State and federal regulatory agencies agreed to the U.S. Department of Energy’s cleanup plan for groundwater in an undeveloped area of western Manorville.

Active treatment to remove a chemical pesticide, ethylene dibromide (EDB), will provide further assurance that the public’s health and the environment will continue to be protected. the Department offered public water hookups to residents in the area between 1996-98. This offer was a precautionary measure to prevent potential future exposure to groundwater contaminants.

Ethylene dibromide was once a commonly used pesticide on Long Island. Over time, the EDB entered the aquifer and traveled south in groundwater. Groundwater with EDB levels above the drinking water standard (0.05 parts per billion) is located in an undeveloped area south of the Long Island Expressway and about 1,000 feet west of Weeks Avenue. While this particular area of groundwater contamination, which is 90-130 feet below the surface, does not impact any existing homes, cleanup is still important.

The Operable Unit VI Record of Decision documents the EDB cleanup. It calls for extracting the contaminated groundwater and sending it through a carbon filter for treatment before returning the clean water to the aquifer.

The Department is working to gain access to the property above the area of contamination for additional groundwater sampling. Once access is obtained, sampling data will be sued to develop the details of the system design. Design and construction will take approximately 12 months after the data collection is complete.

The system is expected to operate for about nine years. More information is available at www.bnl.gov/erd/ou3doc.html.