State Declares Gabreski Airport A Superfund Site: Cuomo

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — Gabreski Air National Guard Base has been declared a Superfund site after a contaminant was found in drinking water, according to a release by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The airport was declared a Class 2 Superfund site, or a contaminated site ripe for cleanup, by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

On Monday, Cuomo announced actions taken to safeguard water quality on Long Island, including the designation of a Superfund Site at Gabreski Air National Guard Base — and $5 million in funding to support the development of emerging contaminant treatment systems at SUNY Stony Brook's Center for Clean Water Technology.

The governor also announced that a new drinking water treatment program, the advanced oxidative process, would soon be approved and used in New York State for the first time, as park of a pilot program to treat dioxane contamination.

"Ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to clean drinking water is a top priority and the Water Quality Rapid Response Team continues to take action across the state to stay ahead of this emerging challenge," Cuomo said.

"Working together with environmental experts, elected officials, and community stakeholders, we are holding polluters accountable, investing in water treatment technologies to keep our natural resources safe, and laying the ground work for a cleaner, brighter future for the state of New York."

Declaring the airport a Superfund site means the DEC has identified the U.S. Department of Defense, which oversees the site’s operations, as the potentially responsible party for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS, contamination detected in nearby groundwater supplies.

DEC will use its full legal authority under the State Superfund law to ensure a thorough site clean-up, the release said.

On April 25 the DEC added PFOS to the state’s list of hazardous substances to utilize the State Superfund program.

The Water Quality Rapid Response Team analyzes data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's unregulated contaminant monitoring rule program to identify potential areas of contamination, which led to the discovery of the groundwater contamination near Gabreski Airport.

In July, the DEC identified the Air National Guard Base, including the former fire training area at the airport, as a potential Superfund site due to historic use of firefighting foam containing PFOS.

The DEC initiated an investigation, taking groundwater and soil samples at the base, which confirmed that the site was a significant source of PFOS contamination in the area, the release said

Also, in late July, Suffolk County collected samples of 66 private drinking water wells from Westhampton Beach and found several of them to be contaminated.

The state has been working with Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Water Authority to ensure residents are fully informed, have access to bottled water, and are quickly connected to the municipal water supply, the release said.

In addition to an investigation of the Superfund site, the state has directed the U.S. Department of Defense to finance the connection of private wells to the municipal water supply that have been or may be impacted by contamination.

If the DOD fails to do this, the state will use Superfund dollars to advance these connections and then seek cost recovery from the responsible party, in addition to providing impacted residents with clean drinking water, the release said.

Last week, the Governor called on the EPA to expand the unregulated contaminant monitoring rule program to require sampling for all public water supplies, regardless of size of population served, to ensure all New Yorkers served by public systems have access to clean water and are protected from contamination.

Currently, only water systems with more than 10,000 people are required to test for unregulated contaminants, leaving out 2.5 million New Yorkers who get their drinking water from smaller systems, Cuomo's release said.

If the EPA fails to address the issue, the administration will step in and advance legislation to ensure all public water in New York State, regardless of size test for unregulated contaminants and report the results, the release said.

Cuomo is also advancing legislation to provide oversight of private wells, used by four million New Yorkers, by requiring homeowners test for contaminants prior to the sale of a home, and mandate that landlords with properties on private wells test their water and share those results with tenants, he said.

Such testing is essential to protecting all New Yorkers from emerging contaminants such as PFOS, Cuomo said.

In addition, to facilitate removal of emerging contaminants in drinking water on Long Island, the state will invest $5 million to support the development of new contaminant filtration technologies.

Funding, administered by the new SUNY Stony Brook Center for Clean Water Technology, will support grants for water suppliers to develop and conduct pilot projects to test cutting-edge contaminant filtration and treatment technologies; research needed for the development, evaluation and advancement of these technologies; and commercialization of viable technologies to create economic development opportunities for the region and state, the release said.

The state has already committed $3.5 million from the Environmental Protection Fund to support the Center for Clean Water Technology, which was established at SUNY Stony Brook in 2014 by Governor Cuomo in partnership with Suffolk County and the Town of Southampton.

"I'm pleased that additional resources are being dedicated towards water quality issues," said New York State Senator Ken LaValle. "The Superfund designation at Gabreski Airport is critically important to begin to properly address the contamination in an expedited manner. The residents deserve to have every tool available utilized to clean up their water as soon as physically possible."

New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele added, "Today's Superfund designation is a timely and significant step in the right direction. I applaud our government officials for acting so quickly to identify the scope of the problem, notify residents and now secure the funding necessary to ensure these contaminated soils and waters are contained, removed and remediated."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone applauded the decision: "This is great news for clean water in Suffolk County."

In July, the Suffolk County Department of Health Service issued a water quality advisory for private well owners in some areas of Westhampton.

According to Suffolk County Department of Health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency identified two chemicals, PFOS, perfluorooctane sulfonate, and PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid, as emerging contaminants.

The chemicals, release said, are part of a class of chemicals known as perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, which are currently unregulated by the federal government.

PFCs have been used in a number of industrial and commercial products such as firefighting foam, as well as coatings that repel water, oil, stains,and grease, the Suffolk County Department of Health said.

Individuals may therefore be exposed to PFOS and PFOA through air,water, or soil from industrial sources and from consumer products.

In 2013, major water supply companies began testing their wells for PFOS and PFOA. Results of that monitoring have recently become available.

"In the absence of federal regulation, New York State took aggressive action ‎and became the first state in nation to regulate PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances, which enables the state to use the legal authority and financial resources of the State Superfund Program to clean up contaminated sites," a release said.

Through monitoring conducted under an EPA program known as the unregulated contaminant monitoring rule, PFOS was detected in public supply wells in the vicinity of the New York State Air National Guard Base at Gabreski Airport located at Old Riverhead Road in Westhampton Beach.

"The results of this sampling have already been reported to residents in the annual water quality report and to the US EPA," the release said. "Measures have been taken to address the public water supply."

Currently, the public drinking water supply in the area is below the current EPA lifetime health advisory level of 0.07 ppb, the release said.

EPA’s health advisory levels are established to protect even the most sensitive populations, including fetuses during pregnancy and breastfed babies, against adverse health effects, the release said.

Residents whose properties are served by private wells, or whose homes are located south of the Long Island Rail Road tracks, and east of Beaver Dam Creek in Westhampton, and west of Quantuck Creek in Westhampton, who would like to have their drinking water tested, should contact the SCDHS Office of Water Resources at (631) 852-5810.

The notice did not affect residences that utilize public water.

Out of "an abundance of caution," residents using a private well as their water supply, might want to consider using bottled water for drinking, cooking and preparing infant formula until the well is tested and the quality of the water supply can be assured, the release said.

Residents with additional questions are advised to call the New York State Water Quality Hotline at 1-800-801-8092.