|
|
Workers on Puritan Drive grind and press asphalt in preparation for the upcoming installation of pipeline associated with the groundwater treatment systems. |
The construction phase of the groundwater cleanup project south and southeast of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory is in progress (see map, page 3). This work involves installing groundwater-treatment systems to remove solvents, such as degreasers and cleaners, that were found in the groundwater at levels above drinking-water standards.
Residents can expect to see three main types of work: well drilling, pipe laying, and treatment building construction. This work will not affect the public-water supply system that brings water to homes in the area.
After collecting suggestions from community members through comment cards, door-to-door canvassing, local civic meetings, and a public workshop, the Lab made several changes to the original cleanup plan:
• Buildings will be sited in industrial areas rather than in residential ones.
• The number of buildings was reduced from six to four.
• Additional safety features were added to the designs of the cleanup systems, such as extra pressure-activated shutdown switches.
It will take about nine months to build these systems, each of which will be on its own schedule. When construction is complete, the systems will be tested to verify that all the equipment is working properly. After verification, the treatment systems will begin full-time operation.
The community’s input helped the Laboratory decide where and how to locate the treatment systems so the impact on residents would be minimized to the extent possible, yet would still do the job of cleaning up the groundwater. The Laboratory will continue to keep the community up to date during system construction and operation.
In keeping with the input received during a community workshop last June, two treatment systems that were planned for locations A and B on the map were combined into one treatment building. This building will be installed at Brookhaven Airport, shown on the map at marker “B.” Underground piping will take water from the extraction wells near Puritan and Waldorf Drives (marker “A”), down Puritan Drive, and behind the fence along Flower Hill Drive to the treatment building. Water also will be taken from wells behind the fence along Flower Hill Drive and piped underground to the treatment building at the Airport, as well as to two other pumping wells that will be sited on the airport property. The water will be cleaned at the building by a carbon-filtration system, and returned to the ground through recharge wells south of Flower Hill Drive.
Another system will be placed in the industrial park, north of the Long Island Rail Road tracks, as shown at marker “C.” This system’s building will sit next to an existing one that is operating at this location. Within the industrial park, the extracted water will be cleaned by carbon filtration and then returned to the aquifer.
Two other systems also will be combined into a single treatment building. The Laboratory originally planned to erect the building on the west side of North Street, but will now put it on the east side instead, as shown at marker “D.” Underground piping will take water from the Town of Brookhaven’s right-of-way on Sleepy Hollow Drive and carry it south beneath this road, east on Vita Drive to North Street, and to the treatment system building. Water also will be piped to this building from a privately owned, undeveloped parcel northeast of the building (marker “E”). The clean water will be returned to ground through recharge wells on land owned by Brookhaven Town along North Street.
An important part of this work will be making certain that the roads where the pavement is cut for the piping are properly restored.
Later this year, the Laboratory expects to finish designing the treatment system that will remove the pesticide ethylene dibromide from groundwater in an undeveloped area west of Weeks Avenue. By the spring of 2004, the building and its associated piping will be completed and it will be located at marker “F.”
For more information on the Laboratory’s groundwater projects, visit the website at: http://www.bnl.gov/erd/groundwater.html
Locations of the six planned groundwater treatment systems in East Yaphank, North Shirley, and Manorville are illustrated by the letters A through F in the map at left. The shaded areas denote chemical groundwater contamination at levels above drinking water standards.