BROOKHAVEN, N.Y.—The crowd grew restless at Brookhaven Town Hall on Long Island as residents voiced their concerns about groundwater contamination from a nearby landfill that has spread beneath parts of their community.
At the meeting in late March, speakers criticizing the landfill’s operations were met with applause and shouts of support from the audience.
Monique Fitzgerald and the organization she co-founded, the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, have urged the town to close the landfill. Fitzgerald, a lifelong resident of North Bellport, a hamlet within Brookhaven, and other residents have been concerned about the contamination for decades.
“I am disappointed,” Fitzgerald told town officials. “You just wasted our time with this presentation.”
The contamination plume extends roughly 8,000 feet southeast from the landfill, according to the Town of Brookhaven, which owns the structure. Though it has not reached any drinking water sources, it has spread to the groundwater beneath homes and roadways, and a portion of it discharges into the Beaver Dam Creek, according to a report the town submitted to state regulators.
