Brookhaven sues state DEC over requirement to clean up toxic plumes at landfill, airport

Brookhaven Town is suing the state Department of Environmental Conservation, claiming that a state law enacted last year blocks the agency from requiring the town to clean up toxic plumes stemming from the town’s mammoth landfill and a town-owned airport in Shirley.

The town, in papers filed in October in state Supreme Court and updated last month, said a newly enacted section of the state's environmental conservation law contains a "Municipal Exemption" provision that would bring to a halt separate state investigations of toxic plumes emanating from the landfill and Brookhaven Calabro Airport.

The lawsuit states the DEC "has no such authority" to order cleanup plans at the landfill and the airport, adding "whatever prior general regulatory authority the DEC may have previously possessed ... lapsed upon the enactment of the Municipal Exemption" last year.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The DEC, in a Feb. 2 letter to the town's lawyers, said the municipal exemption cited by Brookhaven "does not apply" to the landfill and the airport but rather to "inactive hazardous waste sites," such as shuttered landfills. 

The DEC declined to provide additional comment.

The lawsuit was filed as the town seeks a five-year permit from the DEC to continue operating the landfill, which Brookhaven officials have said will close in about 2½ years when it is expected to run out of capacity. The landfill primarily buries ash from three Long Island waste-to-energy incinerators. The current operating permit expires in July. 

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment in Farmingdale and a frequent critic of Brookhaven's landfill policy, said stripping the DEC of its regulatory authority would be a blow to efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites across the state. 

“It seems like Brookhaven is grabbing at straws and would be much better off if they simply got these plumes cleaned up," Esposito said. "I don’t know why they're going to court over something like this. It’s really not a good use of taxpayer money.”

In spite of the lawsuit, Brookhaven pledged in court papers to continue developing remediation plans for both the landfill and the airport. 

Residents pack community meeting

Meanwhile, about 200 people crowded into a Brookhaven Town Hall auditorium Friday evening for a town-hosted, DEC-mandated community meeting to discuss the landfill plume.

Some homeowners told Newsday they came out of concern that their drinking water was not safe and that they were not satisfied with the way town officials had addressed the issue.

Kevin Kirk, 77, a Brookhaven hamlet resident since 1971, said town officials had sold residents “a false set of goods” more than 50 years ago with promises the landfill would be closed in five years and turned into a park. “They keep kicking the ball down the road, moving the goalposts,” he said in an interview before the meeting.

His wife, Julianna Kirk, 76, called the landfill “frightening.” “The town is supposed to be the stewards of the environment, not just the money,” she said in an interview. 

Jerry and Annette Mims, both 77, said they can detect a noticeable odor from the landfill at their Brookhaven hamlet home.

“When we bought the house, it never occurred to us there might be some concerns,” Jerry Mims said in an interview. “The stench is here now.”

The agency required the meeting as part of the plume cleanup plan. A mailing announcing the meeting was sent to residents who live within 1,000 feet of the plume.

Costly scenarios

Town officials and consultants at the meeting presented five scenarios to the DEC, ranging from immediately closing the landfill to expanding connections to public water systems. Cost estimates ranged from about $100,000 for water connections to $10.8 billion to remove the landfill’s trash and cart it off Long Island.

Some residents said none of the scenarios addressed cleaning up the plume.

“It’s so obvious to me that this is about money and not about people’s lives,” said Brookhaven hamlet civic activist Lynne Maher.

“You just wasted our time with this presentation,” said Monique Fitzgerald, of Bellport, co-founder of the anti-landfill Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group.

Of the lawsuit, Esposito, in a phone interview Wednesday, said, “We think that ... is a stretch of the law, and it would mean that there was no independent oversight or accountability with any municipality if DEC was not the regulating agency.” She added that regulatory oversight is especially needed with the relatively recent discovery of toxic contaminants such as PFAS and PFOS in the Brookhaven landfill and at the airport.

The DEC last year ordered Brookhaven to draft a plume cleanup plan that is due May 1. The report must outline a plan to close the landfill among its cleanup options, the DEC said last year.

Calabro was added last year to the state Superfund list following the discovery of groundwater contaminated with toxic "forever chemicals" at the 600-acre site. The airport is used mostly by private small-craft operators and flight schools.

CORRECTION: The first name of Lynne Maher was misspelled in a photo caption in a previous version of this story.