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Superfund Program Implements the Recovery Act

Old Roosevelt Field Contaminated Groundwater Area

Village of Garden City, New York

Site Description
Roosevelt Field and its predecessors were used for aviation activities from 1911 until 1951. The U.S. military began using the Hempstead Plains Field before World War I, and in 1918, the Army changed the name of the airfield to Roosevelt Field.  After World War II, the site became a commercial airfield until it closed in the early 1950s and was redeveloped into a large regional mall and office park. Chlorinated solvents, including trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), were disposed at unknown locations on the ground.  As a result of these practices, TCE and PCE are the site’s major contaminants, affecting ground water.  The site is located primarily in a residential setting.

Cleanup Activities to Date
Since adding the site to the National Priorities List in 2000, EPA has investigated the extent of ground water contamination near and around two municipal water supply well fields.  EPA also has completed the design of a ground water extraction and treatment system to control the downgradient migration of groundwater contamination toward the Garden City well field. 

Recovery Act Project Activity
EPA will use the estimated $5-10 million in Recovery Act funds allocated to this site to accelerate the cleanup of the contaminated ground water and to protect two municipal well fields that extract water from the site’s sole-source aquifer.  EPA anticipates that accelerating the cleanup of the ground water will eliminate the need for treatment of the public water supply in the future.  Given the risks associated with chlorinated solvent contamination in groundwater, shortening the cleanup time frame will be protective of the more than 8,000 people who get their drinking water from the public water supply.

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