Long Island Residents Were Never Told about the Huge Toxic Plume Under Their Homes

June 29, 2007 - Dozens of residents and officials expressed shock and outrage Thursday night at the magnitude of a KeySpan-owned toxic utility gas-plant site in Hempstead and what they saw as the failure of the state to alert them to the dangers and clean it up.

At a sometimes raucous meeting at Adelphi University, residents from the villages of Hempstead and Garden City lambasted state officials for failing to expedite the cleanup of a site that has spawned a 4,000-foot-long plume through a residential area and created potential exposure pathways to homes, apartments, parks and office buildings. Despite residents' skepticism, officials said they were aware of no direct exposure to the toxins that presented a human health threat.

Dawn Anderson, a real estate agent whose home sits dead center on the plume, said the first she'd even heard about the site was on a TV broadcast Thursday, despite living in her home for 36 years. "Finding this out today was very distressing," she said, noting that she had survived breast cancer and is raising a 16-year-old son in the home.

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