Dan's Papers - May 9, 2008 - In East Hampton, Arsenic And Old Farms

For years, East End farmers used lead arsenate, a form of arsenic, to keep the potato beetle away from their crops, without realizing the health risks it carried for themselves and the residents that eventually began moving into the area. One of the most toxic elements found, arsenic products pose serious risks - from several types of cancer to skin ailments to stomach irritation.

The farms that line Long Lane in East Hampton - also home to East Hampton High School, which sits on the site of a former farm - were no exception to this farming method, now considered archaic. Health concerns continue to arise after the arsenic levels at sites in that area, including a parcel the school district hoped to purchase and turn into athletic fields in 2002, were well above the state accepted level. Plus, in the late '90s, a number of high school graduates were diagnosed with cancer.

This past February, tests done on soil from private property on Stephen Hand's Path between Route 114 and Long Lane by the East Hampton Town Department of Natural Resources reportedly found a level of arsenic at 33 parts per million. According to State guidelines, remediated waste sites need to be brought down to a level of 7.5 ppm. They also found levels of lead at 16 ppm. These findings, along with the swirling dust that each winter creates a nuisance for the residential population, the high school and businesses located near the farmland prompted Larry Penny, director of the Natural Resources Department, to alert the high school to the health risk, suggesting the school shut its ventilation system whenever the dust is blowing and that the district test the air ducts for contaminants. "I'm worried about the people in the proximity of the dust, the people playing outside in it, the people in the classrooms," Penny said. "If there's dust in the ventilation system and they're breathing it in, then that's the kind of thing we should be worrying about in this day and age."

Superintendent Raymond Gualtieri, who met with Town officials the morning of May 5, plans on testing the air quality of the high school and perhaps even dirt samples from the school's front lawn.

Gualtieri's biggest concern is that Penny conducted the test on February 11, yet he didn't receive the letter from him regarding the results of the test until early March. "If he came to me the same day [as the test] and said, 'The air is dangerous. Turn the air ventilator off for a few hours.' I would have done it," Gualtieri said. "What was I supposed to do three weeks later?"

Penny said that he received unofficial results of his test by fax around February 22 then mailed the letter to the school district on February 26 after he received the official results in the mail. He never received a response from Gualtieri, who said that as soon as he found out about Penny's test he contacted the district's architects as well as the office of Town Supervisor Bill McGintee. Since then, he has received numerous calls from concerned parents. "As a parent, I would be concerned too," he said, "but I don't know the validity of the test in his letter." He added, "Do you know how far the high school is from Route 114? How can he imply the air is not safe at my high school, which is quite a distance from there?" Still, he plans on testing the school for contaminants to ensure the safety of his students.

Testing the air in the high school is the most practical thing the district can do, Penny says. "They need to see what's going on," he said. "Maybe the whole place is clean. Wouldn't that be great? It would be good for the people and ease their minds."

However, McGintee, who said his office did not authorize the testing done by Penny, said arsenic is an old issue for Long Lane. "We're looking into it," he said. "Everybody is aware that there's arsenic in [the dirt.] These are old farms. We're going to look into it. We've looked into it before. This is nothing new."

The owner of Mahoney Farms on Long Lane, who did not want his name printed, said he saw no immediate reason for concern, but plans to keep a watchful eye on the situation. "We're still kicking," he said. "We just have to know more about it. It's cause for concern, but we need to know more. Until then, you can't make a decision about anything."

But some say it's more of an erosion issue than a pesticide issue because of the thick dust that punishes the area each winter. "The dust here in the winter even packs the window sills," said a farmer at Whitmores on Long Lane who requested anonymity. He says the answer to the problem is for Suffolk County and the Town to force farmers to put down heavy cover crops each winter. Cover crops, typically a dense plant such as rye, oat or milo, keep the soil from blowing around during the winter months.

"If you don't plant it thick enough, the geese eat it and nothing holds the soil down and it blows around," said Peter Garnham, chairman of the Board of Directors of East End Community Organic Farm, which is located across the street from the high school.

Penny said, "Obviously, in the long term we have to do something about the geese on the field."

Like other farms in the area, EECO farm has in the past seen an elevated level of arsenic in its soil, and is required to inform anyone who leases a garden plot from them of the situation. But Garnham, stressing that arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the soil, said they test their field regularly. "It's like the perfect soil," he said. "The nutrients are high and we're high in pH and alkalinity." Additionally, he said that through composting and other organic farming techniques they have heavily transformed the soil on their farm. Penny said that just three years ago EECO found high levels of arsenic, around 50 ppm, in their soil after being tested.

But as for the issue with the high school, Garnham said, "We have nothing to say because we're not involved. The field in question is some distance away from us. It has nothing to do with us."