New York environmental officials are expected to respond to the Town of Brookhaven’s draft plan for studying the impact of a toxic plume that has been emanating from the Brookhaven Landfill for decades.
The plan was initially submitted to the state Department of Environmental Conservation in October to describe how the town will assess the damage caused by an underground toxic plume emanating from the Brookhaven Landfill that has been releasing PFAS and other chemicals into the surrounding environment and groundwater.
This comes after surveys from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services revealed contamination in drinking water sources down gradient from the landfill in 2017 and 2022. Last August, the state Department of Environmental Conservation ordered the town to begin the process of assessing the size and spread of the plume.
“Now the Town of Brookhaven performed the required sampling, and during that they found levels of the following emerging contaminants, PFOA, PFOS and 1,4-Dioxane in exceedance of New York state's groundwater quality guidance values in the landfills on site, groundwater monitoring wells,” Chris Oommen, an engineer with the state Division of Material Management told residents at a community meeting this week.
The Brookhaven Village Association, a civic group made up of surrounding home owners, organized the meeting to invite the state Department of Environmental Conservation to provide information about corrective measure process regarding the plume, after which the forum was opened for questions.
Residents were quick to take to the stand to voice their anger over how the situation was being handled. More than 75 residents in attendance called for immediate closure of the landfill to prevent further environmental damage.
Monique Fitzgerald, co-founder of the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, which formed in 2020, has repeatedly urged public offices to close the landfill and make an effort to clean up surrounding facilities. Fitzgerald said that the landfill should have been closed decades ago, and the closure date cannot be pushed any further.
“The time is now. The time was yesterday," Fitzgerald said. "The time was 50 years ago. This is not to wait. You're talking about this is going to take two years. We can't keep pushing this down the road. If we have a moment of intervention, this is the time to act.”
The Town of Brookhaven plans to stop the facility from accepting construction and demolition debris by the end of 2024. The facility will continue to accept trash that is burned into ash at nearby waste-to-energy facilities until capacity is reached in at least two years. However, estimates could end up pushing the final closure of the landfill until 2028. Fitzgerald and other residents said that waiting for 2028 is impossible as the damage caused by the toxic plume will only continue to worse.
Many residents said that the continued mishandling of the situation has destroyed any confidence they may have had in the town, county and state officials.
“This predominantly serves the community in Long Island with the lowest life expectancy in all of Long Island. So to have my state government come here and tell me that that's false information is, you know, I have zero trust in this crew. I've had zero trust in that group for a long time,” said Kerim Odekon, of Brookhaven.
Communication continued to breakdown as officials responded to calls for the immediate closure of the landfill by warning residents that doing so would be premature and that it is necessary to follow the process. Officials said no other landfill on Long Island was capable of accepting both construction debris and waste, as well as ash, and closing the landfill before an alternative site was found could lead to logistical problems for waste management systems of towns on Long Island.
Long Island is currently facing a looming waste management crisis. With the current infrastructure in place, closure of the Brookhaven landfill would mean additional construction debris and waste ash would have to be moved off of the island via truck — or by rail at proposed waste transfer stations.
The draft of the Emerging Contaminant Plume Investigation Working Plan is currently being reviewed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. After their review is finished, the will provide feedback before the environmental investigation of the site will begin.
