There May Be Light at the Bottom of this Pond

When Greenhaven Road resident Bill Weinstein wonders why his taxes are high, his neighbor jokingly reminds him it's because of his waterfront property, a swamp-like pond that owes its orange color to the adjacent landfill.

For over a decade, Weinstein has complained about contaminated water making its way into his property from Taylor's Lane, an inactive hazardous waste disposal site owned by the village. Tuesday, he received good news. The village and the state are moving forward with an assistance contract to kick off a remediation project that will attempt to lower the level of the landfill leachate (water that becomes polluted as it travels through wastes, pesticides or fertilizers) by employing gravity drainage, and hopefully leave his property dry and contaminant-free.

Contaminants detected on the site over the course of many years include Volatile Organic Compounds, Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds, metals and pesticides, according to Keith Furey, the village's engineering consultant. "Minor levels" of Arsenic have also been found in some of the groundwater samples next to the homes on Greenhaven Road, but continuous sampling has shown "a historical downward trend of contamination and only minor and sporadic exceedances of the State Groundwater Standards for the contaminants tested for," he said.

Furey added that since 2005, the Westchester County Department of Health  stopped its involvement at the site because "it was determined that the level of contaminants found in the off-site groundwater samples did not pose a health risk."

Patch has requested, but not yet received, more data from the Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which is currently handling the administration of the site. We will update this article as information becomes available.

The project, which could cost over $600,000, will consist of a recovery well with a discharge pipe connected to the sanitary sewer system on Taylor's lane, a ground water monitoring program and a sampling of the soil. In addition, a Community Air-Monitoring Plan (CAMP) will be conducted to detect air-borne matter generated during construction, and water and foam will be used to keep odors and dust down, according to Woodard & Curran, the company overseeing the construction.

Currently, the air-monitoring plan is being developed, which is the first step in the eight-month process. The project has already been approved and designed, according to Village Manager Rich Slingerland.

For this specific project, the DEC has agreed to reimburse the village up to $463,800, and the village expects to spend an additional $154,600 from the operating fund, said Slingerland. While the DEC has yet to sign the contract, Assistant Manager Dan Sarnoff said the agreement has been finalized and the money put aside. He could not specify when the contract would be signed.

When Weinstein first moved into his home 40 years ago, the orange pond did not exist. The levels rise and fall, but after recent storms, the water levels were quite high, he said. Asked how this issue has affected him, he recalls that he "never felt safe to go on an extended vacation."

"That water is not to be played with. Nobody does play in it, so it hasn't affected anybody, [but] the threat of having a grandchild going over it… It's no way to live," he added.

Neighbor Selma Markowitz says she hasn't been able to use the side of her lawn that is affected because of the substances in the water, adding that her basement is permanently wet and in need of a sump pump.

At a remediation kickoff meeting on Tuesday, the Recreation and Parks Commission asked officials how soon the village could use the site. Once the project is completed, there is a one-year waiting period to determine if the site can be cleared by the state (it is currently classified as an "inactive hazardous waste disposal site") or if additional work is needed, explained Furey. Therefore, nothing is likely to happen before 2012.

The timetable will depend on the success of the remedial measure, he added. "The natural ground water equilibrium will be such overtime that leachate [levels] will fall back to zero." If that doesn't solve the problem, alternatives might be adding a cutoff trench or another well.

In years past, the village developed a plan to explore what could be done with the land. Because of past projects, however, certain uses cannot be considered, Furey said. Passive uses, such as walking trails or ball fields, would be acceptable post-closure uses of the site, he added.

Decades ago, the site was used as a municipal solid waste landfill, for ash disposal and composting of leaves. Contamination was discovered in 1986 as part of a study to build housing there. Three years later, the village entered into an agreement with the DEC to conduct a remedial program, and in 1997 the landfill was capped to limit the public's exposure with the substances, but no groundwater controls were conducted. Years later, the leachate continued, and so did the studies. In 2009, the village hired Woodard and Curran to prepare the study now in motion to address the leachate buildup under the cap.

Nearby residents hope this is the end of the story.

"It can only get worse if it's not corrected. We were young men when it first started," joked a Greenhaven Road neighbor. "I had hair."