Covanta Hempstead

In the early and mid-20th century, the land was the northeasternmost portion of Mitchel Air Force Base. It was cut off from the rest of the base by construction of the Meadowbrook State Parkway in the 1950s.[8]

Beginning in 1967, the land was occupied by Topic House, a county-run drug rehabilitation center.[9] Topic House was relocated to Plainview, New York, in 1978,[10] and closed in 2003.[11]

The Hempstead Resource Recovery Plant in or before 1982

The first waste-to-energy plant on the site was the Hempstead Resource Recovery Plant. Al D'Amato, then Hempstead Town Supervisor and later U.S. Senator, was the driving force in getting it built. He was impressed by a demonstration project in Franklin, Ohio, by paper mill company Parsons & Whittemore.[12] The design used a unique wet refuse-derived fuel process that mixed garbage with water and sent it through a hydropulper and a centrifuge to produce a paper-like fuel, with heavier components such as metals and glass being separated and recovered.[13][14] It was the first operating plant built to use this process, and the first full-size plant built by the firm.[13]

Construction was completed in August 1978, and the plant began operation in early 1979.[14][15] It had two smokestacks that were 196 feet (60 m) high.[12] However, the technology was untested, and the plant suffered from mechanical failures and emitted an unpleasant odor that was unbearable even two miles away, and reportedly caused shoppers at a nearby mall to vomit.[12][16] In June 1979, employees went on strike due to the odor and other issues relating to poor working conditions.[14] Another strike occurred that August.[16]

Parsons & Whittemore suspended the plant's operations in March 1980 as part of a dispute with the Town of Hempstead over the installation of odor-reducing equipment and the payment of fees.[13][17] The following month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that traces of dioxins had been found in its emissions, for which it had not yet set permissible levels, preventing the plant from reopening.[12][18] By 1982, EPA issued a memorandum on dioxin emissions, and discussions were underway to reopen the plant.[15] However, Parsons & Whittemore defaulted on its bonds in 1983, and the decision was made to sell the plant to another operator and modify it from a wet to a dry process.[19] Ultimately, the plant was demolished in 1987.[12][18]

Side view of the plant in 2021

Construction of the new plant was motivated by a 1990 deadline by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to close town landfills due to their threat to groundwater, the source of Long Island's drinking water.[18] American Ref-Fuel won the contract to convert the plant to use a traditional dry process.[19] The plant began operation in September 1989.[20] American Ref-Fuel also opened a plant in Babylon in 1989, and in Huntington in 1991. In 2005, American Ref-Fuel was sold to Covanta.[4]

The plant smokestack's status as the tallest structure in Nassau County was called "ridiculous" in 2006 by then-Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, an advocate for increased development in the vicinity such as The Lighthouse Project.[5]

In 2013, a whistleblower case was filed by a former employee who stated that Covanta had failed to properly store and treat ash before disposal since 2006, in violation of federal and state environmental laws and potentially exposing the surrounding community to hazardous substances. Covanta denied the allegations, and LIPA, the Village of Garden City and the Town of Hempstead all declined involvement in the lawsuit, with Garden City stating that the whistleblower suit is without merit, and preferring to settle with Covanta.[6][7]

Additionally, workers at nearby New York TRACON had complained about ash from the plant damaging their cars; this and other concerns led the Federal Aviation Administration to engage the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about potential impacts to worker health.[6]