Read the full article by Denise Civiletti (Riverhead Local)
“Tests on drinking water from 95 residential wells in Manorville just south of the former Grumman manufacturing plant have detected PFOS, PFOA and a host of other contaminants — with some levels exceeding state and federal drinking water standards.
The contaminants included various volatile organic compounds — several types of solvents, the gasoline additive MTBE, and the chemical commonly known as DEET.
The water tests were conducted by the Suffolk County health department at the behest of residents in the area, who have long been seeking connection to a public water supply, largely due to the neighborhood’s proximity to the former Grumman facility in Calverton, where PFOS/PFOA and other contaminants have been detected in soil and groundwater.
The U.S. Navy owned the property where Grumman manufactured and tested fighter jets and military equipment from the 1950s until 1996.
The Navy transferred most of the 2,900-acre site to the Town of Riverhead in 1998, but retained several tracts for the purpose of conducting environmental cleanup and remediation — a process that has been ongoing for nearly three decades since Grumman moved out in 1996.
‘There is no mistaking that contamination exists in our wells,’ said area resident Kelly McClinchy, who has been an outspoken advocate for obtaining public water. ‘While we knew this all along, we now have definitive proof,’ she said…”