DEC plans site cleanup

Underground contaminants left by previous tenants at a Rockville Centre commercial building still need to be cleaned up, though they pose no threat to the site’s current businesses, officials said.

A fact sheet released by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation last week announced that the department would investigate the parking lot behind the building at 486 Sunrise Highway, which houses the Flour Shoppe Café & Bakery and Sceptre Tours, an online travel agency, and had initiated a comment period on a draft investigation work plan that will run through Nov. 5.

The work plan was recently submitted to the DEC under New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. To be considered a brownfield site, a property must have levels of a contaminant that exceed environmental guidelines adopted by the DEC.

The building is owned by the Accomando family of BCA & Associates. Chris Accomando said he purchased it in 2011, and was not told about the environmental testing that needed to be done until after he closed on the property. The problem, he added, is underneath the parking lot, and he has volunteered to take part in the DEC cleanup program.

“The good news is the site can be fixed, and it doesn’t affect our businesses,” Accomando said. “We are currently working with the DEC, and will continue to do so. God willing, it will come to an end, and we won’t have to deal with this anymore.”

The DEC fact sheet stated that previous tenants “may have contributed to site contamination.” They included a dry-cleaner, which was demolished in 1971, and machine, cabinet and photo shops.

The DEC’s analysis at the site indicated the presence of tetrachloroethene, or PCE, which is commonly used for dry cleaning, and trichloroethene, or TCE, an industrial solvent that extracts vegetable oil from plant material. The chemicals were discovered in onsite soil vapor and groundwater tests. The fact sheet went on to say that detections above applicable standards were limited to the soil vapor. Soil concentrations of PCE and TCE, where detected, were below acceptable limits.

During the public comment period, residents can view the DEC’s project documents at the Rockville Centre Public Library and provide written statements or direct questions to project manager Jahan Reza at the Division of Environmental Remediation.

The DEC will evaluate any comments, revise its report if necessary and approve a work plan. If there are no comments, the department will approve the current draft investigation work plan.

According to the DEC, the plan calls for field work to be conducted in back of the building. Investigators will be sampling for soil, groundwater and soil vapor contamination. After the investigation, a cleanup plan will be developed and a remediation plan proposed.

Possible cleanup measures include a sub-slab depressurization system to address soil vapor beneath the building, and a soil base extraction system, in which a vacuum is used to pump contaminated air out and clean air in.

The bakery has been in business for more than 10 years. Owner Samantha Caltagirone, who purchased it a year and a half ago, said that Accomando was open with her about the contamination from the start.

“The owner of the building has been completely open and honest with us the entire time,” she said. “They advised us that they were made aware of the environmental issues that relate to businesses that operated at the site 30 years ago, well before the owner purchased the site.”

Despite the damage done by the previous tenants, Caltagirone said, she was assured that the bakery is not contaminated. BCA & Associates “have done an abundance of testing in coordination with the DEC and will be doing more, and we have been assured that there is no impact to the inside of the building,” she wrote in an email. “They are working with the DEC to fix the issue, and that is good enough for us. We are not concerned, and it has no impact on our business and the freshness [or] quality of [the] food.”