Newly released data from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services—compiled from tests examining both surface and groundwater near a Noyac sand mine and mulch composting business that has long been suspected of polluting water supplies—show significant contamination from various chemicals, including lead and arsenic.
Two environmentalist groups, the Group for the East End and Citizens Campaign for the Environment, requested the testing results under the Freedom of Information Law after a judge ordered that the monitoring wells be installed last summer at the business, Sand Land, which is owned by Wainscott Sand and Gravel.
With the results, made public at a press conference on Friday, they called for Sand Land to be shut down.
The installation of the test wells came as a result of suspicion that the company’s mulching and composting operations were polluting the groundwater.
The county department has not yet released its own report on the test results, which it says could be several weeks away from completion.
The leaders of the two environmental groups, Robert DeLuca of the Group for the East End and Adrienne Esposito of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, revealed the test results at a press conference on Friday, explaining that contamination was detected in all 10 testing wells installed by the county.
The data also revealed that multiple chemicals were found in either the aquifer, which supplies drinking water to the entire East End, or in surface level water.
Though there is no health advisory level established for cobalt in drinking water, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry establishes the norm in the United States as between one and 10 ppb.
The greatest spike in the Sand Land wells sits at 107 ppb, according to the test results.
Less well established are the health effects from the presence of manganese in drinking water.