EPA unveils revised cleanup plan for Fulton Avenue Superfund site

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a plan on Friday to adjust a 2007 interim cleanup strategy for groundwater in North Hempstead and Hempstead in New York in response to a consistent decline in the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) since the original cleanup strategy was launched.


The contamination involves the Fulton Avenue Superfund site and is partly due to dry-cleaning operations at a fabric-cutting mill that operated from 1965 to 1974 in Garden City Park, a nearby town. VOCs from the mill, including tetrachloroethylene (PCE), were placed in a well for disposal, but they seeped into the groundwater.


While Genesco, one of the companies that operated the mill, took actions to improve the situation from 1998 to 2004, the EPA issued a cleanup plan in 2007, which required both treatment of areas with high PCE contamination around the site and the construction of a treatment system in nearby Garden City.


However, after testing to assess the contamination around the site, the EPA found that the VOC rates had been steadily declining, leading to its decision to revise the cleanup plan. The treatment plant in the Village of Garden City will remain, but it will no longer require treatment in the vicinity of the Fulton site. It will also provide for chemical vapor testing for nearby buildings. The cleanup plan is expected to cost roughly $4 million, the burden of which will mostly be on Genesco.


The EPA is accepting public comments on the plan’s modifications until May 26 and will host a public meeting on May 12 at the Garden City Village Hall in Garden City.