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“The secret burial of these drums is further proof as to why we need the highest level of cleanup to remove all contaminants from the park, and truck them off Long Island to protect the health and safety of our community,” Saladino said in a news release. “Despite our demands and Grumman knowing of pollution at this park for decades, they continue to drag their feet and use a haphazard approach to dealing with this environmental nightmare.”

The DEC is continuing to “strictly oversee” the cleanup of the park and called the ongoing remediation of the Navy-Grumman groundwater plume a “priority” for the agency and New York state, a DEC spokesman told Patch.

Contractors working for Northrop Grumman at DEC’s direction discovered encased drums buried in a cement vault during the investigation of “historic contamination” in the park, the DEC stated.

“The drums show no visual signs of a release of contamination to the environment,” the DEC stated.

Initial results suggest the drums contain various petroleum hydrocarbons such as benzene, trimethylbenzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and more, as well as chlorinated solvents (trichloroethene), according to the DEC. The compounds are consistent with known historic operations of Northrop-Grumman and the U.S. Navy in the park and the contamination, the spokesman said.

The DEC will use geophysical techniques, such as ground-penetrating radar, as well as subsurface drilling and sampling, to determine the full nature and extent of contamination and if there are more drums buried deep beneath the park, the agency stated.

“The discovery of the drums presents no immediate threat to public health and safety at the site,” the DEC stated.

Northrop Grumman plans to remove the concrete encasements surrounding the six drums this week, according to the DEC. Removal of the concrete will allow Northrop Grumman to examine and photograph the exteriors of the drums, open the drums, and properly dispose of the drum carcasses. Northrop Grumman hired a contractor to complete a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey and preliminary results are expected this week, according to the DEC.

The agency said it will update the town and community as more samples are taken around the chemical drums.

“DEC will continue to hold Northrop Grumman accountable for the cleanup of Bethpage Community Park.”

A whistleblower in 2016 suggested that drums were buried underground in the park, Newsday reported. Oyster Bay said the claim was “deemed unfounded by the DEC, yet chemical-filled drums were discovered in the park just this week.”

“Previous claims of buried drums were taken seriously,” the DEC stated.

It was not illegal for drums, chemicals or other waste to be buried or dumped when Grumman owned the land, a former DEC official told Newsday.

“It’s not atypical around industrial areas to find pockets where they used to dump stuff,” the former DEC official told Newsday.

Less than a year ago, the Town of Oyster Bay said it began soil borings to investigate the park more thoroughly because of a “lack of urgency by Grumman.” The town said Grumman is now being forced to perform radar scans to determine where additional contaminants are in the park.

“For decades, Grumman has refused to properly cleanup the park and this discovery is further evidence that we cannot trust them,” Saladino said.

The Town of Oyster Bay filed a federal lawsuit against the Grumman Corporation in September because officials believe the company has long stalled cleaning up the park, Saladino said. It marked the town’s second lawsuit against Grumman.

“Grumman’s haphazard approach has led to clear environmental hazards and still no one knows the true extent of what is buried below the surface,” Saladino said. “This discovery of drums encased in concrete coffins is further proof that the park was Grumman’s graveyard for contamination. They buried their environmental sins of the past in our backyard.”

Saladino called on Gov. Kathy Hochul, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s U.S. Senate and Congress members to join the Town of Oyster Bay in compelling Grumman to remove all contaminated soils from Bethpage Community Park and truck them off Long Island.

“Our residents deserve better and we will not settle for anything less,” Saladino said.

Elevated levels of soil contamination in parts of Bethpage Community Park were first discovered in 2002, and the park was closed to the public. Sections reopened following extensive testing, the town said. The park in 2006 underwent a $20 million remediation project funded by Town of Oyster Bay taxpayers.

“Grumman has not reimbursed taxpayers for these costs to date,” the town previously stated.

The ball field, however, remains closed as soil contamination far below the ground continues to exist, the town stated.

The contamination was caused by a plume of toxic water because of industrial waste dumping from U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman manufacturing facilities, state officials said. The underground plume was nearly four miles long and two miles wide.

The contaminated water led to a New York State Department of Health investigation into several cancer cases in Bethpage, Newsday reported.

Grumman gifted the land that would become Bethpage Community Park to the town in 1962 under the condition it would be used as a park. The 18-acre parcel was previously used by the company as a dumping ground for toxic chemicals containing high concentrations of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Environmental investigations in the 1980s and 90s found the extent of the contamination of the land.

According to the EPA, volatile organic compounds can be emitted as gasses. Exposure can cause damage to the liver, kidneys and the central nervous system, as well as cancer.

Saladino previously said the town has taken several steps to clean the contaminated areas of the park’s ball field so the community can use it again, “despite Grumman’s lack of action.”

The town, with cooperation from the Department of Environmental Conservation, was working with Grumman to remediate two types of contamination under the ball field, but the project was stalling, according to Oyster Bay.

Grumman installed remediation equipment above the contaminated soil but “refuses to expedite the process and wishes to leave behind PCBs deep below the surface,” the town previously stated.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyl, cause cancer in animals, while studies in humans support evidence for potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

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“Studies in animals provide conclusive evidence that PCBs cause cancer,” the EPA’s website reads. “Studies in humans raise further concerns regarding the potential carcinogenicity of PCBs. Taken together, the data strongly suggest that PCBs are probable human carcinogens.”

The DEC oversaw the collection and laboratory analysis of thousands of soil and groundwater samples at the former Grumman Settling Ponds — now the park. A groundwater containment system, soil vapor extraction system, and a first phase of a thermal remedy were constructed to remove thousands of pounds of site-related contamination, according to the DEC.

“DEC and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) are focused on finding and eliminating any possible exposures to the public from the contamination,” the DEC stated.

That work is complete, but the cleanup remains ongoing under different design and construction phases.

The DEC said the former ball field will be restored once the “remedy” has been fully implemented. The area was fenced when the town closed the ball field in 2003 and is inaccessible to the public.

The former ball field area is where the “bulk” of the disposal took place while the property was owned by Grumman, the DEC stated.

The DEC stated it is not uncommon to find buried underground storage tanks, intact drums, drum carcasses, drywells, tank lines, and more when investigating and remediating large and complex former industrial sites.

“This typically occurs when redevelopment or a cleanup is happening, as is the case at the Bethpage Community Park,” the agency wrote.

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