By Bryan Schwartzman
Residents will soon hear the results of a state investigation into whether contamination at the Atlantic Bus Company site on 180th Street in Jamaica has affected the surrounding community, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has announced.
The DEC has planned a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, at a St. Albans church to discuss the findings of its investigation, said Rich Gardineer, a regional engineer with the DEC.
The meeting, which is a followup to one held in April, will take place at the St. Benedict the Moor Church meeting room on 110th Avenue just east of Merrick Boulevard, said Gardineer.
At the April meeting, the DEC announced it was planning a massive, $4 million soil cleanup project for the four-acre site at 107-10 180th St., formerly owned by the West Side Company, which was contaminated in large amounts by dry cleaning chemicals.
At that meeting Andrew English, an engineer for the DEC, said West Side operated a factory at the site between 1969 and 1991. Two chemicals, perchloroethyline (commonly called PERC) and trichloroethyline, which act as degreasers, are present in large quantities 35 feet below the ground level and are considered toxins.
The DEC said the contamination was below ground and was not a risk factor for workers of Atlantic Bus Company.
While the state has said large levels of contamination were detected on the site, the results of a study done on the surrounding neighborhood will not be released until the Sept. 19 meeting.
In May, state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) wrote to the state Health Department, requesting that it conduct a comprehensive cancer study in the area. Smith said many of his constituents were concerned that the contamination had gotten into the groundwater and possibly the public water supply.
