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U.S./Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency Agreement Spurs Redevelopment of EPA Superfund Site on Long Island's North Shore

Release Date: 04/22/1999
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(#99065) NEW YORK, N.Y.-- The federal government has signed an agreement that fosters redevelopment of a contaminated property and boosts Glen Cove's ongoing waterfront revitalization efforts. It provides the Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency (IDA), when it becomes the new owner of the Li Tungsten Superfund site, with protections against future liability for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Superfund costs to clean up hazardous waste at the site. The agreement resolves a potential roadblock in the IDA's plan to purchase the property for redevelopment. To date, EPA has spent $6.4 million on fast-track actions to address hazards at the site, including the removal of chemical/radiological drums and tanks, and the demolition of contaminated buildings. The agency also spent $3.2 million on site investigations and plans to clean up the contamination.

The two parcels of land that include the Li Tungsten federal Superfund site total nearly 50 acres in an old industrial section of the city that overlooks Hempstead Harbor. As a National Brownfields Showcase Community, Glen Cove is a national model for other communities with hazardous waste sites in their midst that are participating in EPA's brownfields program, which has a goal of transforming land tainted by pollution from community liabilities into valuable public assets.

The agreement was announced today by EPA Deputy Administrator Peter Robertson when he joined Glen Cove Mayor Tom Suozzi during the city's second National Brownfields Showcase Community Conference to view the demolition of abandoned buildings on the federal Superfund site, which will make way for its planned commercial redevelopment. "Glen Cove is reaching out to a promising future, and this creative agreement with the Federal Government is an important part of grasping it. Really, the whole country benefits - Glen Cove gets a thriving waterfront, EPA will recover up to $2 million or more of taxpayer money already spent on cleanup at the site, and communities across the country will benefit from another example of how the Federal Government can help them battle the blight that holds them back and embrace the bright visions that propel them forward," Mr. Robertson said.

"This settlement will help to redevelop waterfront property and revitalize a community," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for Environmental and Natural Resources at the Justice Department, which represented EPA in this matter. "This settlement is good for our environment and good for Glen Cove."

Zachary W. Carter, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office participated in the negotiation of this agreement, stated that "the prospective purchaser agreement entered with the IDA provides a local redevelopment agency with the opportunity to develop the site and, thereby, provide innumerable benefits to the community. At the same time, the U.S. Attorney's Office intends to vigorously pursue those parties responsible for contaminating the site to recover the costs of cleanup incurred by the federal government."

Under the terms of what is called a "Prospective Purchaser Agreement" with the IDA, the federal government has agreed not to sue the local development agency for past and future cleanup costs at the 26-acre former Li Tungsten Corporation Superfund site at Herbhill Road and Dickson Lane, and portions of the 23-acre former Captain's Cove Condominium Development site, a half-mile west on Garvies Point Road. The agreement not to sue that the IDA will receive is also transferable to future purchasers, under certain circumstances. In addition, the agreement provides the IDA with protection against lawsuits involving potential cleanup costs at the site that may be incurred by private parties. In return, the IDA has agreed to pay the federal government $100,000, plus a percentage of its proceeds from the eventual sale or lease of the two parcels.

Federal Cleanup Actions

From July 1989 to July 1990, EPA ordered and supervised the removal of drums and vats containing hazardous materials at the Li Tungsten facility by a contractor for the Glen Cove Development Corporation (GCDC), a private party that currently owns the former Li Tungsten facility property. The most serious chemical/radiological hazards at the facility were identified and removed to an off-site location for treatment and/or disposal. These materials included various radioactive substances, laboratory chemicals, chemically-contaminated wastes, and elemental mercury. An inventory of remaining materials also was conducted, including the contents of the approximately 270 tanks at the facility.

EPA also addressed the hazards associated with the tanks. This action involved the disposal of large volumes of waste liquid and sludge, as well as the removal and disposal of asbestos and other hazardous chemicals found in some of the buildings, and the demolition of the Dice Complex and the East Building.

EPA will be releasing a proposed cleanup plan later this Spring to address contaminated groundwater and soils at both the Li Tungsten facility and portions of the Captain's Cove property, which are part of the Superfund site. The Agency expects to select a final cleanup plan this Summer after it reviews any public comments on its proposal.

Site Background

The Li Tungsten site includes an inactive tungsten processing facility on 26 acres of land, as well as portions of a nearby area known as the Captain's Cove property where the tungsten facility operators disposed of waste slag.

The processing facility was operated from the 1940's to approximately 1985 by a succession of corporate entities. The Li Tungsten Corporation began leasing the facility in 1970. The facility was acquired in 1984 by the GCDC from the Wah Chang Smelting and Refining Corporation in 1984 and continued to be leased to the Li Tungsten Corporation until 1985. The market for tungsten was apparently depressed by the 1980's and operations at the facility had slowed by this time. The Li Tungsten Corporation declared bankruptcy in 1985.

Since approximately 1960, the Captain's Cove property has been a dump site for the disposal of incinerator ash, sewage sludge, rubbish, household debris, Glen Cove Creek sediments and industrial wastes. The Captain's Cove property was purchased by Village Green Realty at Garvies Point in 1983 for the purpose of developing condominiums at the site. Redevelopment efforts were abandoned in the mid-1980's when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) designated the property as a state Superfund site. However, since NYSDEC has no jurisdiction over the cleanup or handling of radioactive materials, the state requested that EPA address the radioactive contamination at the Captain's Cove property, while the NYSDEC addressed the non-radioactive contamination under its program. Later, EPA decided to include those portions of the Captain's Cove property that contain radioactive wastes as part of the Li Tungsten site after sampling showed that the wastes were virtually identical to those at the former processing facility.

For more information contact:
Mary Helen Cervantes-Gross, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3673 FAX: 212-637-4445 E-Mail: cervantes.mary@epamail.epa.gov