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Underground Water Pollution at Brookhaven Landfill Expands in Long Island
The Brookhaven community in Long Island is urgently calling on authorities to address underground water pollution spreading from the landfill. The municipality is considering options such as connecting some homes to the public water supply and increasing monitoring.
The landfill operating for decades in the Brookhaven area of New York State has intensified the debate over underground water pollution in the surrounding neighborhoods. At the Brookhaven Town Hall meeting at the end of March, criticisms of the landfill's operation were met with applause.
Monique Fitzgerald, who lives in North Bellport and is the founder of the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, is demanding the closure of the landfill from the municipality. Fitzgerald addressed the authorities harshly, calling the presentation at the meeting a waste of time.
Pollution has reached beneath residential areas
According to an assessment shared by the Brookhaven municipality, the pollution cloud has spread approximately 8,000 feet (2.4 kilometers) southeast from the landfill. The pollution has not yet reached drinking water sources but has been detected in the underground water beneath homes and roads, with some of it mixing into Beaver Dam Creek.
Local authorities and contractor engineers have considered many options to address the problem, including the immediate closure of the landfill and the extraction and treatment of contaminated underground water.
However, officials proposed a plan they found more practical and cost-effective. The plan emphasizes increased monitoring of the pollution and connecting some homes from private well water to the municipal water supply.
Leakage from old cells is a key concern
The Brookhaven landfill, approximately 270 feet (82 meters) high, was opened over 50 years ago. The facility has six separate sections, and today only one section accepts waste, primarily storing incinerator ash.
The first three sections were closed before 1995 and received solid waste. However, these early sections were built before current standards and lacked sufficient insulation layers, allowing leakage water to mix with underground water.
State inspectors confirmed the presence of "forever chemicals" known as PFAS in the underground water above New York standards. These substances are found in consumer and industrial products, do not easily break down, and scientists are still studying their effects.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that exposure to these chemicals may pose risks to reproductive health, child development, and certain types of cancer.
Inspectors also confirmed elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane. According to agency records, this industrial solvent can pose unreasonable risks to human health when found in drinking water and is linked to a higher cancer risk.
A long-known problem is growing again
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey first detected underground water pollution at the Brookhaven landfill in 1983. Sampling conducted in 2022 under new regulations once again confirmed the presence of the pollution cloud.
The State Department of Environmental Conservation instructed the municipality to investigate this cloud and develop corrective measures to limit or eliminate the damage. The prepared plans are now under review.
North Bellport and Brookhaven are classified by the state as disadvantaged communities. This classification highlights areas more vulnerable to environmental risks due to demographic, health, and socioeconomic factors.
Local resident Lynne Maher said she lives close to the underground water and believes the municipality is playing with human lives. Maher accused officials of creating fear.
Wastewater treatment is part of the solution but has limits
Landfill leakage water can reach surrounding waterways not only by seeping into the soil but also through treatment processes. After being collected in tanks via pipes, the leakage water is often sent to wastewater treatment plants.
However, while these plants are designed to clean pollutants from domestic and commercial waste, they may not fully separate the complex chemicals found in landfill leakage water. Experts emphasize that the problem should be addressed as a complex mixture rather than individual chemicals.
Regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act typically focus on single chemicals, making comprehensive protection difficult. Experts say this creates a significant gap for leakage water containing many pollutants together.
The Suffolk County Water Authority, which supplies water to Brookhaven, uses a method called Advanced Oxidation Process to reduce 1,4-dioxane to state standards. However, this method is noted to be costly.
In 2017, the authority filed a lawsuit against chemical companies, alleging they knowingly produced and sold 1,4-dioxane in a way that contaminated underground water. Last year, a judge allowed the case to proceed to trial.
Scientists are still working on how to test for and remove PFAS. Although treatment plants release cleaned water back into the water cycle, there is currently no upper limit on how much PFAS these plants can discharge into waterways.
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