JENNIFER CORR

Asimple Google search can reveal that when it comes to Long Island’s drinking water, many concerns lay underneath the surface; Long Island’s Aquifer System, to be exact.

According to an article from New York Institute of Technology published in the summer of 2019, there are 250 known contaminated groundwater sites on Long Island. The disposal of chemical waste from local industries over the years led to the pollution of our water, and made it so that many areas of the aquifers are not being used anymore. But even so, chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), can be found in our drinking water. And in general, many small counter-top filters and faucet filters do not remove these dangerous chemicals from the water.

Glen Cove resident Colleen Callan and Timothia Sellers-Hogan, an Emmy nominated sound engineer, embarked on 12 years of research, followed by the filming of a documentary, to explore the safety of Long Island’s drinking water, and the direct health impacts it may have had on residents. Callan is an investigative reporter, who even has roots with the Glen Cove Oyster Bay Record Pilot’s sister publication The Westbury Times. Callan said Sellers-Hogan inspired her to move forward with the documentary.

The documentary film, In Hot Water, which was recognized by the Long Island International Film Expo in 2022, focuses on three schools that were also the subject of a report by the The Earth Law Center in 2019. The report followed three schools; Bethpage High School, Northport Middle School and Frank P. Long Intermediate School in North Bellport, which all received air and water testing. The results of the testing found that students and staff of the schools have been exposed to deadly, cancer causing toxins and Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. The documentary premiered on April 18, and is available across many streaming and video platforms including YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes.

All three of these schools educate children in their classrooms a short distance where toxins once, or continue to, have seeped into the ground.

Bethpage High School is located where the Long Island Grumman Aerospace Corporation facility once operated. This facility from Grumman, an aircraft engineering corporation, was instrumental in putting a man on the moon, but it may have also caused toxins to penetrate the ground water and aquifer (where all of Long Island gets its drinking water from) below the property. Two decades ago, Callan met Dr. Carmine Vasile, an electro-physicist, who worked at Grumman and who had begun doing research about the dangers of

Northport Middle School is located near the Northport Power Plant, Covanta Huntington (a waste-to-energy plant) and toxic plumes, according to the documentary’s press release. These elements are suspected of causing rare cancers and illnesses in Northport Middle School students and staff.

And then there’s Frank P. Long Intermediate School in North Bellport, which is located seven minutes away from the Town of Brookhaven Landfill that accepts garbage from all over the island, as well as the ash that comes from Covanta.

In the documentary, residents who went to these schools, or have children that go to these schools, were interviewed about the health impacts they’ve faced, such as cancer and other sicknesses. Residents who also worked at facilities like the Northport Power Plant were also interviewed.

“People are really willing to tell the truth,” Callan said. “As a matter of fact, somebody is already coming forward because they saw the trailer. They said ‘my father worked there and he died of cancer.’ People are coming forward already saying ‘yes, this is true.’”

Solutions that individuals inspired by the documentary can take are investing in good filter systems and aerators.

“This documentary is not meant to scare people,” Callan said. “It’s not to scare people or bring up horrors or anything, it has educational information, it has scientific information and it also has potential solutions, which I think is really important.”

To learn more about In Hot Water, review Callan’s research and find out how you can watch the documentary, visit hotwateronlongisland.com.