New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he wants the U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman to pay for the cost of treating polluted groundwater on Long Island.
A growing plume of contaminated water stretches southward from the company’s World War II-era manufacturing site in Bethpage.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed three options for treating the plume. The price-tag for these options ranges from 268 to more than 587-million dollars.
Since 1998, Northrop Grumman has built and operated treatment wells as they become contaminated. Assemblyman Joseph Saladino says that is not enough
“You have to remediate the entire plume,” Saladino says. “All the engineers and the experts have told us that and now the DEC’s own report confirms that complete hydraulic containment and remediation is necessary.
The DEC says that if Northrop Grumman and the Navy fail to cooperate, they will sue for the funding.
Northrop Grumman says it is reviewing the details and it will continue to work closely with various agencies and other responsible parties.
The spread of the plume, the result of decades of manufacturing at the site, threatens wells that provide drinking water to more than 250,000 residents in Nassau County.