Board of Commissioners has publicly demanded that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) stop the highly toxic contamination emanating from the Navy Grumman site at Bethpage from entering our water supply. 5400 of our constituents have sent petitions directly to Governor Andrew Cuomo to require him to direct the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to stop this plume from its continued migration. Unfortunately, Governor Cuomo has not responded to our demands and allowed his Department of Environmental Conservation to release another Proposed Remedial Action Plan (PRAP) for the cleanup of the Bethpage Grumman site. This plan, along with previous plans and actions of the NYS DEC do not protect our water supply and more importantly overall health concerns. Under the proposed plan, known as Operable Unit 3 (OU-3), the highly contaminated groundwater will continue to migrate southward and eventually impact our public water supply wells and ultimately discharge into the Great South Bay. The PRAP approach being proposed by the DEC is similar to the incomplete and ineffective plan currently in place for a previous part of the Bethpage site (OU-2). This previous plan has allowed the contamination of public water supply wells to be an acceptable practice by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Please refer to the attached map showing how this toxic plume has been allowed to migrate towards public water supply wells under the care, custody and control of Governor Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation. In essence, Governor Cuomo and the NYS DEC are allowing a perfectly clean water supply known legally as The Sole Source Aquifer to continue to become contaminated with known carcinogens.
The Massapequa Water District, along with a coalition of three other public water suppliers representing over 250,000 people have written to the DEC demanding specific alternatives to be implemented since they directly protect the public water supply. These demands have been ignored by the DEC and only Governor Cuomo can order the DEC to implement more stringent and cost effective measures. On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 7:00 pm the NYS DEC will hold a public meeting at the Bethpage Senior High School located on Cherry Avenue in Bethpage. We urge the community to attend this extremely important public meeting so that the DEC is forced to consider full plume containment and prevent this contamination from reaching our public water supply wells. If you are comfortable speaking please feel free to do so. If not, just showing up for a short time will send a message of dissatisfaction to the Governor and his DEC. For more information please visit their website at www.massapequawater.com or call their office at 516-798-5266. This will be the only opportunity to challenge the PRAP before it becomes the actual Record of Decision (ROD). Please keep in mind our water supply was designated by the USEPA as a “Sole Source Aquifer” meaning it is the only water supply available for public use. It is imperative that we preserve and protect this vital resource for future generations.
