[CPEO-MEF] VOCs: Schumer critiques Navy-Grumman Bethpage (NY) groundwater cleanup

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Senator Charles Schumer

April 11, 2011

SCHUMER REVEALS: EPA/USGS CONFIRM NAVY MODELING FAILS TO ADEQUATELY  
ASSESS THREATS TO LONG ISLAND DRINKING WATER FROM TOXIC NAVY/GRUMMAN  
PLUME

Findings Released by USGS Confirm Suspicions That Groundwater  
Modeling Used by Navy Ignores Information on Threats to Drinking  
Water; Does Not Account For Precipitation Rates, Water Levels and  
Stream Flows

Schumer Convened Meeting in September with Local Water Districts,  
EPA, Grumman, and State DEC to Review Current Modeling and Put in  
Place a Comprehensive Plan to Protect Over 25 Public Wells in Plume’s  
Path

Schumer: USGS Findings Are Proof Positive that Current Mapping is  
Inadequate – Now It’s Time for the Navy and Grumman to Clean Up  
Contamination



United States Senator Charles E. Schumer revealed that a study  
conducted at his request by the United States Geological Survey  
(USGS) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  
confirms that current modeling for an off-site toxic groundwater  
plume, emanating from a former Navy-Grumman manufacturing site, does  
not adequately assess potential impacts to as many as 25 public wells  
that supply water to over 160,000 Nassau County residents. The study  
report states that the Navy's current modeling ignores public-supply  
pumping, groundwater discharges from systems remediating volatile  
organic compound (VOC) plumes, recharge and precipitation rates, and  
water levels and stream flows.

In a letter to the heads of the Navy, EPA, and DEC today, Schumer  
also demanded that these findings be incorporated into a simultaneous  
"optimization review" being conducted by the Navy due to be completed  
this summer.  The goal of the review is to optimize the  
implementation of the groundwater remedy at the Bethpage site.  The  
final report will evaluate the effectiveness of previous and ongoing  
treatments and the effectiveness of the current well network in  
monitoring the progress of the plume.  Schumer said that the  
optimization review must issue implementable recommendations to  
improve the modeling and contain and remediate contamination wherever  
it is technically feasible.


...

For the entire press release and Senator Schumer's letter, go to
http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=332425

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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