Busy Bee Contamination Clean-Up Ongoing

Editor's Note: This article was written and submitted by Chris Boyle.
Busy Bee Dry Cleaners has been a staple on Merrick Road for decades.

Owner Robert Bernstein said that he’s been in business for nearly 40 years. However, despite his success, in the mid-1990’s, Bernstein received something of a rude awakening when Nassau County Department of Health workers showed up at his establishment with some bad news. 

“The Department of Health was researching something else in the area,” he said. “While doing their testing, they discovered contamination on my site and informed me.” 

It appeared that leakage of dry cleaning wastes over the years had caused soil, soil vapor, and groundwater contamination at the Busy Bee site, in addition to fears that the contamination may have spread to neighboring areas as well, said Bernstein. 

“A soil vapor extraction system was installed for a while, from 1994 to 1996, to try and take care of it,” he said. “But when that didn’t work, I contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation, who had a program in place to assist people in my situation.” 

Bill Fonda of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) outlined the program that Bernstein had signed up for. 

“He is in what is known as a voluntary clean-up program,” he said. “That was a program that DEC had several years ago to encourage people to clean up sites. He took advantage of that and enrolled in the program, and he’s been going through the process of cleaning up the site.” 

Fonda indicated that the program was discontinued several years ago, but since Bernstein had already signed up for it previously, he is being allowed to continue in it. The DEC doesn’t assume any cost of the clean-up; according to Fonda, they merely oversee the job and determine that it is being done properly, in addition to taking note of public comments and concerns on the issue and reacting accordingly. 

“When you proactively enroll in the clean-up program, you have more say in the process, such as hiring contractors...as long as it’s all done to DEC specifications,” he said. “If they don’t enter into the clean-up program, the property is listed as a Superfund site. The DEC accesses a pot of State clean-up funds, goes out and hires contractors to do the job, and then seeks cost recovery from the property’s owner for the expenses incurred.” 

In the years since he first signed up for the DEC’s program, Bernstein said he has followed their rules and guidelines, including investigating possible contamination of the areas surrounding the Busy Bee Dry Cleaners. 

“The DEC has requested certain things to be tested, and my engineers and I have been doing that and sending them the results,” he said. “We’ve also done some testing with the neighbors, to make sure there’s no impact to the environment or anyone’s health. We found that there is none.” 

Bernstein said that he believes that, after years of work, the current process that he and his engineers are engaging in will be final step in cleaning up the property contamination issues once and for all. 

“We’re going to use an air sparging unit with soil vapor extraction to pump air into the ground,” he said. “It brings the chemicals up from the ground water and they get filtered through a carbon bed. That should finally get this thing cleaned up and safe.” 

Fonda said that the DEC sees incidents such as this one frequently; however, a proactive approach can often avoid a great deal of harm in the long run. 

“What happened at Busy Bee is what happens at essentially all dry cleaner sites, and all hazardous waste sites on Long Island,” he said. “However, we have precautions and remedies that can reduce and eliminate contamination both on-site and off-site.” 

Public project documents of the Busy Bee clean-up operation are available at the North Merrick Public Library, as well as through the DEC’s website by clicking this link. Site-related health questions can be directed to Sharron McLelland of the New York State Department of Health by calling (518) 402- 7880.