Romaine: Former Grumman plant in Calverton should be made priority superfund site by EPA

Cleanup of the former Northrop-Grumman facility in Calverton should be taken over by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and made a priority cleanup site under the superfund program, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said.

The Navy, which is leading the cleanup of the property, has moved too slowly in addressing pollution at and around the former manufacturing and testing facility, Romaine said in a Feb. 11 letter to Acting Secretary of the Navy Terence Emmert. “This has resulted in inadequate protection of the public’s health, of the local environment and the Peconic River,” he wrote.

He wrote that there needs to be a plan to clean up areas that contain ”unacceptable levels of contamination” by chemicals. Romaine said the former Navy facility, which is a federal and state superfund site, should be evaluated by the EPA and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for inclusion on the national priorities list — the designation given by the EPA to sites most seriously in need of long-term cleanup. Read Romaine’s letter below.

Soil and groundwater samples containing chemicals linked to adverse human health effects, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 1,4 Dioxane and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been found in and around the former Grumman site, now the industrial park known as EPCAL, in excessively high levels.

Romaine said at a press conference Friday that there has so far been no response from the Navy to his letter. Romaine copied Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin — the area’s former congressman — Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Nick LaLota and State Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Commissioner Sean Mahar on the letter. The only response he received, he said, was from Schumer, who said he would help in the effort to clean up the site.

At the press conference, Romaine said the pollution has put the county “at a breaking point.”  

“The time for action is well past due,” he said. “This Navy has not moved forward to protect the residents. They have left their mess. They haven’t cleaned their room — and my mother told me, before you leave, make sure your bedroom is clean. So they left and did not clean up and did not come back and do what they were supposed to do.”

“And that’s why we have a number of environmental leaders and governmental leaders saying to the Navy: do the right thing. Don’t leave us like you left Bethpage,” he said.

He added that the Navy has not shared its testing data with the Suffolk County Department of Health, and said the Navy should allow the department to take samples of their wells.

“Think about this water quality and think about a mother who’s bathing her newborn in it. Think about a mother whose child is drinking this water,” Romaine said. “I think about that all the time, and it turns my blood, particularly when they knew of this, and particularly when they don’t share the information with the Suffolk County Health Department, who’s responsible for public health in this county. Shame on them.”

The press conference and letter comes on the heels of a meeting of the Calverton Restoration Advisory Board last month, when new maps and data released by the Navy as a part of the cleanup process of the property showed groundwater polluted with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — a group of synthetic chemicals linked to adverse human health effects like cancer and nicknamed “forever chemicals” because of how slowly they break down over time — migrating towards the Peconic River. PFAS chemicals are found in many products and are prevalent in a firefighting foam that was used at the site. 

Navy officials in charge of the cleanup investigation will now evaluate the fate and transportation of PFAS migration in the environment; perform risk assessments to determine the human health risk and ecological risk of the pollution; and determine chemicals of concern potentially requiring cleanup. But the Navy refused calls from Restoration Advisory Board members to remediate the pollution while it continued its investigation.

Riverhead Town officials were at the press conference. Riverhead Water District Superintendent Frank Mancini said the Navy should give the town $2 million to complete a water main extension to homes near River Road. Homes in the area have private water wells polluted with high levels of PFAS, which Mancini said were likely polluted by polluted groundwater migrating off of the former Grumman site.

Speakers at the press conference also criticized the DEC for not putting enough pressure on the Navy to remediate the site.

In a statement, a DEC spokesperson said it “is overseeing the comprehensive investigation of the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant (NWIRP) Calverton site through the agency’s regulatory authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and State Superfund (SSF) programs.”

“The Navy is investigating the nature and extent of contamination of PFAS and potential source areas both at Calverton and off-site,” the statement said. “DEC will continue to work with state and federal partners and the community to ensure a comprehensive investigation and cleanup.”

A spokesperson for the Navy secretary was not immediately available for comment.