A Long Island village is asking the federal government to help pay for a new $55 million water treatment facility after the community spent years swallowing toxic, carcinogen-laden drinking water.
“We will not allow the village of Hempstead to be another Flint, Michigan,” said Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. to The Post on Tuesday evening.
The Nassau County community has struggled with astronomical levels of 1,4 dioxane — listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a “probable human carcinogen” — for years, with the highest levels detected rising more than 900%. higher than permitted by New York State.
Health officials have traced the unhealthy water quality to the village’s more than 100-year-old water treatment plant, where all nine wells are loaded with 1.4 dioxane — the same chemical found in laundry detergent and shampoo.
The fed-up village has already drawn up and approved plans to replace the failing facility, but is now calling for urgent help from its state and federal partners to undertake what is estimated to be a $55 million project.
“Then that burden wouldn’t fall on the residents of the village of Hempstead,” said Hobbs, a Democrat who has been in office since 2021.
“We are the largest village in New York State, but we are a community that many of our people are suffering economically. And we know that on Long Island all together, the cost of living is very difficult.”
According to a 2022 survey, peak levels of 1,4 dioxane in the Village of Hempstead have fallen between 7 and 10 parts per billion, far exceeding the maximum contamination level of 1 part per billion that New York State set in 2020 .
PFAS – or so-called “forever chemicals” – have also been detected in drinking water.
The chemicals were released into the groundwater from commercial and industrial sources, eventually being absorbed by the village’s nine wells and distributed throughout its community of 55,000 people, the survey shows.
The presence of the chemical is common across Long Island, whose only source of drinking water comes from groundwater aquifers.
Although research into the potential carcinogen is still new, the EPA estimates that those who consistently consume high levels of 1,4-dioxane have a one-in-a-million chance of developing cancer.
People in Hempstead Village also have little wiggle room — with median household incomes falling 41% below the rest of Nassau County, Hobbs says his constituents can’t afford to buy bottled water, they order deliveries or even water filters.
And while there are no known cases of cancer in the community directly linked to the drinking water, Hobbes said officials aren’t waiting to find out.
“It’s nothing new in water, but we want to make sure we take care of it now, to protect not only the residents we have now, but our future, our children, our children’s children, generations. said the mayor.
Regardless of whether the state and federal government receive funding or not, the village will move forward with its plans to build the new facility.
On Tuesday, the board of trustees voted to fund $55 million for the new water treatment plant, but with clear hopes that the government will help ease the burden.
When asked if the federal and state governments owe the Village of Hempstead money for the new plant, Hobbs said, “Of course, because the same residents who elect me and the same residents who elect our state and federal officials.
“Absolutely, it’s their ingredients.”
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Image Source : nypost.com