DEC: Brookhaven must submit landfill cleanup plan after report cites dump as a source of toxic plume

Brookhaven officials have been ordered by state environmental authorities to prepare a landfill cleanup plan that could include closing the 51-year-old facility after an inspection earlier this year found elevated levels of so-called "forever chemicals" in a miles-long plume emanating from the dump.

A draft state-mandated report prepared by a town consultant and released this summer found the landfill is a "contributing source" of toxic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, along with 1,4-dioxane. Both have been linked to a range of health issues including cancer.

By February, Brookhaven must submit a plan to the state Department of Environmental Conservation outlining "possible corrective measures including, but not limited to, landfill closure," DEC geologist Francesca King wrote in the July 31 letter.

Residents who live within 500 feet of the plume, which stretches about four miles from the landfill in Brookhaven hamlet south toward Bellport Bay, received a letter from the town in August outlining the report's findings, officials said.

A December meeting deadline

DEC officials ordered the town to hold a community meeting by December to discuss the findings with residents. A date for the meeting has not been set, town spokesman Drew Scott said in an email.

The 192-acre landfill, which primarily accepts incinerated household trash and automotive waste, is scheduled to close in 2028, when it is expected to run out of capacity, Newsday has reported.

In an email, Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said the town believes drinking water near the plume is safe because almost all homes are connected to the Suffolk County Water Authority's public water system, rather than private wells that could be prone to contamination. 

“The town continues to address the plume," Panico wrote. "Thankfully, almost everyone in the area is connected with SCWA, but we will continue to work with the DEC because PFAS and 1,4 dioxane are emerging issues not just here but around the entire country and world.”

Forever chemicals, also known as emergent contaminants, were used in solvents, nonstick cookware, clothing, cosmetics and other household products. Discovered only in recent decades, they break down slowly and build up over time in humans and animals.

An earlier draft report released by the town last December had been rejected in February by the DEC because the town blamed the contaminants on other possible sources, such as industrial and agricultural properties near the landfill. 

The revised draft, by Woodbury-based D&B Engineers and Architects, found PFAS and 1,4-dioxane exceeded "groundwater trigger values," Christine Fetten, the town's waste management commissioner, said in the letter to residents.

'We didn't know the parameters'

Lynne Maher, of Brookhaven, said Fetten's letter was the first time she had been advised the plume that runs past her home has toxic chemicals. She has lived in her house for 38 years, she said.

“We knew there was a plume, but we didn’t know the parameters of it and we didn’t know it had emergent contaminants in it,” Maher, 69, a retired nurse-practitioner, said Friday in a phone interview. She is a member of the grassroots Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, which has called for the landfill's immediate closure.

Fumes from volatile chemicals such as PFAS enter houses by rising through the ground and finding cracks in foundations, said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment in Farmingdale.

People who live on top of the Brookhaven plume should have a well-ventilated home, “and I would not use the basement,” she said.

But closing the landfill would not eliminate the plume overnight, she said, adding it “could go for decades" before dissipating.

"Closing the landfill sounds great and is part of the solution, but the materials causing the [contamination] are still going to be there,” Esposito said.