2026

They’re Everywhere So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are hazardous, potent and ubiquitous

They’re Everywhere So-called ‘forever chemicals’ are hazardous, potent and ubiquitous

This is a tale about unintended consequences in science, governmental malfunction affecting Suffolk County, and a mammoth spread, globally, of poison.

It began in 1938. As the website Health Brief related last week: “A chemist at the DuPont company accidentally discovered an exciting new polymer. It repelled water, it was chemically stable and nonreactive, and nothing stuck to it. The material — brand name: Teflon — has been used in countless consumer products since then to reduce friction between surfaces. Among its best-known applications is in nonstick cookware. … In the past few decades, however, the chemicals that go into nonstick surfaces have been linked to certain health issues and environmental pollution.”

Adaptation was supposed to be safe under Zeldin. It didn’t turn out that way.

Adaptation was supposed to be safe under Zeldin. It didn’t turn out that way.

Lee Zeldin introduced himself to EPA staff last year as someone who had experienced first-hand the risks some U.S. communities face from climate change.

In his first speech to agency staff in February 2025, the newly confirmed administrator said his home town on Long Island “got crushed” during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Navy is wrong to let Calverton become Bethpage

The Navy is wrong to let Calverton become Bethpage

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine fired a shot across the U.S. Navy's bow last week.

At a community meeting in Calverton, Romaine threatened to sue because two toxic plumes at the former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant are spreading forever chemicals, or PFAS, and endangering the region's water. The Navy has delayed cleanup, Romaine said.

Brookhaven plume cleanup plan calls for more water hookups, monitoring: A look at the options

Brookhaven plume cleanup plan calls for more water hookups, monitoring: A look at the options

Brookhaven's plan to clean up a 4-mile-long toxic plume that runs through residential neighborhoods south of the landfill calls for hooking up more homes to public water systems and expanding a drinking water monitoring program — but closing the landfill still would have to wait two more years.

Romaine warns Navy: Suffolk ‘has options’ and will not wait forever on Calverton cleanup

Romaine warns Navy: Suffolk ‘has options’ and will not wait forever on Calverton cleanup

Suffolk County officials are pointing to the Navy’s cleanup of the Bethpage plume as a precedent — and warning they expect the same urgency in Calverton, where county testing shows contamination from the former Navy-owned Grumman manufacturing site continues to move through groundwater, surface water and fish habitat while federal cleanup efforts remain largely in the study phase.

Suffolk County Pushes Navy to Clean Up EPCAL Plumes

Suffolk County Pushes Navy to Clean Up EPCAL Plumes

Suffolk County says it has compiled mountains of ammunition in its fight to get the U.S. Navy to clean up plumes of numerous hazardous compounds emanating from the Enterprise Park at Calverton, including data showing fish highly contaminated with the perfluorinated compound PFOS the county says the Navy withheld for a year, and high levels of other perfluorinated compounds in the headwaters of the Peconic River.

After the U.S. Navy refused to allow the Suffolk County Health Department to present the results of its testing of wells surrounding plumes of contaminated groundwater from the former Navy-owned Grumman plant in Calverton at the February meeting of the Calverton Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), county representatives and members of the RAB took matters into their own hands Tuesday evening.

Can the E.P.A. Survive Lee Zeldin?

Can the E.P.A. Survive Lee Zeldin?

Last summer, more than a hundred and fifty staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the agency’s head, Lee Zeldin, outlining their concerns about his leadership. Topping the list was Zeldin’s naked partisanship. The administrator often used his official communications to trash Democrats. This “politicized messaging,” the letter said, was undermining trust in the agency. So, too, were Zeldin’s gutting of the E.P.A.’s research division and his tendency to ignore the findings of its scientists. The missive noted that it reflected the staffers’ personal, rather than professional, opinions, and had been written on their own time. It ended by urging Zeldin to “correct course.”

Calverton plume at ex-Grumman site is more extensive than Navy acknowledges, Suffolk testing shows

Calverton plume at ex-Grumman site is more extensive than Navy acknowledges, Suffolk testing shows

Years of independent ground and surface water testing by Suffolk County shows that a far more extensive plume of industrial chemicals is spreading beyond the former Grumman site in Calverton than the U.S. Navy has acknowledged. 

EPA cannot backtrack on PFAS drinking water standards

EPA cannot backtrack on PFAS drinking water standards

This guest essay reflects the views of Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, an advocacy organization based on Long Island.

I've spent decades fighting water contamination on Long Island. I've sat with families who found PFAS in their well water and helped communities and water districts scramble to obtain funding for expensive treatment systems. I've testified for congressional hearings to increase the understanding that PFAS, commonly called "forever chemicals," aren't a hypothetical threat — they are a daily, sickening reality for millions of Americans.

SEQRA reform splits New York lawmakers, snagging budget talks

SEQRA reform splits New York lawmakers, snagging budget talks

Efforts to revamp New York State environmental laws to lower barriers to building housing more quickly threw the state’s annual budget process into limbo.

Negotiations blew past an April 1 budget deliberation deadline, with a proposed overhaul of the State Environmental Quality Review Act emerging as a point of impasse.

Point Lookout wind turbine exceeds energy expectations

Point Lookout wind turbine exceeds energy expectations

In Dec. 2011, a wind turbine standing more than 120-feet tall was installed at the Point Lookout Department of Conservation and Waterways building. The turbine was one of the town’s first steps in a clean energy initiative, which would also include the installation of solar panel arrays at town facilities, a transition to roughly 50,000 LED streetlights and more.

Flesh-eating bacteria concerns in Long Island waters are growing. Here's why.

Flesh-eating bacteria concerns in Long Island waters are growing. Here's why.

Scientists say New York's coastal waters are experiencing some of the most severe threats on record, and not just environmental.

There are now concerns about flesh-eating bacteria.

'Toxic tides' of flesh-eating bacteria, cesspool runoff threaten Long Island's waters: Stony Brook report

'Toxic tides' of flesh-eating bacteria, cesspool runoff threaten Long Island's waters: Stony Brook report

Long Island waters are threatened by runoff from hundreds of thousands of cesspools, harmful algae and even flesh-eating bacteria, but opportunities for cleanup are "unprecedented," a prominent ecologist will tell residents, advocates and elected officials in an address Friday.

Stony Brook University Professor Christopher Gobler, whose laboratory monitors water quality across the region, will host the annual State of the Bays symposium at the Stony Brook Southampton Avram Theater on Friday at 7 p.m. He gave a preview at a news conference Tuesday in Riverhead.

As climate deniers score, Earth Day’s down – but not out

As climate deniers score, Earth Day’s down – but not out

Unnatural selection: As scientific ignorance infects the nation, it's not easy being green -- even on Earth Day.

Earth Day is not what it used to be, in amazing and terrible ways.

LIPA, labor and environmental groups highlight strong first year for South Fork wind

LIPA, labor and environmental groups highlight strong first year for South Fork wind

Officials say that reliability proved especially important during this winter’s cold snaps, when energy demand surged and fossil‑fuel prices spiked.

The South Fork Wind project is marking its first full year of operation, and new data released this week shows the nation’s first utility‑scale offshore wind farm is performing even better than expected. Leaders from LIPA, labor unions, environmental groups and the offshore wind industry gathered on Long Island to highlight the results, which show the 12‑turbine project generated electricity on 99% of days last year and reached a 50% capacity factor—a level comparable to traditional power plants during key demand periods.

Brookhaven officials defend long-term plan for landfill as residents demand immediate action

Brookhaven officials defend long-term plan for landfill as residents demand immediate action

A crowd of people shouted “shame” at presenters during a recent Town of Brookhaven board meeting as tensions rose over the Town’s plans to address a growing underground contamination plume linked to the Brookhaven landfill.

Discussing climate initiatives for Earth Day

Discussing climate initiatives for Earth Day

On this week's In Focus, Citizens Campaign for the Environment Executive Director Adrienne Esposito discusses concerns related to PFAS and Pittsford Town Supervisor Bill Smith talks about the Greenprint plan and comments on the impact of federal funding cuts on climate change initiatives.

Brookhaven Presents Cleanup Plan for Landfill Plume, but Some Say Measures are Inadequate

Brookhaven Presents Cleanup Plan for Landfill Plume, but Some Say Measures are Inadequate

The Town of Brookhaven held a public meeting on March 27 to present its corrective measures plan for a toxic plume emanating from the town landfill in Yaphank, but community advocates say the proposal falls far short of what’s needed. 

In 2023, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ordered the town to investigate and plan to remediate the plume, which now extends 1.7 miles from the portions of the landfill constructed between 1971 and 1989 south toward Bellport Bay. Groundwater testing detected PFAS (so-called “forever chemicals”) and 1,4-dioxane in the plume. Both contaminants have been linked to a range of health issues, including cancer.

Toxic forever chemicals raise concerns about garden, farm products on Long Island

Toxic forever chemicals raise concerns about garden, farm products on Long Island

It was the first week of spring and Deborah Harris, of Riverhead, was visiting her local garden center, where she picked up two bags of fertilizer that she was told worked like a charm to keep deer off her hosta plants.

But after being advised to read the label for the product, Harris discovered the origins of the product were a sewage treatment facility in the Midwest, including the disclosure that it contained biosolids, one of the byproducts of waste treatment.

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