New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is on track to finish the cleanup of a major inactive contaminated site along Route 209 in the town of Deerpark in early 2025, the agency’s spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times.
The scheduled completion aims to put an end to a decades-long saga of remedying a former manufacturing site that poses a significant threat to human health and the environment.
Under two previous owners—a television tube manufacturer and then a lead battery maker—hazardous wastewater was dumped into an on-site lagoon for years, causing unsafe levels of fluoride in the groundwater and higher-than-standard amounts of chemicals and metals in ground soils and stream bottom, according to agency records.
The property sits just north of Town Hall and Harriet Space Park.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) started the cleanup work in December 2023, and part of the remedy costs, or $7 million, will be paid for by Avnet, a Phoenix-based global electronic component manufacturer that acquired the aforementioned television tube manufacturer.
At a June 2021 planning board meeting, Krug discussed potentially selling the site to a light manufacturing or warehousing developer. His company acquired the property in 2018.
During the 1960s, under the site’s first major manufacturer owner, Empire Tube Corporation, hydrogen fluoride used for cleaning television tubes was dumped into a 150-foot-wide and 15-foot-deep on-site wastewater lagoon, according to public DEC records.
After C&D Technologies acquired the property in the 1970s, cooling water that had not come into contact with raw industrial materials was discharged into the lagoon until 1982.
In 1990, when the DEC found highly unsafe levels of fluoride in groundwater beneath the lagoon, it moved to label the site a Class 2 property under the state’s Superfund Program—which means it poses a significant threat to human health and the environment.
The designation set in motion a chain of regulatory actions by the DEC under state law to investigate contamination, design a remedy plan, and carry out the cleanup work.
Known responsible companies often pay for the remedy work, according to the state agency, which will bear uncovered costs through a dedicated superfund under state law.
Investigative work between 1999 and 2006 concluded that the primary contaminants on the Deerpark site are lead, cadmium, barium, and polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs, which are man-made toxic chemicals now banned in many countries, including the United States.
In 2000, fluoride levels in one off-site private well were found to exceed the drinking water cap set by the state’s Department of Health, but later samples indicated compliance.
Amid the state work, C&D Technologies ceased operation in 2006 and sold the property to Star Realty Associates, LLC, the following year. Ten years later, the latter sold the property to its current owner.
The site remedy plan includes excavating and disposing of lagoon soils to a depth of 4 feet to 6 feet, decreasing lead and cadmium levels in remaining contaminated soils by mixing in chemical agents, and putting in place a site cover to prevent future contamination.
According to the DEC, the cover can be buildings, sidewalks, or a layer of soil.
The plan also includes monitoring adjacent private well water for fluoride levels and removing nearby stream bottom down to a depth of 12 inches. The excavated sediment will be put back in the lagoon above the treated soils and below the cover.
There are 10 Class 2 Superfund sites in Orange County, according to DEC records.
