FARMINGDALE, NY — Farmingdale Village received a $1 million grant for the treatment of 1,4-dioxane levels in its water supply from Nassau County Legislator John Ferretti, the village announced.
The money is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and is meant to help improve communities in public health, negative economic impacts, water, sewer, broadband infrastructure, natural disaster relief and other emergency situations.
“This check will specifically help the village in the $18 million upgrade to the water treatment system and removal of 1,4-dioxane and other contaminants,” the village wrote.
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The 1,4-dioxane in Farmingdale Village water is below the limit of 1 part per million, Mayor Ralph Ekstrand said. However, the Claremont Polychemical plume from Old Bethpage is continuing to move closer to the village and is expected to reach its water supply within a year, Ekstrand said.
“We’re building our $20 million filtration plants knowing what our levels are and monitoring the wells in Bethpage State Park knowing [the plume] will get here within the next year,” Ekstrand told Patch.
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The Claremont Polychemical site is where pigments for plastics and inks were produced, with the facility operating from 1966 to 1980, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Facility operations contaminated soil, groundwater and a building with volatile organic compounds, according to the EPA. The site’s long-term cleanup is ongoing.
Farmingdale Village plans on installing an advanced oxidation process (AOP) treatment system, as well as a granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment system. There will also be associated site improvements to accommodate these new systems.
“This will improve not just the public health of those in the Farmingdale Water District, but also help improve the water infrastructure and make the system more efficient,” Ferretti said.
One of the three wells is already installed, Ekstrand said. The village is waiting for the Nassau County Department of Health to green light it. The other two, the mayor said, will be ready in spring 2025.
“Farmingdale water has never been contaminated and still is not contaminated, but we know that it will be, just like every well on Long Island will be contaminated and have to be filtered,” Ekstrand said.
Farmingdale Village has never had to filter its water, the mayor said.
“Unfortunately, in the next one to two years, we will be contaminated if the plume moves as fast as the monitoring wells the state put in are showing, and we will eventually have to filter. It takes a year and a half to two years to build and start up a filtration plant. So I can’t just say, ‘OK, we’re not going to do anything until we get contaminated.’ That would be irresponsible.”
Farmingdale Village, while in the line of the Claremont Polychemical plume, cannot be hit by the Grumman plume, Ekstrand said, noting that plumes flow in a five o’clock fashion and the village is at three o’clock from the old Grumman site.
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