Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage

Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage (NWIRP) -- also known as 'Northrop Grumman Site Facility' -- was a United States government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facility established in 1941,[1] with the mission to design, fabricate, and test prototype aircraft for the US Navy and the NASA in the town of Oyster Bay in Bethpage, New York.[2] Two groundwater plumes of toxic chemicals, mostly volatile organic compounds migrating from the property were discovered in 1986 and in 2009, affecting the water district well fields. The site is subject to state Superfund cleanup plans. Special water treatment plants were established in the early 2000s.

Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage
Part of United States Navy
Bethpage, New York
Coordinates40°44′44.88″N 73°29′30.12″W
TypeAircraft Plant
Site information
Controlled byNavy
Open to
the public		No

History

The former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant is situated on 605 acres in the Town of Oyster Bay, Bethpage, NY.[3] In 1936 the Grumman Corporation was founded and produced aircraft at the site, before the Navy established the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage there in 1941.[3]

The site was a 'storage facility' and since 1976 permitted under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to both the Navy and Northrop Grumman as responsible parties.[3] In 1986, the first of 2 known plumes of contamination was discovered, a shallow one; in 2009 a larger, deeper plume was found under what became the Bethpage Community Park. Grumman installed and operates an Onsite Containment System. Manufacturing stopped in 1996.[2] There are public and private water wells located within a two-mile radius of the plant, as of 2014 and local water districts worry that public-supply wells could be affected.[4] 2014 results from a monitoring well the Navy installed north of Hempstead Turnpike show Trichloroethylene levels as high as 4,600 parts per billion in groundwater hundreds of feet below the surface.[4]=

Groundwater Flow Simulation

In 2010 the groundwater flow system was simulated by Paul Misut of the USGS to provide a scientific basis for designing systems to remediate the groundwater plumes that originated from the facility.[5] A new study published in 2020 provides updated information.[6]

See also

References
  1. US EPA, OLEM (2017-08-18). "Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant and Northrop Grumman Corporation Site (NWIRP) in Bethpage, New York". US EPA. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  2. Division of Environmental Remediation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Mar 2013). "Record of Decision, Northrop Grumman - Bethpage Facility, Operable Unit Number: 03, State Superfund Project Bethpage, Nassau County, Site No. 130003A Northrop Grumman" (PDF). www.dec.gov. Retrieved 28 Apr 2014.
  3. "Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant and Northrop Grumman Corporation Site". NY RCRA Cleanup Fact Sheet. EPA. 12 February 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  4. JENNIFER BARRIOS (6 November 2014). "High levels of toxic waste found near Bethpage well". Newsday. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  5. Paul Misut. "USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2014–5036: Simulation of Zones of Groundwater Contribution to Wells at Site GM–38, Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bethpage, New York". pubs.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  6. Misut, Paul E. (2020). "Analysis of Remedial Scenarios Affecting Plume Movement Through a Sole-Source Aquifer System, Southeastern Nassau County, New York" (PDF). Scientific Investigations Report 2020–5090. USGS. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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