Chlorinated organic compounds in ground water at Roosevelt Field, Nassau County, Long Island, New York

Trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE), and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) have been detected in water from five public-supply wells and six cooling-water wells that tap the Magothy aquifer at Roosevelt Field, a 200-acre area that is now a large shopping mall and office-building complex. The cooling water is discharged after use to the water table (upper glacial) aquifer through a nearby recharge basin and a subsurface drain field. Three plumes of TCE in groundwater have been delineated--the source plume, which has penetrated both aquifers , and two more recent plumes emanating from the two discharge sites in the water-table aquifer. Concentrations of inorganic constituents in the three plumes are the same as those in ambient water in the area. The two secondary plumes discharged cooling water extended at least 1,000 ft south-southeastward in the direction of regional groundwater flow. Pumping at wells screened in the middle and basal sections of the Magothy aquifers, where clay layers are absent and sandy zones provide good vertical hydraulic connection within the aquifer system, has increased the rate of downward contaminant advection. The transient increases in downward movement are cumulative over time and have brought TCE to the bottom of the Magothy aquifer, 500 ft below land surface. (USGS)