(upbeat music) - Thanks for joining us, I'm Ken Buffa.

In 2019, while researching an obscure insurance claim filed against aerospace giant Grumman, Newsday reporters discovered a secret in the soil.

From as far back as the 1970s, Grumman knew toxic chemicals were leaking into the ground in Bethpage.

Now this information was withheld, leading to a widespread environmental crisis.

Now Newsday produced an award-winning documentary during this investigation.

Let's take a look.

This thing needs to be cleaned up.

These Long Islanders are fed up.

You've made little progress.

There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency.

I've been sitting in these chairs for 20 years.

And this is a story about their frustration.

This area right here, that's where my house is.

Leaders in the government can't come to a resolution about who's responsible.

This is also a story about water and people's fears.

I have to now invest in a machine and bottled water.

Seven of us have cancer in this picture.

We live in this one block.

And a groundwater contamination that's been spreading for more than 50 years.

This is a complete and utter failure of the system.

This is truly a David and Goliath battle.

And this is a story about secret documents uncovered by journalists that detail how a company responsible for one of the nation's most complex pollution problems long avoided accountability.

The highest concentrations of contamination are where the old outfield was.

This is the story of the Grumman plume.

Long Island, New York.

We've got a lot of jobs to do on the island, from building planes and missiles to cameras.

Grumman was the biggest thing on Long Island for most of the 20th century.

At its peak, the defense contractor employed 20,000 people at its Bethpage plants.

Everyone loved them.

I never heard any complaints about working with the companies.

Well, all we heard was wonderful things about Grumman, how they supported the community, they gave jobs to everybody, almost everybody we knew worked at Grumman.

Grumman was beloved in the community, building planes and lunar modules.

The words "Made in Bethpage, New York" literally landed on the moon.

And in 1962, a part of its massive property was donated to the town of Oyster Bay, becoming a popular community park and ball field.

Congress, they referred to me as the Grumman congressman because I had worked on the F-14.

I knew Grumman quite well.

The concern was, let's build those military systems that would keep us strong and there was less emphasis on the environment.

Because make no mistake about it, Long Island's water, Nashua and Suffolk, comes from the ground.

Unlike neighboring New York City, where public drinking water is piped in from mountain reservoirs upstate, Long Island's water comes entirely from underground.

Communities across Long Island have their own water districts which pump water from deep within the aquifer.

And that's where the troubles begin.

For decades, Grumman disposed of an array of toxic chemicals into the ground.

The most problematic contaminant being trichloroethylene.

TCE is now known to be a carcinogen linked to a range of diseases including kidney and liver cancers.

Grumman had used TCE so heavily, through vapor degreasers and large liquid spray wands on the wings of planes, that it stored the chemical in a 4,000 gallon above ground tank.

That tank leaked for years.

Residents around the Grumman facility were for many years not told by the company and regulators about the spreading subterranean contamination.

And when it did become public, information was often sparse, incomplete, or even inaccurate.

The plume stemming from Grumman's facilities would continue to move southward.

In 1987, officials released its first map of the growth, but the attempts to stop it never worked.

They were half measures, supported by Grumman and the state, while the Bethpage Water District and residents called for far more.

The plume still grows at a foot a day.

It's now 2.1 miles wide, 4.3 miles long, and at its deepest, it reaches 900 feet.

The Bethpage Water District and providers to the south have spent $80 million building treatment facilities at their public wells to remove contaminants.

The Navy, which owned part of the Grumman site, has covered more than half of that cost.

Northrop Grumman, which is now Northrop Grumman, built an extensive system to stop contaminants from leaving its property.

But records show they have paid for less than six million of public well treatment.

They won a war, they won two wars, and we're stuck with what's left over.

It's not fair to us.

John Kamatis is one of three Bethpage Water commissioners.

All of them expressed frustration with the polluters.

Unfortunately, it started to get more expensive to treat the contamination.

It's 100% remediable.

The issue's always been who's paying for it.

They should be at the table, shaking our hand, signing a check, giving it to us, fixing our community, and moving on.

Carol Muffett, an experienced environmental lawyer, recognizes Grumman's tactics.

There's a pretty standard playbook that these companies apply.

First, that they deny that anything is happening, and then they deny that what is happening is a problem.

Then they deny that they're responsible.

And then at the end, when all of those other things have been disproven, they argue that it's not economically viable to fix the problem.

Newsday journalists recently uncovered a trove of hidden documents that show how Grumman privately knew that they had created the contamination and understood the severity.

Going through this federal court docket, these are exhibits that are listed as being filed under seal.

These documents, which came from a lawsuit between Grumman and one of their insurance providers, were meant to be sealed due to a clerical error many were left accessible to the public.

Among these documents, one of the most explosive was a 1976 confidential memo that concluded contaminated groundwater under Grumman's plants was spreading.

So this, you know, was a pretty big moment in our reporting that showed, you know, the depth of the company's knowledge at the time.

It also advised that Grumman should water to the public Bethpage water wells.

I think it was 1976 they came to the district and asked them if they could use our water, if we could have public water supply.

Newsday attempted to speak to former Grumman employees who had received these internal memos that Newsday uncovered.

We're trying to interview a former Grumman environmental manager.

Alright, well you have a good day, okay?

You too.

Alright, thanks very much.

He basically said he'd rather not when we thought his input would have been valuable.

The confidential documents Newsday uncovered helped reveal the difference between what the company knew and what the public was being told.

For example, while privately learning about Grumman's culpability, regulators were publicly blaming a neighboring manufacturer, Hooker Chemical.

Hooker contributed to the problem, but they were falsely spotlighted as the primary polluter.

I think they were easier to blame than Grumman.

Plus, you have to understand at the time, I don't know the exact number of employees that Grumman had, but there were three shifts around the clock.

So you had tens of thousands of employees, I'm sure.

December 2, 1976, the federal EPA privately warned county and state officials about the dangers of the contaminated drinking water.

But that same day, the county health commissioner publicly states, "If I lived in that area, I would continue to drink the water," adding, "We don't have any information that the chemicals are harmful in drinking water."

The following day, the first TCE-contaminated public drinking well in Bethpage was shut down.

It was almost impossible to criticize Grumman.

And every time he said something about it, "Well, you're saying things that are going to inflamminate the situation, and our property values are going to go down.

I mean, so nearsighted and short-sighted.

It's just amazing to me."

In 1982, Grumman publicly shared results showing low levels of TCE in its wastewater.

However, it omitted a page that recorded a far more substantial number.

The company later said that the reading was an anomaly.

On one hand, a confidential memo discovered by Newsday says it's Grumman's plume that is contaminating the water district's well.

But months later, Grumman executives told a community newspaper Grumman contamination poses no threat.

Internal memos reveal extensive knowledge of the groundwater pollution, but no aggressive action was undertaken.

Meanwhile, the plume continued its southward crawl.

And that's really what's frustrating because if you wanted to get it done and if you were truly driven to get this completed and remediated, it would have been done decades ago.

In the early 90s, Grumman quietly paid the Bethpage Water District to build a few contaminant removal systems for drinking water.

Public health concerns emerged around this time, but it wasn't until the early 2000s that the community would be jolted by news of another Grumman pollution source.

Bethpage Community Park, I think, just kind of woke everybody up.

In 2002, the public park adjacent to Northrop Grumman suddenly closed down.

Officials disclosed that part of the 18 acres that donated to the town for a park had long been a Grumman waste disposal site.

I think the first real time that we knew something was going on, other than in the water, was when the community park was closed in 2002.

We knew something was up as residents we Officials tried to tamp down public concern, but the history of the site soon came out.

The ball field had been built over Grumman's open pit to dispose of chemical-soaked rags and toxic sludge.

It contaminated the soil that generations of children had played on, and it was another major source of the plume.

18 years later, the ball field is still closed.

We're standing at presumably what would have been home plate of the old fields.

Grumman had defined this area as a remotely located open pit that was used for drying sludges that they treated on site.

We've seen maps that show that the highest level of groundwater contaminants are basically settled right in this outfield area.

That's our park.

Who thought of any chemicals back then?

I never did.

My son died of a brain tumor, cancer.

We just assumed it was something that happened.

A state study failed to link the pollution in Bethpage to cancer, but that hasn't eased the fears of those who live there.

All I know is I got sick, my son died, and then all of a sudden I started noticing everybody on my block was getting sick.

Nobody linked anything till each house was getting cancer.

We don't know the ones we don't know, but I can tell you 15 houses in this block going around.

That's not normal.

I think this block has about 30 houses.

You've got probably 15, half of them with cancer.

I know, because 15 of them are my friends.

The 2013 study found no higher rates of cancer in a 19-block area next to the former Grumman facility, although a one-block area had younger-than-expected cases.

Still, with that study, the state said that it's safe to live and work above the plume.

Some residents feel that the study was too narrow and are calling for a more comprehensive study.

But investigating cancer is complicated.

It's difficult to link individual cases of cancer to a pollution source.

My kids went to that school.

My grandson swims in that pool in the basement.

He's three years old.

Am I-is he safe?

There's no impacts to the school.

I don't know what else I can say.

And New York state has the fifth highest cancer rate in the U.S., with one of every two men and one of every three women likely to be diagnosed in their lifetime.

I mean, the community has been calling for decades for a cancer cluster study.

Is that a reasonable request for the community?

Oh, absolutely.

Even for folks who, let's say, lived there and were being exposed when the levels were at their highest and then moved away.

The exposure and the potential consequences of that can't be undone.

And that brings us to today.

Northrop Grumman says it has put more than $200 million into the problem.

And the Navy has spent more than $130 million.

All this area off the property is showing clean water.

Grumman says it has removed 200,000 pounds of contaminants through the system it operates at its borders.

We've cut off the off-site migration from the Navy Grumman properties.

But currently there are 200,000 more pounds of toxic chemicals still awaiting removal, according to the state.

The plume is now at its largest and deepest, continuing its path towards other communities south of Bethpage.

We've gone on record many times that people of Massapequa will not accept that.

While the plume spreads, the Bethpage Water District is treating what it delivers to TAPS, but residents still fear the water.

Everybody in this town is scared to drink the water.

Basically, the water you get in the house and you drink is safe to drink.

It is good water.

For a long time, you all drank the tap water, right?

Right.

Until they started cleaning it up.

I have to now invest in machine and bottled water.

I'm drinking the water.

I'm treating the water.

I'm putting my reputation and my name behind it.

The Bethpage Water District continues to reassure the public that its drinking water is safe, while pushing for Grumman, the Navy, and the state to finally clean up the groundwater.

This is an unbelievable, unrealistic, and unfair burden being placed squarely on the shoulders of the Bethpage taxpayers.

And my number one goal is to protect the residents of Bethpage.

The polluters, who have really deep pockets and endless resources, they could have tackled this thing years ago and come out cheaper.

New York State will take action.

Number one, we're going to fully contain the plume.

Number two, we're going to fully treat the plume.

Enough damage has been done.

This is a huge shift by the state, which through five gubernatorial administrations, including Cuomo's early years, had misjudged and failed to halt the spread of the groundwater pollution.

Cuomo's new approach culminated in a $585 million, 30-year plan proposed to finally tackle the problem head-on.

I believe and I trust that this plan that they're putting forth will have a sizable amount of this mass removed.

Maybe it won't be finished in my lifetime, but in my children's.

>> I believe in the D.C.

>> There are only hope, actually.

>> Let's do it, let's move ahead.

Because the longer you wait, the worse it gets.

>> And we're not going to wait for Northrop Grumman to do this work.

>> Both Northrop Grumman and the Navy object to the state's cleanup proposal, which involves a complex system of 24 hydraulic wells, piping, and treatment plants.

Officials hope to force the polluters to cover the full cost.

It's estimated a full cleanup could take 110 years.

Northrop Grumman declined multiple requests for interviews.

It released a statement saying it has a history of working with regulators and officials to protect human health and the environment.

It also asserts a commitment to plume remediation.

-If they had done their job in the '70s, '76, when they knew about the polluted wells, if they would have done their job then, we wouldn't be here today.

We sat back down with Pamela Carlucci who was interviewed for that documentary.

She's been living with cancer for years, which she blames on the plume.

Carlucci says she's frustrated with the lack of progress from ongoing litigation with Grumman.

You go to bed with it on your head, you wake up with it on your head, you know your time is numbered.

I'm going to be leaving my husband and my children.

I'm never going to see my grandchildren grow up.

And it's very depressing.

It's depressing, it's frustrating.

Paul Araco and David Schwartz covered this in an eight-part project published in 2020.

Now Paul, you uncovered some critical documents.

What did you find and how did you find them?

Yeah, well it showed that there was a, the documents we found showed that there was a stark difference in what Grumman knew and what they were saying publicly at the time.

And for many years, you know, people knew about the groundwater contamination, but they believed that, you know, Grumman for a long time had said they were not responsible.

At one point they blamed another manufacturer.

And these documents, which were meant to be sealed in a court case, they showed that Grumman had knowledge of their culpability, of their responsibility and was saying the opposite thing essentially at the same time.

Now David, how did this investigation impact the community?

So after we published, the state along with the polluters came to an agreement of spending nearly half a billion dollars to clean up the pollution.

And for the first time, they acknowledged that they were going to try to stop the spread of this plume.

Paul, what did you hear?

Yeah, one telling thing was that for years, the state D.C., the regulators called this the Bethpage plume.

And that was one of the elements that the community felt branded by, you know, stigmatized by.

And one thing as a result of this series, it kind of changed.

Now people, we and other people, called it the Grumman plume.

And, you know, because they were the ones that were responsible for it.

Now, we saw state lawmakers talking about the plume, cleaning it up.

What has been done?

What have you seen?

So after the polluters agreed finally to this, you know, nearly a half billion dollar settlement, they have been working on constructing these extraction wells that would suck up the contaminated water so that they can treat it over the past couple years.

They have been building those.

Now Paul, you continue investigating this story and you found a whistleblower.

What did they tell you?

Yeah, so in 2024, they discovered chemical drums buried beneath the ground at the park, which you just saw in that piece.

So they find these drums in early 2024 and we find that years earlier, a former parks worker had said, "Hey, there's buried chemical drums under here."

The DEC, the state, you know, essentially dismissed him, said, even in a report, said there's no, you know, no evidence of buried drums and it was kind of definitive and that was it.

And then they find these drums, so we were like, we thought, let's go talk to this guy and get his reaction and he had a lot to say.

Yeah, we did follow up on this story and here's an investigation from 2024.

What do you think of that?

Well, oh, that's not true at all.

For Salvatore Cornicelli, this moment is decades in the making.

I went and told people there's stuff down at it.

But to understand his disbelief, we have to understand that decades ago, he reported seeing 55 gallon drums buried at his hometown park.

We've got a lot of jobs to do on the island from building planes and missiles.

In 1962, Grumman donated 18 acres of undeveloped land to the town of Oyster Bay.

The idea was for the town to transform the land into a park.

So they did.

Bethpage Community Park.

People loved it.

We were seven years old.

We had midget football.

We were the kings of Little League.

We had dugouts.

Ronald de Mafa, like most Bethpage neighbors, saw this park as a beacon, a blessing.

The thing is, the park used to be Grumman's dumping grounds and an area where Grumman for years disposed toxic chemicals directly into the soil, causing contamination that will be discovered decades later.

They decided to dig right in front of the flagpole.

It's now the 90s and Cornicelli, a park's maintenance supervisor for the town of Oyster Bay, describes a day at Bethpage Community Park he will never forget.

All of a sudden, there's like a crash, you know.

So I'm looking down there and all these 55-gallon drums are exposed.

Cover that back up.

So I got pissed because I knew something was wrong just by not that them things I could have thought they were water.

I don't know.

But the way his attitude was, because he was my boss, cover everything up.

After his manager's reaction, Cornicelli began asking questions.

I was like a thorn in their side.

And the drinking water near Grumman became a concern.

Agencies realized toxic chemicals from the soil contamination were seeping into the water supply, creating a miles-long plume.

A plume polluting the aquifer used as drinking water for tens of thousands.

And neighbors who live near the park say cancer is commonplace.

A connection officials have not confirmed to be linked.

Well, when we were kids, the families were all going through cancer stuff.

They always give you that way out.

You know, they'll tell you that there's not enough information to say that it's related to that.

The park's ball field suddenly closed in 2002.

It was kind of disheartening that we still don't have a park.

And I don't know when we're going to get a park.

It's 2016.

A retired Cornicelli walks into a Bethpage bar owned by friend John Camados, who had recently become a Water District Commissioner.

He had to get off his chest and we sat in the back room right here.

He had some information that we thought it was viable.

So we turned him on to the DEC.

Cornicelli reported what he saw to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Then, here's nothing back.

Until this year, when Newsday handed him the report.

We have completed our review of the potential for buried drums.

It's our conclusion that buried drums do not exist beneath the pot.

For the first time since coming forward, Cornicelli is hearing about the investigation the DEC did back in 2016 following his report.

An investigation that claims no drums were found, no drums exist, and that if there were any drums, like he claims, they were likely removed with previous projects at the park, which means there's no need to dig deeper or dig elsewhere.

This can't be right.

They knew them barrels were there and they.

How could they say?

They don't exist.

Current DEC officials tell Newsday they defend their review of Cornicelli's tip.

They said the agency not only knew Oyster Bay had excavated a large part of the park, including where he saw the drums in the 90s, but that Grumman would eventually have to remediate the remaining ball field portion where the other drums were recently found.

A Grumman spokesperson released a statement that said, in part, We remain committed to protecting the health and well-being of the community as we address environmental conditions in Bethpage.

April 2024.

Drums exist.

Four chemical drums.

Six chemical drums.

55 gallon chemical drums.

Three more chemical drums have been removed from Bethpage Community Park.

In less than two months, workers for Grumman have dung up more than 20 drums encased in concrete near the still-closed ball field, and all have tested positive for dangerous chemicals including arsenic, lead, and a known cancer-causing solvent, trichloroethylene, aka TCE.

Despite the findings, the DEC said there's no evidence that the recent discovery contributed at all to the contamination.

So here's the thing.

Back in April, they made the discovery on this side of the park near the ball field.

But the thing is, Sal made his discovery on this side of the park, which leads people to believe that this drum discovery is just the beginning.

Cornicelli and others are convinced there are more drums.

You're going to find stuff there, no matter where you go.

I'm not giving you a thousand percent sure.

I'm giving you five thousand percent sure.

And until they're found, Cornicelli is left with moments that haunt him.

Because he feels not enough was done decades ago.

Every parade ended at that park, at Death Page.

So every time we went, we had little tears in our eyes.

We used to stop right there, and you know, the flag and everything.

And in the meantime, I'd think there's junk under there, you know.

It wasn't very nice.

Paul, David, what is the latest now on this story?

After this ran last year, residents and officials newly demanded a health study from the state health department.

After initially saying that they would not do a new health study, the state did ultimately agree to conduct a new study, and that has yet to be released.

I wanted to ask, did they do any more excavating?

Did they look anywhere else other than that particular spot that we showed?

It's ongoing.

There's actually a continued battle between the town of Oyster Bay, which owns and operates the park, and Northrop Grumman, which is responsible for cleaning the park.

The town wants a full, basically a full excavation of the park, looking for drums.

Northrop Grumman is trying to make it a more narrow or focused search, and there's litigation involved.

Now, David, when it comes to the timeline of this, it's going to be quite some time.

Yeah, we're talking decades to clean up this problem and really to contain it.

It's going to take a long time.

So they're going to continue to install wells around the edges of the plume and at the hot spots of the plume to clean it up.

And we're going to be watching that.

I appreciate your time both Paul Rocco, David Schwartz, thank you so much.

And of course, you can find more of this information at Newsday.com.

I'm Ken Buffa.

Thank you so much for watching.