Chants of “shame” broke out at a Brookhaven, New York, town board meeting when officials unveiled their preferred approach to an underground contamination plume associated with a landfill.<\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
Citizens Campaign for the Environment<\/a> reported that town officials and representatives of the state Department of Environmental Conservation used the March 27 meeting to present five possible ways to address contamination linked to the 534-acre Brookhaven landfill.<\/p>\n Officials said much of the problem appears to stem from the landfill’s oldest sections, cells one through three, which were built before current liner standards.<\/p>\n A 2024 investigation identified a southeast-moving “historic plume” beneath the ground that contains PFAS, chemicals widely known as “forever chemicals.”<\/p>\n Instead of recommending an immediate shutdown or excavating all the buried waste, officials backed what they called the most practical course: continue monitoring conditions, connect more properties to municipal water, let the landfill continue operating until it reaches capacity around 2028, and cap it the following year.<\/p>\n Town officials maintained that closing the site immediately would not eliminate contamination already underground.<\/p>\n Residents who attended the meeting largely said that the response does not go nearly far enough.<\/p>\n Some people in attendance shouted, “Thanks for nothing,” criticizing the plan for failing to include a direct cleanup of the contamination itself.<\/p>\n Why does it matter?<\/p>\n PFAS can remain in the environment for extremely long periods of time, which is why they are often called forever chemicals.<\/p>\n In Brookhaven, town leaders emphasized that many affected homes have already been connected to public water.<\/p>\n The landfill remains a major part of Long Island’s trash infrastructure and generates millions in revenue. Nearby residents are living with the plume and pushing for stronger action.<\/p>\n What’s being done?<\/p>\n For now, the town is advancing a plan focused on broader access to municipal water, continued groundwater monitoring, and the landfill’s eventual closure and capping.<\/p>\n Officials said newer sections of the landfill use double-liner systems designed to prevent leakage, and they stressed that public drinking water is currently protected.<\/p>\n Residents and environmental advocates, however, are calling for more aggressive action.<\/p>\n Adrienne Esposito of Citizens Campaign for the Environment criticized the town for failing to offer a cleanup option.<\/p>\n The March 27 meeting was described as a listening forum. Speakers were limited to three minutes, and written comments were accepted through April 7. That feedback was set to be included in a final report to the DEC due May 1.<\/p>\n TBR News Media also reported that Brookhaven is in a legal fight with the DEC over whether the agency can require cleanup of contamination, such as the landfill plume. That dispute could help determine what happens next.<\/p>\n “It’s not an immediate closure, but it’s a closure,” said Christine Fetten.<\/p>\n Esposito offered a sharply different response, per TBR: “It was shocking and irresponsible that the town offered no option to clean up the plume.”<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chants of “shame” broke out at a Brookhaven, New York, town board meeting when officials unveiled their preferred…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[87241,100806,100807,10297,9,11,10,81420,100808,100805,100809],"class_list":["post-258939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-brookhaven","tag-citizens-campaign-for-the-environment","tag-contamination","tag-department-of-environmental-conservation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pfas","tag-plume","tag-town-board-meeting","tag-town-officials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}