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Shoreham Peerless/Agfa Property Cleanup Almost Done
by Jane Alcorn, 5 January 2007
After years of examination and work, the cleanup at the former
Peerless Photo Products site in Shoreham is just about done. New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), the
agency that oversees the remediation of the site, recently sent to
Agfa Corporation, the owners of the property, its response to Agfa's
cleanup reports and data. The response required Agfa to redo one
part of the cleanup, a "minor" job of soil removal and
clean soil replacement, on the LIPA/Keyspan right-of-way. At the
conclusion of that cleanup, the property will be finished with the
long process of remediation under the NYS DEC review.
The property was owned for years by Peerless, after which it was
sold to Agfa. Agfa used it to continue photo products manufacture
for several years, before finally deciding that it was no longer
needed for that purpose. Agfa then determined that under the law
it had to clean up the property before it could be sold or passed
on to another owner.
The cleanup began more than a decade ago with a survey of the
property and many months and years of evaluation of the contamination,
in which Agfa had to characterize each of the contaminated spots
on the property, determine the sources, extent, and types of
contamination, decide on an appropriate remediation response for
each, and provide the information on how it would be accomplished.
Along with that, tests of many areas on the 16.2-acre site were
performed, including special borings into the remains of a 120-foot
tower base, and well and water monitoring, both on and off the
site.
For each step, reports were sent by Agfa to NYS DEC, were commented
on, and revisions were suggested or required. The Suffolk County
Department of Health also reviewed the documents and offered comments.
Agfa would then typically develop changes and alternative remediation
actions to the NYS DEC requests, eliciting further response from
the agency. Along the way there were also hearings on the final
cleanup plan.
"They are just wrapping up," said Girish Desai of NYS
DEC. "The major work has been done."
The actual soil removal and stabilization for some of the property
was done within the last few years. For the most contaminated spots
it was begun this past summer, and completed within a few months.
Since then, the follow-up testing and data collection has been going
on, along with preparation of the reports to the DEC.
"We're getting there. We just received information that we
have to take a little more soil out at the LIPA right-of-way. Two
spots showed a slight exceedance [of contamination levels],"
said Charlene Graff, an Agfa project engineer.
She said Agfa would be contacting contractors to perform the
soil removal and replacement, and she expected it would occur at
the beginning of this year. She said once contractors were hired,
the weather would play a part in how quickly the work could be
done.
One of the most difficult parts of the project was in determining
how to prevent any contaminants from leaching into the groundwater
from the contaminated places, especially the tower base. The base
is left from the communications tower built at the beginning of the
1900s by scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, whose brick laboratory
still exists on the property. Over the last 100 years it has been
used as a waste dump for unwanted materials by previous owners and
others. The remedy to prevent water table contamination from leachate
from the tower base was to cap and stabilize the soil with a
concrete-like slurry that hardened the soil, preventing rainwater
from bringing contaminants down into the water. Most of the rest
of the contaminated portions of the property were remediated by
soil removal and replacement.
According to Graff, Agfa plans to remove some of the remaining
buildings before they decide on what they will do with the property.
The office building on the corner of Route 25A and Randall Road
will be removed.
"It's not structurally in good shape," said Graff,
noting that the roof is in a state of dangerous disrepair.
The old wastewater treatment plant on the west side of the land,
some of the auxiliary buildings attached to the Tesla laboratory,
and the old white house facing Route 25A are also slated for removal.
The house is believed to have asbestos-related issues, and some of
the manufacturing buildings will be assessed for asbestos as well.
These structure removals will not require DEC oversight, but can
be accomplished by Agfa through normal approvals from the proper
local government offices.
"We don't want someone to inherit these problems,"
said Graff.
Friends of Science East, a local group, would like to turn the
old Tesla laboratory into a science museum, with the land being
used for a community park. The group has garnered the support of
many local people and elected officials. They hope Agfa will donate
the land to Brookhaven Town and that Brookhaven will contract with
them to create the museum when all the work on the site is done.
Graff would not speculate on Agfa's final disposition of the
property, although she said that there have been some conversations
with Brookhaven Town about it.
"Until the work is complete we won't make a decision,"
she said.
Source: The Sound Observer,
Volume XI, Number 11, page 1 (January 5, 2007)
(Reproduced with permission.)
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