For more than 50 years, a 270-foot landfill has towered over the community of North Bellport on Long Island. For decades, it has been leaking. A contamination plume now stretches 8,000 feet beneath homes, roads, and into Beaver Dam Creek — carrying PFAS forever chemicals and 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent the EPA says poses an unreasonable risk to human health and has been linked to cancer.
State regulators confirmed the landfill is the only conclusively identified source of these contaminants in the area. U.S. Geological Survey scientists first detected the groundwater contamination in 1983. That is over 40 years ago.
The Town of Brookhaven's response? More monitoring. Not cleanup. Not closure. Monitoring.
North Bellport and Brookhaven have been designated disadvantaged communities by New York State — communities already facing heightened vulnerability to environmental hazards. They have been asking for action for decades. They have been met with presentations, extensions, and delay.
The landfill's operating permit expires this July. The town has requested an extension. It should not get one.
We're calling on the Town of Brookhaven and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to deny the permit extension, develop an immediate closure plan, and begin real remediation of the contamination plume that has been spreading beneath this community for generations.