Posillico addresses water on property

With the rain the area has been receiving the last few weeks, mosquito breeding has become a larger concern. Mosquitoes breed in standing water, and any sized puddle will do.

Residents in Island Park — and specifically Harbor Isle — have been concerned because of standing water they say was accumulating on the property owned by Posillico Inc., which plans to turn the property into condos.

Michael Posillico, the company’s executive vice president of strategic business development, and the public face of the company in Island Park, was surprised to hear about the water.

“I have someone who does monthly inspections out there and they submit a report,” Posillico said. “And I forwarded your comment [about the standing water] to him and he said, ‘I’m really surprised.’”

Posillico said that his site manager personally goes to the property once a month to conduct inspections. Posillico also said he would send the manager out again to look for standing water and, if there is any, to pump it out. “The area is sandy and it generally drains pretty well,” he said.

Because of the damaged bulkhead by the property, Posillico said, water ebbs and flows onto the property with the tide, flooding some areas and then receding.

The property, which covers 12 acres along the southern end of Harbor Isle, was the former site of a fuel terminal and is contaminated from its decades of operation. For years now, residents have been waiting for construction to begin. However, that won’t happen for a few years.

Posillico said that the company just received approval from the state Department of Environmental Conservation for its final investigation report regarding the site’s contamination. Now the company is working on its Remedial Action Work Plan — it’s plan to remediate the property and remove all of the contaminated materials.

“So we’re hoping to get the cleanup started by summer of next year, possibly earlier,” Posillico said. “We’re really not permitted to do things that would be construed to be remediation without an approved plan. But if there was an issue with some water, I can just put a pump there and pump it out.”