Questions and answers:

Following are a series of questions and answers as the residents and other interested parties were allowed to ask whatever we wanted, and the EPA answered.

It was a positive thing to see them not discriminate, other than giving the town's residents first chance at the podium.

We didn't have this courtesy at Brookhaven LI where they would only take written questions and limited the question period, despite the nearly 70 fishermen who showed up to protest the beach closure there.


Marine Life- how will it be affected?
The EPA advised to limit consumption of flatfish based on already existing advisories. One a month for flounder, and one a week for fluke. Both of these fish eat creatures that live in the mud there. The same goes for crabs, which live in the mud, they said no one should be eating the crabs there. Studies are still being done on the other marine life such as striped bass, which are migratory and eat from the mud everywhere they go, including contaminated areas in the Hudson, Raritan, Delaware and other rivers.

The EPA said that as soon as further studies were completed they would be released.

Will you be targeting fishermen for prosecution if they tresspass?
There wasn't too much of a clear answer on this. The concern of the EPA is for peoples' safety. They're concerned for fishermen as well. As the fences are put up, fishermen who approach from the water will still be able to fish. I don't know how much of an active role local police will play in enforcement if fishermen do approach this way. If they're below the high tide line, it could become a Public Trust Access issue.

However, in this case, I don't know if public safety precludes Public Trust rights.

What I heard at that meeting is they don't want to encourage fishermen to fish that water, even if they are able to. We'll have to see how this plays out.

Is the lead airborne?
There were no concrete answers on this, but the general consensus was that it was not an issue unless partially burned in some of the brush fires they have back there. It was recommended that any firefighters fighting those fires wear respirators.

Is it safe to have a "Saltwater Day" there?
There's a local businessman who holds a Saltwater Day every year, and he was assured it would be safe. It seems the highest concentration of lead is on the sand at the beaches, and lead that has leached out from the slag and lead kettles used to build the jetty walls.

It doesn't seem to be an issue further back where the EPA said no appreciable levels of contamination were found. So they say it's safe to bring your kids there and use the parks as recreation, as long as they don't go near the sand or water.

As they said this, in my mind I was thinking: What parent would be comfortable bringing their children here knowing of the risk? There are other options for recreation for parents to bring their kids to, and it's my feeling they'll avoid this area.


How can you deal with water contamination if the lead is leaching into the water?
The EPA admitted it was very difficult to prevent this, and alluded to future studies that would be made to assess how far out the lead contamination is found to be.


Kash from Fred's Bait and Tackle: "Business people are at risk now. I don't want to criticize the EPA because you people are only doing your job. However, you need to decide on a reasonable plan to deal with this so people will still come down to our area."

The EPA said it recognized the hardships people would face, and would try to communicate clearly its findings and attend as many local meetings as possible to answer residents' questions.


Bill Naused, a local resident since 1969: " The bulkheads were built with slag. Liberty Trucking, one of the contractors for the backfill, used slag and whatever he could find. That's the way they did things back then. When the County took over, why didn't anybody spot this? Everybody who lives here knew about it. How come nothing was done?
The EPA was very interested in talking to Bill further. I had a chance to meet Bill, and he's quite knowledgable about the area and everything that was going on for the last 40 years. He would be a valuable resource to the EPA should they decide to "fast track" this and get things going so it doesn't take 10 years.

I imagine there are many people in that town who have similar knowledge as Bill. If anyone who reads this knows a few, please tell them that now is the time for them to speak up.


What is the proposed timetable for this cleanup?
This is one area where I might not be able to remain unbiased. They said this was just the preliminary stages. There would be more testing, assessments, and meetings. There is not enough $$ in the budget to fix this particular problem, hence putting it on the superfund list. The best estimates they could come up with are that remediation could take 5 to 10 years.

What is the proposed cost of this cleanup?
The EPA kind of hedged its bets on this one, and I don't blame them. Figures were tossed around, some saying it could cost in the 10s of millions to remediate and finally make safe for all to use again. Some of the other audience members, who were connected with engineering firms, disputed that figure, saying it could cost up to $100 million.

I think it's fair to say how much the actual costs are at the end of the road for this project is subject to whoever is doing the estimating.