A federal judge has denied Grumman’s bid to exclude allegations the Town of Oyster Bay added in an amended complaint to its lawsuit this summer relating to hexavalent chromium, which can cause cancer.
The suit dates back to 2023 about the former Grumman site at Bethpage Community Park. It seeks to hold Grumman responsible for cleaning up the site and speeding up the process, which has been delayed due to several court motions.
Grumman had used the park as a chemical waste dumping site before donating the grounds to the Town of Oyster Bay in the 1960s. Parts of Bethpage Community Park have been closed to the public since the early 2000s after toxic leaks were first discovered.
The town’s lawsuit initially focused on a range of contaminants at the site, including trichloroethylene (also referred to as TCE), toluene and cadmium. In the amended complaint, the town also focused on a yellow and green sludge that contained hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxin.
“Our top objective is to get Grumman to clean up their environmental mess and foot the bill for restoration of our community park,” Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino said
He said drinking water in the area is safe but that hexavalent chromium can leach into the aquifer and expand the Grumman-Navy plume.
Efforts to solicit comment from Grumman were unavailing.
Oyster Bay Town Public Information Officer Brian Nevin said the town’s sampling of a yellow neon-colored substance from a boring near the center of the former ballfield determined the material contained hexavalent chromium at 4,290 mg/kg and total chromium of 19,400 mg/kg, which both far exceeded the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s soil cleanup objectives.
“The hexavalent chromium concentration in the yellow substance, which has been found in multiple locations, far exceeds the levels that Grumman has previously reported after decades of investigation, demonstrating the necessity of the town’s independent sampling to ensure accurate data collection to support the complete cleanup of hazardous substances at the Park and the protection of human health and the environment,” he said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation approved a review of the Phase 1 work plan for the cleanup of the former Northrop Grumman settling ponds at present-day Bethpage Community Park in March 2024.
During the drilling that would start phase two, 22 chemical drums were found under the park, the removal of which has delayed the formal start of phase two until now.
The DEC said in July that there appear to be no more drums identified in the cleanup.
The U.S. Navy completed the installation of six extraction wells in July in Bethpage, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The plume left by Grumman is more than 4 miles long and 2 miles wide and extends as deep as 900 feet.
Drinking water on Long Island is primarily obtained from a sole-source aquifer, and many have expressed concern over how the plume affects the nearly 3 million people the aquifer supplies.
Also in July, the town and Grumman unsealed documents relating to a concluded case between Grumman and Travelers Indemnity Company as the town continued its effort to clean up the former Grumman site in Bethpage.
