Three residents of the building next to the former Plaza Tennis site, situated next to Stanton Cleaners, attended the Stanton Cleaners Area Community Group, Inc. community informational meeting on Jan. 26 at Great Neck Plaza Village Hall. One asked why so many government environmental agencies were present at the meeting. They wanted to know the status of the groundwater, soil and air contamination cleanup and whether pollutants were coming into their windows.

The USEPA, NYSDOH, NYSDEC, NCDOH all joined to determine if the cleanup remedies selected by the USEPA under Superfund will protect human health from the effects of hazardous substances such as PCE in the environment. The Public Health Assessment reviews the selection of cleanup remedies that best meet current and possible future uses for the contaminated site. The Great Neck community thanks the long-time staff members of the above government agencies for their past, present, and future participation in the remediation and oversight of future use of the Stanton Cleaners Area Superfund site, OU-1 and OU-2 and the Great Neck environment.

The first speaker, Damian Duda, EPA Superfund Hazardous Waste Remediation Stanton Site Project engineer, told the audience that over 110 million gallons of contaminated groundwater had been cleaned up since EPA installed new remediation systems in 2000. EPA's subcontractor Earth Tech's engineer Tom Williams monitors the two air strippers and the two soil vapor extraction units on a continuous basis. The contamination levels are steadily being reduced to meet state standards.

Walter Parish, P.E., environmental engineer, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) Remediation Division, gave the following update on the state's Great Neck type 2 Hazardous Waste Sites located in the Stanton Superfund off-site area. "There will be an investigation report in early March on CDC, the former Fashion Cleaners site, now a Cingular store on Northern Boulevard. DEC is reviewing data from the Mayflower site. The site's status will be changed from active to inactive. DEC may just monitor the site. The Fenley Amoco site at 500 Great Neck Road, a spill site since early 1980s, whose contamination overruns Mayflower, has a problem with changing contractors. The DEC will start up remediation in February 2006." Mr. Parish offered to send SCAG and the Great Neck community monitoring results from the site. The Jonathan site status needs no further action and is classified "closed." The BP Amoco station has been satisfactorily remediated and is classified as "closed."

Plaza Mayor Jean Celender announced that the Plaza Tennis site had been sold but the building plans had not yet been submitted. In answer to a question, "What agency has the jurisdiction over the Plaza Tennis site?" Joe DeFranco, Nassau County Department of Health, stated that the paper work has to go through the Nassau County Department of Health. Mayor Celender added that, "Any offering plan for the Plaza Tennis site development will fully document the location and history of the site." Hydrogeologist Kovarik said that banks require a due-diligence process for mortgages.

The Stanton Cleaners Area Community Group (SCAG, Inc.) sponsored the meeting, under a Technical Advisor EPA grant to relay information to the Great Neck residents about the status of the cleanup. SCAG, Inc. will inform the public if the equipment is taken off line, for any reason, and if the quality of the groundwater, soil and indoor air suddenly increases. SCAG President Shirley Siegal explained why the public was invited to this informational meeting. The government speakers fulfilled their duty to the community by reporting on the status of the Federal Superfund or NYS type 2 hazardous waste sites in Great Neck.

Ajay R. Shah, NYSDEC regional air pollution control engineer, addressed concerns about the clean operation of the new Stanton Cleaner, an active dry cleaner operating at the Stanton site. The operation uses fourth generation machines which should prevent PCE from leaking on the floor, or evaporating into the air where personnel work. Carbon takes care of internal air quality. There is negative pressure within the store. All dry cleaners have inspection inside of the shop including dry wells. Five inspections are done of the indoor air every year.

The final version of the Public Health Assessment for Stanton Cleaners Area Groundwater Contamination Site was developed by the NYS Department of Health in cooperation with the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The purpose of the health assessment report, which was presented by Jacquelyn Nealon NYSDOH public health specialist, is to evaluate possible public health implications of the site. The report suggests that if anyone has questions about the document, they should call Ms. Nealon, toll free, 1-800-458-1158, extension 27870. Ms. Nealon left extra copies of the Health Assessment Report at Plaza Village Hall.

Mrs. Nealon explained that exposure for residents was through touch and inhaling PCE before the Stanton site was declared a USEPA Superfund site in 1998. February 1999, the US EPA installed a soil vapor extraction system behind the Stanton Cleaners site to remove subsurface PCE soil contamination and vapors. This installation reduced indoor air exposures at the buildings surrounding the Stanton site and helped prevent future exposure to PCE contaminated indoor air.

The indoor air exposure route was eliminated when the Plaza Tennis buildings were demolished, summer 2004. "Long-term exposure to PCE in air at Plaza Tennis in the past is estimated to pose a low increased risk of getting cancer." "These estimates are based on animal studies which show that PCE at high levels can cause cancer in laboratory animals (leukemia, liver and kidney cancer)."

The NYSDOH is comfortable with what has been done. Trichlorethylene (TCE) sinks. It has to be brought up to the surface with soil vapor extraction systems. For the chlorinated hydrocarbons such as PCE and TCE to have health effects, there has to be a large exposure such as an occupational exposure above 1,000 milligrams per cubic meter of air such as working in a dry cleaner. Ms. Nealon said, "No one in the area was exposed to 1,000 mg/cubic meter. The levels of PCE in the tennis courts were "astronomically high." Occupational exposure is addressed by OSHA, not NYSDOH.

Ms. Nealon was asked why long-term residents exposed to PCE in their drinking water several years prior to 1977 could not request to be placed on the NYS Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) Exposure Registry. Exposure was before air strippers were installed to clean the drinking water to meet NYState standard: The registry is a tool for health status assessment and long-term follow-up for individuals with documented exposures to VOCs (p. 29). Residents were also exposed to benzene one to three weeks in 1983. Ms. Nealon repeated the position of the ASTDR that information is generally not available for accurately specifying VOC exposures for individual household exposures. It would be difficult now to locate the residents who lived in the area at the time of potential exposures. Ms. Nealon said, "Therefore residents supplied by WAGNN water supplies affected by contamination from the Stanton Cleaners area are not being considered for inclusion in the VOC Registry. The VOC Exposure Registry may help contribute to knowledge about specific health outcomes which may be related to exposures to the specific chemicals, particularly PCE, associated with the WAGNN water supply area."

In determining health risk assessments, children, the elderly and people at risk are taken into consideration. If PCE levels are above 100 milligrams in a cubic meter of air, the NYSDOH will keep coming back to investigate. The EPA does air monitoring four times per year.

A commissioner for Public Services stated that a VOCs such as TCE and PCE are not naturally appearing substances. They should be zero when air, water and soil are tested. We won't find them in the Adirondacks. The "background" level in urban areas with dry cleaners, auto repair shops measures 1-10 mg/m3 in the soil. Anything above 1,000 mg/m3 should trigger emergency remediation.

Ms. Nealon said there is no exposure to the public from groundwater because the public drinking water supply is treated with air strippers by the Water Authority of Great Neck North. WAGNN Superintendent Robert Graziano assured the public that the drinking water delivered to their homes meets even higher standards than enforced by NY State. Treated water sample testing results read "Non-Detect."

Ms. Nealon stated that the NYSDOH wants to keep monitoring the soil at the Stanton site and the agency will be involved with whatever is placed on the Plaza Tennis site. Sub-slab depressurization should be part of the construction. Regular air monitoring goes on in the buildings surrounding the Stanton site. Depressurization systems were installed and air handling systems were changed to remove PCE vapor. Present levels are at low "background" levels.