Neighbors packed a tense town listening session on Friday as Brookhaven officials rolled out their roadmap for dealing with an underground contamination plume tied to the Town of Brookhaven landfill. Residents said the town’s plan is all about preventing future leaks while doing far too little to deal with the chemicals already creeping under their homes and local waterways. The crowd pushed hard for quicker action and an earlier shutdown of the landfill.
Town Floats Five Fixes, Backs Monitoring and 2029 Closure
At the meeting, the Brookhaven Town Board walked through five options: immediately closing the landfill, digging out and reclaiming garbage, pumping and treating groundwater, beefing up long‑term monitoring, and expanding municipal water hookups to affected homes. Several board members warned that immediate closure or large‑scale removal would be expensive and drag on for years, and the town ultimately threw its weight behind expanded monitoring with an eventual closure date of 2029. Coverage of the session reported that many neighbors left aggravated that none of the options promised a fast cleanup, as noted by News 12 Bronx.
State Tests Flag PFAS and 1,4‑Dioxane in Plume
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says monitoring wells installed downgradient of the landfill picked up elevated levels of PFAS chemicals, including PFOA and PFOS, along with 1,4‑dioxane. That triggered a required Corrective Measures Assessment for the site. According to NYSDEC, the town has already submitted a plume investigation and is on the hook to finish its corrective measures assessment by mid‑April and deliver a full corrective measures report for state review in early May.
Neighbors Say More Testing Is Not a Cleanup Plan
Local advocates were blunt about their view that monitoring is not a solution. “The plumes have to be cleaned up and the landfill closed because it’s poisoning us all,” South Setauket resident Laura Lesch told officials. Organizer Monique Fitzgerald called the plume “historic,” arguing that it exists at this scale only because, in her view, officials have failed to act. Adrienne Esposito of Citizens Campaign for the Environment pressed for containment before contamination can move into Beaver Creek and Bellport Bay. Those remarks and others at the meeting were carried by News 12 Bronx.
Years of Scrutiny Over Ash, Rules and State Oversight
The fight over the landfill is layered on top of long‑running controversy. A whistleblower lawsuit and a follow‑up investigation scrutinized whether incinerator ash accepted at the site actually met state disposal rules. In 2024, the town agreed to a settlement tied to those allegations, a history outlined by TBR News Media and other regional reporting. State records show that DEC staff have been reviewing the town’s plume characterization work filed in 2024 and 2025 as part of its permit and corrective‑action requirements, while WSHU has followed the agency’s directives that Brookhaven both characterize and ultimately remediate contaminated drinking water sources.
What Comes Next: Meetings, Comments and Key Deadlines
The state required a public meeting to lay out potential corrective measures, and the town’s Friday session was held to meet that requirement, with display materials available beforehand. NYSDEC lists the Corrective Measures Assessment schedule and provides contacts for questions from residents. Local coverage reported that public comments tied to the session will be accepted through April 7, and News 12 Bronx detailed how neighbors used the listening session to register their objections.
Grassroots Groups Demand Firm Cleanup Timeline
Community groups that have spent years pressing for landfill closure and full remediation say more monitoring is only acceptable if it comes with a binding cleanup schedule and committed funding. The Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group (BLARG) and allied organizations have repeatedly urged elected officials to adopt faster, stronger remedies and to keep residents at the center of decision‑making. For more background on that organizing work, see the materials from Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group and the documentation compiled by Citizens Campaign for the Environment, which outline long‑standing community concerns and past actions around the site.
