About the Rockaway Park former MGP Site

The Rockaway Park former Manufactured Gas Plant Site is an approximately 9 acre piece of property located immediately south of Beach Channel Drive and north of the Rockaway Freeway, between Beach 108th Street to the east and Rockaway Freeway to the west in Rockaway, Queens. The Site also includes a bulkhead of approximately 0.6 acres, immediately north of Beach Channel Drive, owned by the City of New York.

The majority of the site is undeveloped. A one-acre parcel in the northwest corner of the property is no longer considered part of the site.  That portion was eliminated from the site description in 2000 as part of a redefinition of the site boundaries based upon available data.  A new electric substation was built at this location to allow an existing 80 year-old substation located on the northeast corner of the site to be abandoned and subsequently demolished. That former substation parcel is a part of the site.

Gas production began at the site in the 1880's and continued until the mid-1950's. During its life, the plant expanded several times to increase its production and storage capacities.  Most of these expansions were onto adjacent properties created with fill dredged from Jamaica Bay.  During the life of the plant, it was owned by three companies.  The final owner of the MGP, while it was still producing gas, was the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO).  The property remained LILCO's until it merged with Brooklyn Union Gas Company in 1998 to form KeySpan.  KeySpan was then acquired by National Grid in 2008.

In 1998, the site was added to the State's Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites (Registry), as a class 2 site.  A class 2 site "poses a significant threat to the public health or environment and requires remedial action."  As a result of this classification, KeySpan entered into an Order on Consent with the NYSDEC, in 1999, to perform a remedial investigation/feasibility study and remediation of the site.

The Remedial Investigation was conducted between 1999 and 2002, followed by Supplemental Investigations. The Key Findings of the Final Remedial Investigation Report were:

  • Contaminants detected in soil and groundwater are consistent with those expected for a former MGP site (primarily the BTEX complex – Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene as well as PAH’s – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and cyanide compounds);
  • The contaminants associated with the site were observed to be migrating off-site in a northerly direction, under an adjacent public roadway and the bulkhead owned by the City of New York. The contaminants on the site in some locations have been found at depths 100 feet or more below the surface; and,
  • There are no data to suggest that the public is being exposed to the chemicals present in surface soil either on the site or in the community, although the potential for exposure – in both current and potential uses – exists absent remedial measures. There are also no data to suggest that the contaminants are having an adverse impact on fish or the transient wildlife in the community.  

Based on the results of the investigation and after an analysis of remediation alternatives, the NYSDEC, after a Public Meeting and taking of public comments, approved, in a Record of Decision announced in 2006, a Remedial Action Plan for the site. The key elements of the Remedial Action Plan are:

  • Excavation of visible MGP tar to eight feet below ground surface (bgs);
  • Installation of on-site and off-site non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) migration barriers set at various depths;
  • Installation of passive dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) recovery systems;
  • Installation of soil gas vapor control methods under any existing or new structures constructed on the site;
  • Covering all vegetated areas with clean soil and all non-vegetated areas with either concrete or a paving system;
  • Development of a site management plan to address residual contamination and any use restrictions;
  • Imposition of an environmental easement; and,
  • Annual certification of the institutional and engineering controls.

National Grid completed a Remedial Design in 2008 that was approved by NYSDEC and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), which described in detail how the Remedial Action Plan will be implemented, including management of potential impacts to the community during the excavation and construction phases. A copy of the Remedial Design may be found in the Reports section of Key Documents.

Remedial Construction began in late 2008 and is described on the Project Description tab.