ExxonMobil will install additional monitoring wells at a shuttered company gas station at the intersection of Middle Neck and Steamboat roads to help determine the extent of a gas spill in 2007, which released a hazardous gasoline additive known as MTBE into the ground.
“The wells will help test to see where the toxic plume is going,” Village of Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick said at a regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday. “It will put us in a better position to take into account the situation, andhow to deal with it.”
The wells, he said, will cost $12,000 and be paid for by ExxonMobil.
Greg Graziano, superintendent of the Water Authority of Great Neck North said the new wells will be installed on Gilbert Road, to monitor the movement of the plume.
“The new wells will be going north and west of the plume to better determine where it is headed,” Graziano said. “ExxonMobil and the state Department of Environmental Conservation are saying the plumes are moving northwest, but I don’t necessarily agree with that. It’s a matter of determining which way ground water will flow, based on the different aquifers within the area.”
Graziano told Great Neck News that the water authority assures the public that the water is perfectly safe to drink.
The spill at the gas station, which is located in Great Neck near Kings Point border, was first reported by ExxonMobil to the DEC in 2007, but Great Neck officials did not learn of it until May 2010.
As of 2007, researchers had limited data about the health effects of ingestion of MTBE. The EPA has concluded that available data are not adequate to quantify health risks of MTBE at low levels in drinking water, but MTBE is a potential human carcinogen at high doses.
After the spill first occurred, ExxonMobil installed two on-site wells and three off-site wells in the Steamboat Road right-of-way in February 2008, according to Amy Blanchett, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil.
Graziano previously said monitoring wells could take up to two years to delineate the spill.
The water authority immediately called on ExxonMobil to use a hydropunch system to delineate the spill, after becoming aware of the technology through the DEC.
Graziano said the system could locate the spill within three weeks to a month of starting the project, but it is not a substitute for monitoring wells.
The Village of Great Neck negotiated with ExxonMobil for two months to reach an agreement on the installation of the hydropunch.
