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EPA Announces Cleanup Plan for Contaminated Soil and Ground Water at Central Islip Superfund Site

Release Date: 04/17/2003
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(#03036) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it will clean up chemically-contaminated soil and ground water at an inactive manufacturing facility formerly known as MacKenzie Chemical Works Inc., located in Central Islip, New York. “We are eager to begin cleaning up this site,”said EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny. “Some of our most innovative technologies are being used in Central Islip, and we expect extremely effective results.” EPA placed the site, which is at One Cordello Avenue, on its National Priorities List of the most serious hazardous waste sites in September 2001. Past operations at the site contaminated local ground water with semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds and metals. The primary concern at this site is elevated levels of 1,2,3-trichloropropane. Municipal drinking water supplies have not been affected. EPA will excavate and dispose of a small amount of contaminated soil, and use a thermally-enhanced in-ground soil vapor extraction (SVE) system to remove the contamination from the remaining soil. The system cleans soil by forcing steam or heated air through a series of wells, volatizing the contaminants. Vacuum pumps then draw contaminated air from the soil. The contaminants are removed by carbon filter units before the air is released to the atmosphere. The SVE system will continue to operate until the soils are cleaned up. EPA estimates that the soil cleanup will be completed in approximately five years, and will cost about $1.2 million to complete. The Agency will also demolish and remove a structurally-unsound former laboratory building as part of this effort. Additionally, EPA will remove ground water contamination using an air sparging and ozone-injection system. This system employs injection wells to bubble an air and ozone mixture into the ground water, vaporizing contaminants. This process uses ozone to destroy the contaminants. The ground water cleanup is expected to cost approximately $1.26 million and to take about 15 years to complete. In the 1970s, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services (SCDHS) cited MacKenzie Chemical Works Inc. for numerous violations, prompting a general property cleanup that was completed in 1979. In 1983, EPA conducted an assessment of the site and recommended that MacKenzie dispose of drums containing soil and liquid wastes. The company disposed of the drums, but abandoned operations at the property in 1987. Subsequent studies of the site by both the SCDHS and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation showed that ground water and soil at the site were contaminated.