Calverton plume fight returns as Suffolk health data meeting nears

Families near the former Navy plant in Calverton still do not know how far the groundwater plume has spread, how long cleanup will take, or who will be held accountable if private wells turn up contaminated. Those questions will hang over a community meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, at Manorville Fire Department headquarters, where Suffolk County health officials are expected to present data and face fresh frustration over the pace of the Navy’s response.

The fight has been building around the former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, known as NWIRP Calverton, for years. The site opened in 1954 for naval aircraft development, assembly, testing and retrofitting, and Northrop Grumman ended operations there in February 1996. What remains today is a 209-acre property that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists as “Corrective Action Underway,” with groundwater exposure controlled. The broader facility once covered about 6,000 acres, and most of that land was transferred out in stages after the plant closed.

At the center of the dispute is the “Southern Area Groundwater Plume,” which a 2011 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation document addressed with possible remedies that included monitored natural attenuation, air sparging and enhanced in-situ biodegradation. The plume is not just a technical map issue for residents near Calverton, Brookhaven Town and Riverhead Town. It has become a test of whether the cleanup will match the scope of the contamination or remain limited to narrow monitoring.

The community meeting comes after months of tension over how much testing is enough. In February, the Calverton Restoration Advisory Board planned a public meeting so Suffolk County Health Department officials could present independent private-well data after the Navy declined to allow county staff to present findings at the board meeting. Riverhead News-Review reported that county testing covered a three-mile radius around the site, wider than the Navy’s one-mile sampling area, and included areas previously considered clear.

That wider reach matters because the Navy first identified PFAS in groundwater near the site in 2016. In 2025, the Navy said it had sampled 30 private drinking-water wells within a mile of the former Northrop Grumman site and said PFAS levels were mostly below EPA limits. It also said wells above 70 parts per trillion for combined PFOA and PFOS would qualify for bottled water while a long-term solution is pursued.

The Calverton Restoration Advisory Board has been part of the cleanup process since its first meeting on April 28, 1998; the February 2026 meeting was its 62nd. NAVFAC says the board is meant to give the public access to information about the Navy’s environmental restoration work, but residents and advocates have continued to push for broader testing, clearer deadlines and a remedy that matches the damage already done.