By Kayleigh Anderson
As Bethpage Community Park continues to be rid of hazardous chemicals, the Town of Oyster Bay says they do not know when the cleanup will be completed.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, 55-gallon drums were extracted from the soil. The drums were secured in concrete coffins, which environmental experts say is highly uncommon. Because of these unusual circumstances, Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino believes the drums were purposefully put at the site.
“The 55-gallon chemical drums recently unearthed in Bethpage Community Park is just the tip of the iceberg,” Saladino said, “It’s clear that these drums were deliberately buried at the site as they were sealed in concrete coffins these drums contain toxic chemicals, and preliminary test results show that the contaminants in these drums match the contaminants found in the adjacent soil.”
Saladino also told Long Island Life & Politics that Northrop Grumman had been aware of the hazards they had created in the environment. An investigation that took place in 2020 revealed Grumman had known about the contamination and environmental dangers as early as the 1970s and purposely kept the information secret from the public.
Saladino is not the only one calling for Northrop Grumman to clean up the park. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) also demanded that the company remove the dangerous chemicals from the state. Long Island Life & Politics also reported that Governor Kathy Hochul directed the DEC to work with the federal, state and local partners to hold Northrop Grumman accountable for the ongoing cleanup.
In a statement, the DEC said, “The DEC continues to oversee investigative and cleanup activities at this location to determine the full nature and extent of contamination, the discovery and removal of the drums present no immediate threat to public health and safety at the site and DEC is working with its partners at the federal, state, and local level to ensure the protection of public health and the environment. The health and safety of the Bethpage community is a top priority for DEC.“
Saladino said the cleanup is taking too long. “Northrop Grumman and the Navy have been given too much time and flexibility to clean up their mess.” he said. “We are also forcing Grumman to move forward with radar scans to determine where additional contaminants may be in Bethpage Park. At the same time, we are forming bipartisan coalitions with members of Congress, state officials, water districts, trades unions, environmental groups, and most important, our residents.”
Long Island Life and Politics has reached out to Northrop Grumman numerous times for comment, but has not received any response.